Robert Banastre

  General Notes:

~The Coucher Book, Or Chatulary of Whalley Abbey, Vol. I, p. 113. Robert Banastre, named in the roll of Battle Abbey, had a grant of Prestatyn in Flintshire, and other lands. His son was another Robert Banastre. ⁸²³

~Memorials of the Order of the Garter, p. 205, Robert Banastre came to England with William the Conqueror, and he obtained the manor of Prestaton in Englefield in Berkshire. [Rot. Parl. vol. i. p.2.] His son, or possible grandson, also named Robert, moved to lancashire and was the progenitor of severl branches that settled in Cheshire. [Mon. Angl. vol. i. pp. 201, 986] ¹³⁸

  Information about this person:

• Background Information. ¹⁸⁵
An ancient pedigree of this family is preserved in a petition of the Rolls of Parliament. It beings with Robert de Banastre, who came with William the Conquer. He held Prestaty, one of the hundreds of Flintshire, under Robert de Ruelent. Robert de Banastre's son was also named Robert. This second Robert removed with all his people from the area in Wales and settled in Lancashire, where they are found holding extensive possession under the Earls of Chester. The younger Robert left son, Richard, Warin and Thurstan.

~The Battle Abbey Roll, Vol. I., p. 124

• Family History. ⁸¹³
According to The History of the Church and Manor of Wigham, p. 791, " It is on record, however, that Robert son of Robert Banastre held this fee (Wigham) in the time of Henry II; that Henry de Laci, who flourished in the reigns of Stephen and Henry II, granted to him 'Walatun (Walton-le-Dale) cum petinentiis Melver (Mellor) et Hucceleshul (Eccleshill) et Haravunda (Little Harwood) et duas Derewentas (Over and Lower Darwen) pro servitio unius militis;' that his father, Robert Banastre, came into England at the time of the conquest, and held many lands, amongs others Prestatyn, in that part of North Wales called Englefield; that the tower which his son Robert Banastre built there was destroyed when Owen Gwyneed, prince of North Wales, recovered that country from the English in 1167; and that Robert Banastre at that time brought all his people into Lancashire, where in the time of Edward I, they were still called 'las Westroys.'"

The son of the Robert Banastre who finally succeeded his was named Thurstan Banastre, and in 1213, Thurstan gave 500 marks to King John to have an inquisition whether the land of Makerfield should descend to him on part of Robert his father and Warin his brother. Thurstan married a woman of unknown heritage by the name of Cecila, and he died in 1218/19. He left a son and heir named Robert, and likely another son also named Thurstan, the ancestor of the Banastres of the Bank, to whom his brother gave his lands in Newton, in the hundred of Wirral, Cheshire.

Robert Banastre, son and heir of Thurstan was one year old at the time of his father's death. Philip de Orreby, Justice of Chester, made a fine of 500 marks to have the wardship and marriage of this Robert Banastre. This Robert married Clementia, who survied him. He had two sons, John, who died in his infancy about 26 Henry III, and Robert who succeeded him.

Robert Banastre, the fourth of that name, had a charter of free warren in Walton and Newton in 1256/7, and he was granted a market and fair in his manor Newton the following year [Archaeologia Cambrensis, vol. I p.342]. Robert claimed Prestatyn in 6 Edward I, and in his petition to the King in Parliament, he gives his descent with an account of his family. He called himself Sir Robert Banastred, Knight on a deed dated 13 Aug 1283. With this deed he gave the Abbot and convent called "Locus Benedictus" of Stanlawe ten acres of land in his manor of Walton. [Coucher Book of Whalley, Chetham Soc. Vol. X, pp. 113-116] This Robert Banastre was living in 13 Edward I and dead before 21 Edward I. He married Alice, daughter of Gilbert Woodcock. Robert and Alice had a daughter named Clementia who married William de Lea to whom he gave in frank marriage the manor of Mollington Banastre in Chesire. They had a son named James Banastre who married Elena, daughter of William le Botiler, baron of Warrington. James died during the life of his father, and left a daughter and heir named Alice, who succeeded to her grandfather's estates. Alice Banastre married John de Langton, son of Robert de Langton of West Langton, Leicester.

~The History of the Church and Manor of Wigham, pp. 791-793