Hugh "Lupus" d'Avranches, 1st Earl of Chester - Is Huges d'Avranches really nephew of William Conqueror

Yes, the Visitation of Chesire 1580, outlining the descent of the Earls of Chesire states his relationship.
Translated from Latin: " brief thoughts on the old lords belonging to the Princedom ( Palatinate of Chester ) of who here we have Hugh Lupus (Ltn.) or Wulf ( old English) who is William the Conquerors' grandson.
On special detachment this Hugh is in England."

I am not a Latin professor, but the key word here is " nepotem". I checked 3 resources and all agreed this is a main useage for grandson OR ( less often) direct lineal descendant, not a nephew ( nepos).

The rest is the best I can do as Google books mashes up words, and some is Middle French mixed with Latin, but it's fairly accurate.

Pamela, I took Medieval Latin in college. (A very long time ago.) Nepotem is just the accusative singular of Nepos.

Literally it means Grandson, but by the Middle Ages it had acquired a parallel meaning of Nephew (lineal descendant of a grandfather).

There are dozens of medieval genealogies that hinge on trying to puzzle out which of the two possible meanings applies in a particular document.

This same manuscript says Hugh is the son of Margaret. Would you take the time to read it? Also, Justin, as you know context is everything, so why would they say very clearly grandson and not use nephew when it is so important?

Pamela, if you have a link handy I'll take a look.

I'm not sure what you mean about saying using grandson and nephew. In medieval Latin there was only one word that meant both.

Pamela & Justin it's probably worth also looking to answer the original question in this discussion - trying to clarify the parentage of Emma de Conteville.

I'm not sure I want to spend much time looking for Emma. It's an interesting question and the investigation would be even more interesting.

But the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography says:
"Avranches, Hugh d', first earl of Chester (d. 1101), magnate and founder of Chester Abbey, was the son of Richard Goz, vicomte d'Avranches and seigneur de St Sever, and an unknown mother formerly identified on the basis of unsatisfactory evidence as Emma, supposedly a half-sister of William the Conqueror."

Prof. David C. Douglas agreed that Emma is fictional, but thought the unknown mother of Hugh was probably a kinswoman of William the Conqueror, perhaps a sister or half-sister of his father, Duke Robert. Hugh was one of 11 men who received collectively half the lay tenures in England after the Conquest. All were very prominent in Norman politics and many were close relatives of William. (Prof. Douglas was the author of my old college text, William the Conqueror (1964, 1972)).

I'm content with that, unless something truly new emerges.

Thanks Justin, so at the moment the Emma in question is Emma de Conteville despite there not being any known evidence of who this Emma was and profile for Emma states that she definately was NOT de Conteville so I'm tempted to remove that link. I will see what the curator of Emma's profile thinks first but suspect they will agree bearing in mind their comments.