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

ADDITIONAL NAMES GIVEN BY DUCHESNE.

Prepared by Michael A. Linton
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Beufort : This name, familiar to us as that given to the eldest bastard son of John of Gaunt from the castle in which he was born, of course cannot here apply to him. There are several other places in France from which it may be derived, such as Beaufort in Champagne, the fief of the De Broyes, Beaufort-en-Santerre, Beaufort-sur-Meuse (Froissart dedicated the first volume of his Chronicles to Robert de Namur, Sire de Beaufort-sur-Meuse), and the Comte of Beaufort, confiscated from Jacques d'Armagnac, Due de Nemours, by Louis XI. in 1470. In the seventeenth century Jean Gaspard de Beaufort-Canillac was Marquis de Montboissier.—See Anselme.

There are but few traces of it to be found in England. "Ralph Fitz Richard held Rochinges, Kent, from Hugh, Baron de Montfort, in 1086 (Domesday): and appears to have been the son of Richard, Sire de Beaufort in Anjou, whose daughter married Hugh, Baron de Montfort (Des Bois, Diet, de la Noblesse), ancestor of the Montforts of Beaudesert."—The Norman People.

Hugh de Beauford held in 1165 one knight's fee in Bedfordshire of Simon de Beauchamp.—Liber Niger. One of the name—probably his descendant—is buried in Oseney Church. "Beaufort a Knight lyith in the Quire at the Hed of Countess Ela.

"This Beaufort and an Abbate of Oseney buildid the Body of the Chirche now standing at Oseney, and ther be porturid their Images in the Volt of it."—Leland.

James Beauford, of Heytesbury, received a grant 21 Ed. III.: Osbert Beaufort is mentioned six years afterwards.