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Family of Giffard of Boyton. 



To this warrior we shall presently return, as his history is emi- 

 nently striking, and will give us a full excuse to depart from the 

 more prosaic depths of Arch ecology. 



It would seem that Hugh Giffard, the father of the two Bishops 

 and the brave Crusader, had an elder son, who must have died 

 leaving a son, a minor, who afterwards became John Lord Giffard 

 of Brimsfield, whose history is remarkable. He seems to have car- 

 ried off, a willing prize, from her castle at Canford, in 1271, 

 Matilda, the widow of the third Longespee. John Giffard, for this 

 feudal rape of Helen, was summoned before the King, and met the 

 charge of marrying the wealthy widow by the rejoinder that she 

 was a willing spoil, and by paying the King 300 marks ; the charge 

 was dropped on condition she made no further complaint. It would 

 appear that the family of Giffard divided into two branches — that 

 of Boyton and Brimsfield were re-united in the person of the son of 

 this John Giffard, for we find that the whole estates of both branches 

 were centred in John Giffard, surnamed Le Rych, who, joining in 

 the rebellion of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, was taken prisoner at 

 the battle of Boroughbridge, and was executed at Gloucester, his 

 vast estates being all forfeited to the Crown, with the exception of 

 a life interest in the Manor of Boyton, which was reserved to his 

 mother, the Lady Margaret, at whose death the whole estates 

 passed to the Crown. 



In the memoir of Boyton Church we have mentioned that there 

 exists a peculiarly beautiful Mortuary Chapel of the transition 

 period between Early English and Decorated. This Chapel we can 

 hardly doubt from its peculiar style, as well as from collateral evi- 

 dence, was founded by Bishop Godfrey, for the resting place of his 

 brother, Sir Alexander the Crusader, and for the good of the souls 

 of his ancestors. The Crusader's tomb was probably placed in its 

 present situation by the Bishop ; the architectural decoration of the 

 tomb would seem to mark the execution as rather earlier than some 

 parts of the Chapel, as the tomb had been made and placed perhaps 

 in the Church, before the side Chapel was finished possibly, in a 

 wall niche, or even against the south wall. This view is confirmed 

 by the singular fact that the tracery on the inner side of the tomb 



