GRAUNT

An error may possibly exist in the addition of the letter R to this name. Among the soldiers of the Conquest, few were more largely rewarded than Duke William's nephew, Gilbert de Gaunt, son of Baldwin, Earl of Flanders, and it is therefore very unlikely that his name should be altogether omitted in the Roll of Battle Abbey. Besides, we have no trace of any Norman knight bearing the designation of Graunt. At the period of the general survey, we find Gilbert de Gant possessed of Manors in the counties of Berks, Oxford, York, Cambridge, Bucks, Huntingdon, Northampton, Rutland, Leicester, Warwick, Notts, and Lincoln, in all a hundred and seventythree lordships, of which Folkingham was caput baroniae. Like most of the great lords of his time, Gilbert disgorged a part of the spoil, thus acquired, to the Church, and amongst other acts of piety, restored Bardney Abbey, in Lincolnshire, which had been destroyed by the Pagan Danes, Inquar and Hubba. The son and successor of this renowned feudal chief was Walter de Gant, a distinguished commander at the Battle of the Standard, "where," says Dugdale, "by his eloquent speech and prudent conduct, the whole army received such encouragement, as that the Scots were utterly vanquished." He died 4 King Stephen, leaving a son, Gilbert de Gant, who became Earl of Lincoln 'jure uxoris'.

--(This name appears on the Battle Abbey Roll).