Geoffrey of Carshalton

Abt 1045 - Aft 1086  (~ 42 years)

• Name	Geoffrey of Carshalton  [1, 2]
  Birth	Abt 1045  [3]
  Gender	Male
  Death	Aft 1086  [4]
  Alternate death	1105  [3]
  Person ID	I6317	Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others
  Last Modified	11 Feb 2023

  
  

  Father	Eustache II of Boulogne   d. Abt 1080
  Mother	(Unknown mistress of Eustache II of Boulogne)
  Family ID	F4657	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Beatrice de Mandeville,   b. of Rycote, Oxfordshire, England
  Marriage	Bef 1084  [4]
  Children	1. William of Boulogne,   b. Abt 1085, of Carshalton, Epsom, Surrey, England d. Bef 1130 (Age ~ 44 years)
  Family ID	F928	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	10 Jul 2015

  
  

• Notes

  Also called Geoffrey of Boulogne, and his descendants called themselves "of Boulogne". Although Kim Anderson's and Richard Joscelyne's "The Parentage of Geoffrey fitz Eustace (c. 1045-1105)" (Foundations 10:98, 2018) makes a plausible case that he was a legitimate son of Eustache II by his first wife, Godgifu, the consensus appears to remain that he was a son of Eustache by an undocumented mistress. Notably, Eustache II gave his own name to his first son by his second wife, Ida of Verdun, who was definitely younger than this Geoffrey. Peter Stewart notes (SGM, 9 Feb 2023) that "Geoffrey of Carshalton named his son William (despite the child's maternal grandfather being also a Geoffrey), and William's son & heir was named Faramus. This pattern of extraneous names does not suggest nostalgia for a denied paternal heritage." Was Godfrey the crusader the same Geoffrey that married Beatrice de Mandeville? This claim pops up in many places; people doing personal genealogical research are most likely to encounter it in David H. Kelley's essay in Ancestral Roots, eighth edition (line 158A). The short answer: No. Both were sons of Eustace II, albeit by different mothers. The claim that they were a single person doesn't hold up. Todd A. Farmerie: "Murray's analysis takes the sole argument in favor of this connection, that the names Geoffrey and Godfrey were, at the time, synonymous, and shows it to be false. This leaves us with two men with the same father but different names, ending up in different places and conflicting family histories -- one with documented children, the other remembered as unmarried and childless -- without the slightest reason to suggest that they were anything but siblings other than personal preference." Additionally, Boulogne and Bouillon are completely different places. Godfrey/Geoffrey's Boulogne is the one on the north coast of France, now called Boulogne-sur-Mer. The region surrounding it, Boulonnais, became an earldom in the ninth century and was later brought to the crown of England by Maud of Boulogne's marriage to Stephen of Blois.

  
  

• Sources

  [S850] Todd A. Farmerie, 13 Mar 2001, post to soc.genealogy.medieval. [S3215] Medieval Welsh Ancestors of Certain Americans by Carl Boyer III. Santa Clarita, California, 2004. [S2337] Kim Anderson and Richard Joscelyne, "The Parentage of Geoffrey fitz Eustace (c. 1045-1105)." Foundations 10:98, 2018. [S142] Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families by Douglas Richardson. Salt Lake City, 2013.