General Notes

BIOGRAPHY:  Eustace was Forester or Woodward of Hatfield Forest under the de Gernon otherwise Mountfitchet family. This is proved by several existing grants to him. The earliest is from King Henry the first, who calls him his servant, and grants to him for keeping his Forest, the land that had belonged to Geoffrey and also that which Adam had forfeited, these were probably Saxons as there are no additions to their names. Geoffrey was called the Forester, and was most likely an under woodward at Hatfield. Adam's land was held at a rent of twelve shillings a year, and Eustace had it granted to him on the same terms. All this was confirmed to him by King Stephen, and a second charter by the same king shews him to have been a considerable landowner, as does one from Geoffrey de Mandeville, jointly to him and his son Humphrey. Eustace fixed his residence at Barrington (old) hall (now a farmhouse), which is close to the edge of the Forest and there his descendants continued to reside until they took possession of the Priory about the latter end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. He married Matilda or Milreda, daughter of Peter de Montford, Lord of Beaudesert.