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

Prepared by Michael A. Linton
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Haunsard : Barons of Evenwood, in the county of Durham. Hutchinson commences their pedigree with Sir Gilbert Haunsard, or Hansard, whose grandson, Gilbert 2, was one of the most powerful barons of the Palatinate about the middle of the twelfth century, and a benefactor to Kepyer Hospital. He married a sister of Robert Fitz Maldred Lord of Raby, the ancestor of the Nevills, who brought him as her portion the lordship of Walworth, in that neighbourhood, which thenceforward became the seat of the family. Their new home in the rich and beautiful valley of the Tees must have formed a happy contrast to the bleak and wind-swept moorland they had hitherto inhabited, called in an old rhyme

"Evenwood,
Where straight tree never stood."

In the following century—about 1279—they parted with it altogether, John Hansard conveying it to Bishop Beke, and receiving the manor of Werkensale in exchange. As late as Bishop Hatfield's Survey, however, we find Thomas Hansard still "held the barony tofts, rendering three arrows." They subsequently acquired by marriage South Kelsey in Lincolnshire, and came to an end temp. Henry VIII., when "Cardinal Wolsey granted the wardship of Elizabeth, the heiress of the last William Hansard, to Sir William Ayscough" (or Aske) "who married her to his own son, Sir Francis." A younger branch, seated at Whittingham in Suffolk, died out a little later in the same century.

One of these Barons of Evenwood is mentioned at Carlaverock:

"Robert de Hamsart tout apreste
I vi venir, o bele gent,
Rouge o trois estoiles de argent,
Tenant le escu par les enarmes."

This Robert is believed to have been the son of Sir John Haunsard mentioned in the time of Anthony Beke, and who held a manor at Caterham, in Surrey, about 1275.—Manning's Surrey. "Dominus Gilb. Hansard" occurs in Lincolnshire about the same date.—Rotuli Hundredorum. Camden calls the Hansards "a very eminent family in this County."

In Scotland, "Johan de Haunsard, probably of the Haunsards of England," performed homage to Ed. I. at Berwick-upon-Tweed in 1296.—Ragman Rolls, p. 126.