Gervaise de Blois, Abbot of Westminster

'King Stephen had ... illegitimate children by:

Mistress (1): ([1115/20]%29 DAMETA, a Norman woman, daughter of ---. Her son granted her the manor of Chelsea for an annual rent of £4[329]. same person as…? DAMETA, daughter of ROBERT & his second wife Felicia ---. She is named and her parentage given by Orderic Vitalis[330]. There is no proof that this co-identity is correct. However, the chronology is favourable and no other person with this name has yet been found in the primary sources consulted during the preparation of this document.

6. GERVAIS de Blois ([1115/20] –1160, bur Westminster Abbey). His parentage is confirmed by the charter dated to [1147/53], under which King Stephen confirmed a donation to the Knights Templars by "Bernardus Baillol", witnessed by "G[ervasio] abate Westmonast[erii] filio meo"[362]. The primary source which confirms his parentage has not yet been identified. His father appointed him abbot of Westminster after [23 Sep 1136/1138][363], ordained 17 Dec 1138 by Alberic, the Papal legate[364], presumably after the necessary dispensation regarding his illegitimacy which would otherwise have prevented him from holding religious office. His uncle Henry, Archbishop of York, proposed him as one of the three candidates for the see of Lincoln in 1148. Henry II King of England deposed him as abbot in 1157/58[365].