100 Family of Giffard of Boyton. 



BRIEF NOTICE OF 



tf jjt jFnmih) of iiffurt nf Jtaqton. 



By the Rev. Abthtjr Fane. 



In the preliminary address, which admirably introduced our 

 Archaeological Society into this county, one head of useful inquiry 

 and interesting information which the President specially alluded 

 to was the biography of individuals and the history of the events 

 in which they were engaged, or took an active part ; and Mr. Scrope 

 took occasion to show how many parishes there were in this county 

 in which Archaeology of things might be enlivened by Archaeology 

 of persons, and that from stones and tombs, we might turn to the 

 history of those who first founded or embellished our parish churches, 

 and who now slumber the sleep of death, as to those bodies which 

 once were valiant in war or wise in council. Having made a 

 humble endeavour at the request of the committee to illustrate the 

 Archaeology of a church by no means devoid of interest or origi- 

 nality, I shall endeavour to draw together some information which 

 may illustrate the history of a family once remarkable in the annals 

 of ancient chivalry, and which has left traces of its wealth and 

 power in this county, which seem to endure long after all genea- 

 logical traces of the family have passed away and become extinct. 

 I allude to the family of Giffard, which once held ample possessions 

 in land and money, which was graced with earldoms and baronies, 

 which no less in ecclesiastical than in civil dignitaries was eminent, 

 but which has left behind the shadow only of a name in the title 

 affixed to their former possessions — as Ashton Giffard, Fonthill 

 Giffard, Broughton Giffard, and the like. 



Edward of Salisbury, by the Domesday Record, seems to have 

 been the owner of vast estates in this county. One parish included 



