Gilbert de Gaunt

• General Notes
  • Baron of Folkingham
    Gilbert de Gant, 1st cousin to William Rufus and Henry I. This Gilbert de Gant, son of Baldwin of Flanders, accompanied his uncle, William the Conqueror, into England and participated in the triumph at Hastings, obtained a grant of the lands of the Danish proprietor, named Tour, with numerous lordships. Gilbert happened to be at York anno 1069 and had a narrow escape when the Danes, in great force, on behalf of Edgar the Aetheling (Prince of the Saxons and brother of Margaret, wife of Malcolm, King of Scotland), entered the mouth of the Humber, and marching on that city committed lamentable destruction by fire and sword, there being more than 3,000 Normans slain. He married Alice de Montfort, daughter of Hugh de Montfort, son of Hugh, son of Thurstan de Bastenburg, son of Aumaurie de Montfort, son of Robert I, King of France. He died in the reign of William Rufus (1087-1100). He had Hugh, who assumed the name of de Montfort, and inherited all the possessions of his grandfather, Montfort. Walter, his successor, Robert, Lord Chancellor of England anno 1153, and Emma, married to Alan, Lord Percy.
    (Kin of Mellcene Thurman Smith, page 639)
    
    GILBERT DE GANT, the first of this surname, a younger son, Baron de Folkingham, who received the lands of Tour, a Dane; had several lordships in Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Yorkshire, Cambridgeshire, Buckinghamshire, Huntingdonshire, Northon, Rutlandshire, Leicestershire, Warwickshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire, in the last of which, at Folkingham, he made his principal seat and head of his barony; married Alice, daughter and heiress of Hugh de Montfort.
    (Fenwick Allied Ancestry, page 56)