The Battle Abbey Roll. Vol. I.
by
The Duchess of Cleveland.

Prepared by Michael A. Linton
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Beauuise, or Beaufitz, the English rendering of Beaufils, as Anselm gives it. Here, for once, is a complimentary nickname. "Beau fils," or "Bel fils," was the term of endearment used by Queen Isabel when supplicating Edward III. for the life of the "Gentil Mortimer."

This was a Kentish family, originally seated at Acton, in the parish of Charing. Hugh Beaufiz occurs temp. Edward I. in the Rotuli Hundredorum: and Henry Beaufiz was returned from Kent and Wilts to attend the great Council held at Westminster in 1324.—Palgrave's Parliamentary Writs. This may have been the same Henry Beaufiz who was Lord of Chipston, Yorkshire, in 1316. Robert Beaufitz, in 1364, removed to Twydale in Gillingham, which he had acquired through his wife Joan, and lies buried in the chancel of Gillingham Church. His portrait, with that of John Beaufitz "the younger," wearing a garland of roses, and another John, kneeling, with his open breviary before him, were still to be seen in 1621 in the painted glass of the windows, which "appear to have been most beautifully ornamented with Scripture history, as well as with the names and arms of the family of Beaufitz, most probably its principal benefactors. In the chancel were formerly many brasses, with figures, arms, and inscriptions for the family, all of which have been, with one exception (that of Robert Beaufitz) now lost. At the foot of one of the main beams of the church are their arms, which shows perhaps that the roof was made at their charge."—Hasted's Kent. They bore Or, on a band three bells, quartering Gillingham, Quarterly Ermine and Gules. One of these Johns founded a chantry dedicated to St. John Baptist, in 1483; and the line ended with another of the same name during the reign of Henry VII. This last Beaufitz, who, according to Nichols, was Sheriff of Leicestershire, 17 Ed. IV., left two daughters his co-heirs, of whom Joan, the eldest, conveyed the Kentish property to Robert Arnold of Sussex.

A family of that name was seated at Estlegh in Worcestershire; but how connected with the above I am unable to state.