Gilbert De LACY, Lord Of Pontefract

Bef 1045 - Abt 1093  (~ 48 years)

• Name	Gilbert De LACY
  Suffix	Lord Of Pontefract
  Born	Bef 1045
  Gender	Male
  _UID	BA685A13C4DA447DA44211D739A19DF427B2
  Died	Abt 1093
  Person ID	I646	Carney Wehofer 2024 Genealogy
  Last Modified	5 Feb 2012

  
  

  Mother	Emma,   d. Yes, date unknown
  Family ID	F412	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Hawise,   b. Abt 1045,   d. Yes, date unknown
  Children	1. Robert De LACY,   b. Abt 1070, Halton, Somersetshire, England ,   d. Bef 1129  (Age ~ 58 years)
  Last Modified	29 Aug 2016
  Family ID	F409	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Notes

  It is sometimes claimed that he fought with WILLIAM THE CONQUERER at the Battle of Hastings. There is no proof of this. Quite possibly, he was too old to have faught. From W E Wightman, "The Lacy Family in England and Normandy, 1066-1194": (pp.17, 19): "The honour of Pontefract is the name later given to the estates built up by the Lacy family, mainly by Ilbert I under the first two Norman kings. In 1086 the bulk of these estates were already to be found in the south half of the West Riding of Yorkshire, held by Ilbert I as tenant-in-chief direct of the king, though there was also an appreciable quantity of land scattered over the counties of Lincoln, Nottingham, Buckingham, Oxford, counties of Lincoln, Nottingham, Buckingham, Oxford, Berkshire, and Surrey. ..... The military importance of this stretch of territory was enormous." ( p 55): "The first holder of the honour of Pontefract was Ilbert I de Lacy, brother of the first lord of the honour of Weobley, Walter I. Proof of their relationship comes from their estate in Normandy. This single holding was held jointly by the descendants of Ilbert I and Walter I by the Norman tenure of parage, under which land was divided amongst the sons and daughters whilst at the same time remaining a single fee. Had it not been originally a family holding this tenure would not have applied, and the details of the dissolution of the joint fee show that the family link must have been via Ilbert and Walter as sons of the same father. The senior branch of the family was probably that of Ilbert of Pontefract. He followed his Norman overlord into England, whereas Walter arrived in the train of William fitz Osbern, much as a younger son might do. In all probability the younger brother would have no obligation to follow his liege lord outside Normandy and thus might choose to attach himself to the most convenient leader he could find. An additional piece of evidence comes from the grant of twenty- two acres of land at Montmain to the nunnery of St. Amand by Emma, the mother of Ilbert de Lacy. She was categorically described as Ilbert's mother, to distinguish her from the abbess of St. Amand, whose name was also Emma. This implies either that Ilbert was the more important of the two brothers in Normandy, and under the rules of tenure by parage therefore the elder, or else that Walter was not Emma's son, but a cousin. As this would have been impossible, in view of the later descent of the fee, it is most likely that Ilbert was the elder. Little is known about either of the brothers. They were not, for example, amongst the favoured few whose participation at the battle of Hastings can be proved. Ilbert I was probably born not later than 1045, though this is little more than a guess based on the likely assumption that he came over in 1066, and was enfeoffed as a tenant of Bishop Odo soon afterward. He was still alive shortly after Odo's banishment on 14 November 1088. It is possible that he was alive in or soon after 1091, but he was undoubtedly dead by the end of the reign of Rufus, for by that time he had been succeeded by his son Robert I. Little more is known about his family. His wife's name was Hawise, and that is the total extent of information about her."