Michael Linton's Bayeux Tapestry: 1066 - A Medieval Mosaic and Puzzles

Fitz Geffrey :

This may very probably stand for Herve Fitz Geffrey, who was of the illustrious house of Montmorency. "Hervey, the eldest son of Geoffrey de Montmorency, came to England in 1066, and was father of Geoffrey Fitz Hervey (Duchesne, 67). He held several manors in Essex, of which his descendant Hervey de Montmorency, Constable of Ireland, was possessor a century later. He married Adelaide de Clermont, whose name appears with his in charters (Perkin, Hist. King's Lynn, 171). He had Burchard de Montmorency, who was a benefactor of Thetford (Mon. i. 667), and Robert Fitz Geffrey, who was a baron 1165. He is mentioned in Lincoln in that year as Robert Maurenciacus (Liber Nig.). He had Hervey, Constable of Ireland, whose nephew Geoffrey was Deputy of Ireland temp. Hen. III., and from whom descended the Barons de Marisco, and the Viscounts Mountmorres and Frankfort in Ireland. The spelling of this name varies greatly, as Montmorentii, Montemarisco, Montemoraci, Montemorentino, &c."—The Norman People. In Ireland it had long been simplified to Morres, and the two Viscounts had to obtain the Royal license, in 1815, to exchange it for Montmorency. Mr. Freeman calls it "a singular fact that a family named Morres in Ireland, dissatisfied with a very respectable name which might have reminded them of the Theban legion, thought proper in the present century to change it to Montmorency, and to give out that a branch of the house of the first Christian Baron followed the banner of the Norman." He throws discredit upon the pedigree, because the name of Montmorency is not found in Domesday: evidently believing that the present rule by which every member of a family bears the father's surname, existed at that period. This was so far from being the case, that the Norman archaeologists expressly state that no son was permitted to bear the surname of the family till after his father's death. Till then he was known only by their joint Christian names: as, Alan Fitz-Flaald, William Fitz-Alan (Recherches sur le Domesday).