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

Prepared by Michael A. Linton
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Rochford : de Rupa fortis: a great Essex family, that gave its name to Stoke Rochford in Lincolnshire, and held other lands in Warwickshire, Hertfordshire, and Yorkshire. Several of the Rochfords received writs of military summons during the early part of the fourteenth century, till the heir-general of the family failed in 1340; and from one of them, who had gone over to Ireland nearly two hundred years before, descended the Earls of Belvedere. Yet the name must be here dismissed as an interpolation; for, though it has been derived from Rochefort, in the Viscountcy of Rouen, it was in reality taken from the town and hundred of Rochford in Essex—the "Rochefort" of Domesday, then held by Swein of Essex, one of the principal barons of the county. "King Henry II. gave the manor of Rochford's Hall, with the estate, to a family hence surnamed De Rochford, descended from Pagan, second son of Eustace Fitz John. Pagan was Lord of Ewyas in 1136. His son was Guy de Rochford."—Morant's Essex.