FEUDAL BARONAGE 



by his wife Isabel, or Elizabeth, of Vermandois, widow of Robert, count of 



Meulan, who died in 1 1 1 8. There is nothing in respect of her age to render 



improbable her marriage to William fitz Gilbert after 1 153,^ for although the 



information springs from a doubtful source, there is a copy extant of a charter 



of William fitz Gilbert, in which, as William de Lancaster, he grants free 



right of pasturage throughout his fee in Lonsdale and Amounderness to the 



canons of St. Mary de Pre of Leicester, by the advice and consent of William 



his son and heir, and of Gundreda his wife, and for the health of the souls of 



his lord Henry, king of England, Queen Eleanor, and their children, and of 



Gilbert his father, Godith his mother, Jordan his son, and of Margaret, 



daughter of the countess. This charter was attested by ' Gundreda, daughter 



of the countess.' ^ William fitz Gilbert made many donations to religious 



houses.* One of the earliest, which was confirmed by King Stephen, was the 



grant of Muncaster to Furness Abbey.* The grant did not, however, long 



continue in force. He also gave the manor and church of Cockerham, the 



chapel of EUel, 2 carucates in Cockerham and the hamlet of Crimbles, on 



either side of the River Cocker, to the canons of St. Mary de Pre at Leicester,* 



land in Swarthof, or Swarthead, in Hensingham (or Preston) to St. Bees, 



which William Meschin confirmed,* land in the same place to St. Mary's 



Abbey in York,^ land in Bartonhead to the hospital of St. Leonard of York,' and 



a fishery in the River Lune, called Chil or Childe, to Fountains Abbey.' An 



important matter arising during his time was the agreement made before the 



king, in or about 1 163, between William and the monks of Furness for the 



demarcation of Furness Fells from the barony of Kendal, and a partition of this 



mountainous district between them. Before that time there had been no 



set limit to the great forest area extending from the Duddon to the upper 



waters of the Lune. William and his predecessors had been wont to chase 



buck and doe, and to take hawks from the eyries found there. By this 



agreement he took the western part of the fells, retaining venison and hawks 



throughout the whole area, but paying to the monks a yearly service of 



20 shillings, whilst the monks took the eastern part of these fells.^" The 



kinship which would exist between Lancaster's wife (if she was the countess 



Gundreda) and Isabel de Warenne, the wife of William of Blois, who was 



jure uxoris suae fourth earl of Warenne, may well have been the origin of 



the feoffment to Lancaster of the lordships of War ton and Garstang by 



Warenne, and the association of William fitz Gilbert with the castle and 



district of Lancaster, as governor or seneschal," which led to his assumption 



of ' Lancaster ' as a surname. The service of one knight due for Warton and 



1 Gundreda, countess of Warwick, had ten knights' fees assigned to her in dower in 1 159. Pipe R. Soc. 

 i. 26. Cf. ReJBi. ofExch. (Rolls Ser.), 326. 



2 Farrer, Lanes. Pipe R. 392-3. 



' His lay feoffments included 2 carucates in EUel to Grimbald de EUel ; 2 carucates in Scotforth to Hugh 

 Norman ; J carucate in Lancaster to Ralph de Torrisholme ; ^ carucate in Ashton to Gilbert de Ashton ; 

 and 2 bovates in Carnforth to Robert the falconer. Exch. K.R. Kts. fees, J, m. ja ; Lanes. Inq. Rec. Soc. 

 xlviii. 4—5. 



* Coueher of Furness, Chetham Soc. N.S. ix. 125. 



5 Exch. K.R. Kts. fees, \, m. 3a ; Farrer, Lanes. Pipe R. 391-2. Roger fitz Gilbert, his brother, gave 

 to St. Bees the vill of Hensingham, which Alan held of him in drengage, for the health of the souls of WiUiam 

 his brother and William his nephew. Ibid. No. 223. 



6 Reg. of St. Bees, Harl. MSS. No. 434. ch. 3. 



7 Mon. Angl. iii. 550. Roger fitz GUbert gave 2 bovates in Hensingham to the same house. Ibid. 



8 Mon. Angl. vi. 613. * Burton, Mon. Ebor. 178. 



1" Farrer, Lanes. Pipe R. 310-311. " Dugdale, Baronage, i. ^zib ; cf. RoxxnA, Feudal England, 168. 



359 



