Gilbert (Lancaster) de Furnesio (abt. 1089 - abt. 1138)

Born about 1089 in England

Descendants

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Biography

Gilbert is not known from any surviving contemporary documents. He is sometimes referred to on the internet with second names such as "de Lancaster" (as wikitree is doing) this is not really a name he used, but a name his son took up in his lifetime. It is also not a name used by serious published genealogists or historians. This is discussed below in detail.

Parents

There is no clear believable record to show who the parents of Gilbert were. This is discussed below.

Family

m. Godith. Known issue:^[1]

• William fitz Gilbert, also known as "William de Lancaster". Future generations have sometimes also called him "William de Taillebois" and "William de Lancaster I". He had various lordships in the northwest of England, and appears to have been eldest son and heir. His children represent the main line of the family and may be the first family to have used the name Lancaster as a family name.

• Roger FitzGilbert m. Sigrid widow of Waldeve of Allerdale. He had a son named Robert.^[2]

• Robert FitzGilbert^[2]

• (exact relationship uncertain, illegitimate?) Warin de Lancaster. Warine lived at the same time as Gilbert's known grandson, and may be a grandson for example.

Records

There are at least 2 known reports of ancient records (probably lost), mentioning Gilbert in a way which went beyond just being the father of William de Lancaster. Both associated Gilbert with Furness, the main Lancashire part of what is now Cumbria:

Benjamin Ayloffe (17th century)

A note collected by 17th century antiquarian Benjamin Ayloffe, stated that Gilbert was described as king's "Receiver for the County of Lancaster", and referred to as "'Gilbert de Furnesio"' (meaning "of Furness", which is an area within the Cumbria Lake District, which once was part of the "County of Lancaster", Lancashire).^[3]

Furness as a descriptive second name was mainly associated with the le Fleming families of Furness in this period. They later allied with Lancasters, and obtained several Furness titles through marriage.^[4][5]

Kuerden manuscripts

In Farrer's transcriptions and annotations of Early Lancashire Charters^[6] he mentions some charters from the Kuerden manuscripts concerning Furness. "Gilbert, father of William de Lancaster" is said to have first granted lands to the family of Roger, son of Orm son of Ailward of Kirkby Ireleth.^[7] The geographical bounds described in these charters is "between Licul and Duden, and from Licul [Lickle] over against the mountain unto Dearsgarth, and from the head of the fence upwards unto Calfhead and then from Calfhead following over against the mountain unto the head of the valley of Glenscalan (or Glensalan), thence following unto Wranishals (i.e., Wrynose Hawse), and thence from Duden over against the valley unto Licul."

Farrer did not see the charter of Gilbert, but those of his son, grandson and great grandsons, all named William de Lancaster. Farrer noted that Dr. Kuerden had however recorded the abstract of a charter by Gilbert himself.

Research notes

The exact nature of the relationship is unclear, but Gilbert's descendants have been said to descend from both the Norman Ivo de Taillebois and the Anglo Saxon Eldred of Workington. Another published proposal is that Gilbert might descend from Roger the Poitevin, who also had some title over Lancaster.^[8]

Ivo de Taillebois and Eldred both in Gilbert's male line

A once widespread notion, no longer accepted, said:

• Ivo fathered Eldred;
• Eldred fathered Ketel;
• and Ketel fathered Gilbert.

Later records from Cockersand Abbey and St Mary's Abbey in Yorkshire are the 2 authorities for this father-son descent from Ivo to Eldred, to Ketel to Gilbert, to William de Lancaster.^[7] But monastic genealogies concerning benefactors are generally considered difficult to rely upon. In this case:

• Earlier records call Ketel William's uncle, not grandfather.
• The chronology forces too many generations into a short time-frame.
• William de Lancaster was not the main heir to Ketel fitz Eldred.
• There is no record for Eldred as Ivo's heir, and they probably lived at a similar time.
• It is highly unusual for descendants of a Norman noble (Ivo) to have Anglo Saxon names (Eldred, Ketel, etc).

Eldred in Gilbert's male line

Concerning the connection to Eldred, Helewise (Gilbert's great grand-daughter) and her husband Gilbert Fitz Reinfrid made claims based on the fact that "Ketel filius Eutret" was an "antecessor" of Helewise.^[9] Antecessor in Latin can mean he was an ancestor or a predecessor more generally.

Twentieth century researchers found clearer documents which make it impossible for Ketel to be Gilbert's father.

• In a charter to St Leonard's York, William (Gilbert's son) calls Ketel, son of "Elred", his avunculus (uncle).^[10]
• Ragg (1910), printed a 1357 charter repeating that Ketel, son of "Aldred," was avunculus of William fitz Gilbert.^[4]

The literal meaning of the term "avunculus" is "maternal uncle," but it could also mean paternal uncle when used less precisely. So the possibility remains that Gilbert is Eldred's son, making him Ketel's brother (not son), keeping him in the same male line.^[10] This still does not explain the connection to the Taillebois family, or the heirship of Eldred's family.

Although Ragg himself ignored the literal meaning of avunculus, authors indebted to his discovery such as Skelton, Washington, Moriarty, and Keats-Rohan have insisted on its likely importance.^[8]

Taillebois in Gilbert's male line

According to annalist Peter of Blois, Ivo's "only daughter, who had been nobly espoused, died before her father; for that evil shoots should not fix deep roots in the world, the accursed lineage of that wicked man perished by the axe of the Almighty, which cut off all his issue." Ivo's only known heiress was Beatrix. Her sons by Ribald of Middleham, used the Taillebois surname on occasion.

Besides the above-mentioned later monastic genealogies, a believable but more vague connection to Ivo de Taillebois is also mentioned in the Coucher Book of Furness Abbey. Helewise, granddaughter and heir to William, confirmed a grant stating that William was William de Tailboys before being styled, "Willelmum de Lancastre, Baronem de Kendale".^[11]

Whether or not Ivo himself was in the male line of William's ancestry, a Tailboys family survived in Westmorland during the 12th century -- for example in Cliburn -- and were presumably relatives of William de Lancaster. They used the personal name Ivo at least once, and may have been related to Ivo and Beatrix.^[12]

In summary it does seem possible that Gilbert was a Taillebois somehow.

Eldred in Gilbert's maternal line.

Compatible with above, but in contrast to Ragg's idea of Ketel being William's paternal uncle, and Gilbert's brother, Washington and Moriarty proposed that Ketel is William's maternal uncle, and brother to Gilbert's wife Godith. This proposal uses the literal definition of "avunculus". Additionally it argues that it was very unusual in this period for a French speaking family (like the de Taillebois) to use any Anglo-Saxon or Anglo-Danish names (such as Eldred, Ketel or Godith).

Washington (1962) believed William de Lancaster's father Gilbert, was a Norman knight (meaning, in this period, a soldier, not implying any special title). This is based on his recorded children's French christian names. At the same time, Washington puts forth Godith (Gilbert's wife) as Ketel's (son of Eldred) sister, making William half English.^[13]

Taillebois in the female line.

Moriarty proposed that Ketel's wife, Christian or Christina, may be a Taillebois by birth. (This theory is not in conflict with the proposal that Godith was Ketel's sister.)

Looking one generation further back, Keats-Rohan accepts Moriarty and Washington's idea that Godith and Ketel were siblings, but maintains the older idea that their mother, wife to Eldred, was Beatrix, daughter of Ivo de Taillebois (otherwise known to have married another man Ribald).^[14] But Keats-Rohan offers no ancestry for Gilbert. And no contemporary record exists to prove Beatrix (or indeed any other person) married Eldred.

Connection to Roger the Poitevin

Skelton proposed such ancestry for Gilbert on the basis of a simple reasoning. He accepted that Eldred was both somehow himself a source of Taillebois ancestry, and also the father of Gilbert's wife not Gilbert himself. Therefore a connection is proposed without any source or specifics, in order to explain Gilbert's later family's apparent claims for lordship in the northwest of England - for example their use of the surname de Lancaster (although all such evidence of a claim actually comes from later generations, who are equally descended from Gilbert's wife). Skelton therefore saw Gilbert and his wife as the result of a marriage alliance between two families with competing claims.^[8]

Sources

1. ↑ Gilbert and Godith are mentioned as William de Lancaster's parents in a St Mary de Pré charter; "Willelmus de Lancastre" donated pasture rights in "feodum meum in Lonisdale et in Aumundernesse" to Leicester, St Mary de Pré, with the consent of "Willelmi filii mei et heredis et Gundree uxoris mee", for the souls of "Gilberti patris mei et Godithe matris mee et Jordani filii mei et Margarete filia Comitisse", by charter dated to [1156/60], witnessed by "Willelmo filio meo et herede, Gundr fil Comitisse." William I de Lancaster was also often referred to as William fitz Gilbert, meaning "son of Gilbert".
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Roger and his brother and son both named Robert are mentioned in the Register of St Bees: Register of St Bees. charters 22, 223, 232, 233, and see also editor's footnotes. archive.org
3. ↑ Reproduced in the introduction of Walford Selby's collection of Lancashire and Cheshire Records. p.xxix.p.archive.org
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1} F. W. Ragg (1910) "De Lancaster", Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, pages 395–493. [1]
5. ↑ In 1127AD the le Flemings were already there when King Stephen exempted their lands from his grant of Furness to the Abbey of Furness. Gilbert's descendants contested overlordship of Furness Fells with the Abbey during Gilbert FitzReinfrid's generation.
6. ↑ pp.442-3 https://archive.org/details/lancashirepiper00exchgoog/page/442/mode/2up
7. ↑ ^{7.0 7.1} William Farrer's remarks: see William Farrer, (1902) Lancashire Pipe Rolls and Early Lancashire Charters p.vii (Addenda and Corrigenda) pp.389 I.18. archive.org ; Farrer (1909), The Chartulary of Cockersand Abbey of the Premonstratensian Order, Vol I, Part II, pp. 305–8. archive.org
8. ↑ ^{8.0 8.1 8.2} Skelton (1942) Anglo-Norman Territorial Claims in South Westmorland and North Lancashire, TCWAAS [2]
9. ↑ Curia Regis Roll item dated 1212 (R., 55, m. 6)
10. ↑ ^{10.0 10.1} Rev. F. W. Ragg, (1909) "Charters to St. Peter's, York," 236 ; New Series IX.
11. ↑ Coucher Book of Furness Abbey, pp. 344–345. concord number CCVI. archive.org.
12. ↑ Ragg (1928), "Cliburn Hervy and Cliburn Tailbois; Part II", Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, new series, vol.28. [3]
13. ↑ George Washington, (1962) "The parentage of William de Lancaster, lord of Kendal," in Transactions of the Cumberland & Westmorland Antiq. & Arch. Soc. n.s. 62, pp. 95-97. [4]
14. ↑ Keats-Rohan, Domesday Descendants. See pedigree of Taillebois, p.42; Willelm filius Gilberti de Lancastria pp.339.

Links

• Medieval Lands fmg.ac

• Wikipedia: William de Lancaster I

• archived website of Andrew Lancaster.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Sherri Harder for starting this profile. Click the Changes tab for the details of contributions by Sherri and others.