LANCASTER, William de b. 1113 Warwick, Warwickshire, England d. 1170 Barton, Westmorland, England

1113 - 1170 (57 years)

Name	LANCASTER, William de
Birth	1113	Warwick, Warwickshire, England
Gender	Male
Death	1170	Barton, Westmorland, England
WAC	17 Mar 1932	LOGAN [1]
_TAG	Reviewed on FS
Headstones	Submit Headstone Photo
Person ID	I32573	Joseph Smith Sr and Lucy Mack Smith
Last Modified	19 Aug 2021

Father	LANCASTER, Baron Gilbert de , b. 1080, Cumberland, Cumberland, England Cumberland, Cumberland, Englandd. 1162, Kendal, Westmoreland, England (Age 82 years)
Mother	LANCASTER, Godith , b. Abt 1080, England England
Marriage	Abt 1100	England
Family ID	F18537	Group Sheet \| Family Chart

Family WARREN, Countess Gundred de , b. 1117, Warwick, Warwickshire, England Warwick, Warwickshire, Englandd. 1166, Kendal -Westmorland-England (Age 49 years)

Marriage Abt 1154 Warwick, Warwickshire, England [2]

Notes

MARRIAGE: Also shown as Married Abt 1148 ~SEALING_SPOUSE: Also shown as SealSp 10 Mar 1994, JRIVE.

Children

+	1. LANCASTER, Avice de , b. Abt 1148, Cumberland, Cumberland, England Cumberland, Cumberland, Englandd. 1 Jan 1191 (Age 43 years)

Family ID F16902 Group Sheet | Family Chart

Last Modified 24 Jan 2022

Photos At least one living or private individual is linked to this item - Details withheld.

Notes

William de Lancaster I, or William Fitz Gilbert, was a nobleman of the 12th century in Northwest England. According to a document some generations later, he was also referred to as William de Tailboys (de Taillebois) when younger, and then became "William de Lancaster, baron of Kendal", although there is some uncertainty amongst most commentators concerning the exact meaning of the term "baron" in this case. He is the first person of whom there is any record to bear the name of Lancaster and pass it on to his descendants as a family name. He died in about 1170.
William de Lancaster is often described as having been a Baron of Kendal. In fact this is not so clear what kind of lordship existed over Kendal, given the lack of clarity of records in this period. The word barony developed specific meanings during the Middle Ages, namely feudal baron and baron by writ. William Farrer wrote, in the Introduction to his Records of Kendal:
After a careful review of the evidence which has been sketched above, the author is of opinion that no barony or reputed barony of Kentdale existed prior to the grants of 1189–90; and that neither William de Lancaster, son of Gilbert, nor William de Lancaster II, his son and successor, can be rightly described as "baron" of Kentdale.[7]
Whether or not "Barony" is the clearest word, what became the Barony of Kendal is generally accepted as having come together under Ivo de Taillebois (d. 1094) in the time of William Rufus, some generations before William. And, as will be discussed below, at least in later generations William was depicted by his family as having been a Taillebois. A continuity is therefore often asserted between what Ivo held, and what William later held, despite the fact that William had no known hereditary claim on Kendal, and Ivo had no male heirs. (This is also the reason for the frequent assertion that William held the entire wapentake of Ewcross, even though it seems that the family of Roger de Mowbray kept hold of at least Burton in Kendal. William held two parts of it, mentioned above, while Ivo had held another, Clapham. The rest is speculation.)
According to Farrer, the Barony of Kendal became a real barony only in the time of William's grand daughter Hawise, who married Gilbert son of Roger fitz Reinfrid. Both he and his son William de Lancaster III, both successors of William de Lancaster I (and possibly of Ivo de Taillebois) were certainly Barons of Kendal.
William's father was named Gilbert, and his mother was Godith. They are both mentioned clearly in a benefaction of William to St Mary de Pré and William was often referred to as William the son of Gilbert (fitz Gilbert).
William was also said to have descended from both Ivo de Taillebois and Eldred of Workington, who were contemporaries of William Rufus. But the exact nature of the relationship is unclear and indeed controversial. There may be a connection through daughters or illegitimate sons of these two men. A discussion of the main proposals follows:-
Ivo de Taillebois and Eldred both in the male line. A once widespread understand was that Ivo was father of Eldred, who was father of Ketel who was father of Gilbert. This now seems to be wrong, or at least has gone out of favor and has been adapted in various ways (for example removing Ketel from this chain). The two authorities for a direct line of father-son descent from Ivo to Eldred to Ketel to Gilbert to William de Lancaster were records made much later in Cockersand Abbey and St Mary's Abbey in Yorkshire.[9] But monastic genealogies concerning their benefactors are generally considered difficult to rely upon.[10]
One of the concerns with this account is chronological, because it requires too many generations in a short period, both in order to make Ivo father of his contemporary Eldred, and also to make Ketel the father of his contemporary, Gilbert. Other concerns arise from because of complexities that this gives for explaining inheritances. For example, it implies that William de Lancaster was heir to Ketel fitz Eldred, but Ketel is commonly thought to have had another heir. And there is also no record of Eldred being an heir to Ivo. Also, it is highly unusual that in this account, the descendants of a Norman noble (Ivo) all use Anglo Saxon names (Eldred, Ketel, etc.).
Eldred in the male line, if not Taillebois. Nevertheless, concerning the connection to Eldred, in a Curia Regis Roll item dated 1212 (R., 55, m. 6), Helewise and her husband Gilbert Fitz Reinfrid make claims based upon the fact that "Ketel filius Eutret" was an "antecessor" of Helewise. This could mean he was an ancestor, but it could also perhaps merely mean he was a predecessor more generally.
But evidence was found in the twentieth century which gave clear problems for this theory. One charter to St Leonard's York William refers to Ketel, the son of "Elred", as his avunculus, which would literally mean "maternal uncle" (but the word was not always used precisely, the more general meaning of "uncle" might have been intended). And a 1357 charter printed by Reverend F. W. Ragg in 1910 repeats the claim that Ketel son of "Aldred" was the avunculus of William son of Gilbert.[11] These records appear to make it impossible for Ketel to be the father of Gilbert.
The possibility remains, and is for example proposed by Frederick Ragg who first noted this avunculus relationship, that Gilbert is the son of Eldred, and therefore a brother of Ketel, so still in the same male line. (Under this proposal, avunculus is being used to mean simply "uncle", and not in an exact way.)[12] So a male line ancestry from Eldred is not considered impossible, even if it retains difficulties, for example concerning how to explain the connection to the Taillebois family, and also the heirship of Eldred's family.
Taillebois through his father, if not Eldred. According to the 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." The only known heiress of Ivo was a daughter named Beatrix. Her sons by her one definitely known husband, Ribald of Middleham, did however on occasions apparently use the surname Taillebois also.
Apart from the above-mentioned monastic genealogies however, a connection to Ivo de Taillebois is partly proposed based upon a similarity of land holdings between William and Ivo de Taillebois, and a record in the Coucher Book of Furness Abbey, concord number CCVI, wherein Helewise, granddaughter and heir of William is party. In the genealogical notice it is claimed that William had been known as William de Tailboys, before receiving the right to be called "Willelmum de Lancastre, Baronem de Kendale".[13] This is the only relatively contemporary evidence for this assertion however, and other facts in this document are questioned by Farrer and Curwen, as discussed above, because they say that William was probably not Baron of Kendal, but rather an under-lord there.[7]

Whether or not Ivo himself was in the male line of William's ancestry, there was a Tailboys family present in Westmorland during the 12th century, for example in Cliburn, and these were presumably relatives of William de Lancaster. This family used the personal name Ivo at least once, and may have been related to Ivo and Beatrix.[14]

Eldred in the female line. Compatible with the above, though in contrast to the earlier proposal of Ragg (that Ketel is paternal uncle to William, and brother to Gilbert), it has been proposed by G. Washington and G. A. Moriarty that Ketel is maternal uncle to William, and brother to Gilbert's wife Godith. This proposal had the added attractions of making the use of Anglo-Saxon names more explicable, and of matching the most precise meaning of "avunculus". Washington wrote:
William de Lancaster's father, Gilbert, was a Norman knight, as evidenced by the French Christian names given to all his recorded children; whilst William's mother, Godith, was clearly the sister of Ketel son of Eldred and thus of native English stock (it will be recalled that Ketel was called William de Lancaster's avunculus, a term which strictly speaking means 'maternal uncle'). It is even possible, as Mr. Moriarty surmises, that Ketel's wife, Christian or Christina, may have been a Taillebois by birth; for, according to Peter of Blois, Ivo himself 'had an only daughter, nobly espoused' (see the Duchess of Cleveland's Battle Abbey Roll, III, 345), and certainly William de Lancaster's granddaughter, Helewise, along with her husband Gilbert fitz Renfrid, later confirmed some of Ivo's grants to the abbey of St. Mary at York.[15]
Taillebois in the female line. Keats-Rohan accepts this proposal of Moriarty and Washington that Godith and Ketel were siblings, but also maintains support for an older idea that their mother is of Ivo's one known daughter, Beatrix, through a marriage (of which no contemporary record exists) to Eldred. This would, as in the explanation of Moriarty and Washington, make Ketel maternal uncle to William, and Gilbert a French Taillebois, however Keats-Rohan offers no ancestry for him.
William married Gundreda, perhaps his second wife, who is sometimes said to be the daughter of William de Warenne, 2nd Earl of Surrey and Elizabeth of Vermandois. In this case she was the widow of Roger, the Earl of Warwick. But William Farrer believes that it is much more likely that this Gundreda was a daughter to the Roger and the elder Gundreda.

Sources

[S64] The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, International Genealogical Index.
William De Lancaster; Male; Birth: < 1113> ; Baptism: 06 MAY 1993 JRIVE; Endowment: 04 MAR 1994 JRIVE; No source information is available.
Record submitted after 1991 by a member of the LDS Church to request LDS temple ordinances.
Search performed using PAF Insight on 27 Nov 2004
[S64] The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, International Genealogical Index.
William De LANCASTER; Male; Spouse: Gundred De WARENNE; Marriage: About 1154 ; No source information is available.
Record submitted after 1991 by a member of the LDS Church.
Search performed using PAF Insight on 27 Nov 2004