Thurston de Montfort

  Information about this person:

• Background Information. ¹⁴¹
Thurstan de Montfort, heir to his brother Robert, name appears in the account of the sheriff of Berkshire in 1130. He had succeeded his brother by the spring of 1141, when the Empress Maud at Winchester gave him a charter for a market every Sunday at his castle of Beaudesert, near Henley in Arden. He attested several charters of Roger, and one of William, Earls of Warwick, to the College of Warwick, his name coming usually after those of the Earl's immediate family. He also attested, on the Earl's side, the agreement made at Devizes in 1153 between Henry, Duke of Normandy (afterwards Henry II), and Ranulph, Earl of Chester.

In 1156 Thurstan owed the King 20 marks for his land in Rutland. In 1166 he held under three tenants in chief of the Earl of Warwick 10¼ fees (Beaudesert, &c.), of Roger de Mowbray 3¾ in Yorks, and of Robert de Stafford ¼ (Henley in Arden). After his brother's death he confirmed the grant of Wing to Thorney Abbey for the souls of himself, his wife and children, and especially of his brother Robert. He made a gift to Guisborough for the soul of his brother Henry (1155-70). His name disappears from the Pipe Roll after 1170. He married Juliane, daughter and coheir of Geoffrey Murdac.

~ Cokayne's Complete Peerage, 2nd Edition, Vol. IX, (Montfort), pp. 120-121

The ancestry of this family cannot be given any certainty. The only place in Normandy named Montfort is Montfort-sur-Risle. Miles Crispin, in his Life of William, the third abbot of Le Bec, thus describes the abbot's origin: "Willelmus, nobli Northmanorum prosapia originem trabens, in veteri castro super Rislam quid dicitur Montfortis, claris parentibus est exortus. Pater ejus Turistinus, mater Albereda dicebatur, Rogerii de Bellomonte patris Roberti comitis ex sorore neptis." At the time of the abbot's birth (circa 1054) the seigneur of Montfort was Hugh, but the language used suggests that Thurstan was a member of that family, the more so as he bore the same name as its founder, Thurstan de Bastenbourg. Roger de Beaumont was father of Henry, 1st Earl of Warwick, who would thus be Thurstan's first cousin by marriage; Montfort-sur-Risle is about 15 miles distant from Beaumont-le-Roger. The repeated occurrence of the name Thurstan among the Montforts of Beaudesert, undertenants of the Earls of Warwick, taken in conjunction with the above facts, points to somewhat strongly to the probability of their being a younger branch of the family of Montfort-sur-Risle.

~ Cokayne's Complete Peerage, 2nd Edition, Vol. IX, (Montfort), p. 120, footnote (b)

Thurston married Juliane Murdac, daughter of Geoffrey Murdac and Unknown. (Juliane Murdac was born about 1125 in Beaudesert Castle, Warwickshire, England.)