Sir Galfrid ‘Geoffrey’ Gilbert, MP

Sir Galfrid (Geoffrey) Gilbert

• Born about 1298 in Devon, England
• Husband of Joan Compton — married 1329 in Devon, England
• Died about 1349 in Compton Castle, Marldon, Devon, England

Sir Geoffrey Gilbert of Compton Castle founded Compton Castle at Marldon, Devon, England.

He was M.P. for Totnes in Devonshire, England, in 1326.

Through his son William Gilbert (brother to our ancestor Joan), he was an ancestor of the Elizabethan colonial explorers to North America, Sir Humphrey and Raleigh Gilbert.

Children

• Joan Gilbert, born about 1330 in Devon, England. Married John Bamfield as 1st wife.
• William Gilbert, born 1330 in Compton, Devon, England. Married Elizabeth Champernon.

Biography

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Gilbert-159

Galfrid Gilbert of Compton is shown at the head of the Gilbert family pedigree for the Visitation of Devon in 1564[1]with wife Joan Compton (daughter of William Compton of Compton) and son William Gilbert.

Compton Castle was originally held by the de Compton family. The marriage of Joan de Compton to Geoffrey Gilbert heralded the Gilbert family becoming its owners.

1324: Demise:Galfridus Gilberd of Totnes, Devon (about 6 miles from Compton Castle).[2]

A William Gilbert witnessed a deed at Totnes in 1308.[3]

A John Gilbert mentioned in connection with Totnes in 1347.[4]

1326: May have been MP for Totnes

1327: A Geoffrey Gilbert mentioned in Will of Peter Soth of Exeter.[5]

1328: The above Geoffrey Gilbert mentioned in Agreement and Final Concord: Exeter [St Lawrence] consequent to Will of Peter Soth.[6]

1329: Lease for lives, Fishacre: Geoffrey Gilbert of Totnes and Joan his wife.[7]

1342/3: Geoffrey Gilbert to grant a messuage and land in Totnes to the minister and brethren of the order of the Holy Trinity in the house of the Holy Ghost in Warland [by Totnes][8]

1342/3: 12 Feb 17EdwardIII: A Geoffrey Gilbert mentioned in the IPM of Margery Pippard the widow of Thomas Pippard of Hintlesham in Suffolk. The manor and advowson of Hintlesham was to remain to Geoffrey after Margery's death.[9]

1344/45: Geoffrey Gilberd to grant a dovecot and land in the suburbs of Exeter to the prior and convent of St. Nicholas, Exeter, retaining messuages and land at Douneswich. Devon. John, bishop of Exeter, to grant a messuage and land in Paignton to Geoffrey Gilbert and Joan his wife and her heirs in exchange for another messuage and land there.[10]

Sir Geoffrey m. Joan, dau. and co-heir of William de Compton in the manor
of Paignton, Devon. These two were ancestors of Sir Humphrey Gilbert of Compton Castle, b.1539, knighted 1-1-1570, M.P. for Plymouth 1571, who founded the colony of Newfoundland 1583, lost at sea, 9-9-1583. Sir Humphrey was half-brother of Sir Walter Raleigh, Captain of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth I Guard and colonizer of Virginia. Sir Walter sailed with Sir Humphrey in an accompanying vessel on voyages to America in the 16th century.

• ____________________________
• Sir Geoffrey Gilbert1
• M, #22824, d. 1349
• Father Thomas Gilbert
• Mother Amy
• Sir Geoffrey Gilbert was born at of Compton, Devonshire, England. He married Joan Compton, daughter of William Compton, Esq.. Sir Geoffrey Gilbert died in 1349.
• Family Joan Compton
• Children
  • William Gilbert+ d. c 6 Jul 1380
  • Joan Gilbert+ b. c 1322
• Citations
• 1.[S7149] Unknown author, OFHS Newsletter, Sept. 1995, p. 59, OFHS Newsletter, December 1995, p. 89, 91; Wallop Family, p. 363.
• From: http://our-royal-titled-noble-and-commoner-ancestors.com/p760.htm#i...
• ________________________
• MUST BE A TYPO FOR DATE 1626, I THINK IT SHOULD BE 1326?
• Ancestral roots of certain American colonists who came to America before ... By Frederick Lewis Weis, Walter Lee Sheppard, Kaleen E. Pg.230 GoogleBooks
• 33. JOHN III BAMBIELD, of Poltimore and, later, Huxham, seen 1361 on presenting the priest, but d. by 1362. He m. Joan Gilbert, dau. of Geoffrey Gilbert, and sister of William Gilbert, ancestors of the Elizabethan colonial explorers to N. America, Sir Humphrey and Raleigh Gilbert. Geoffrey founded Compton Castle, Marldon, Devon (The National Trust). he was M.P. Totnes 1626, Commissioner, and tax gatherer for Edward II. John and Joan received from her father's feoffees 60 acres of Huxham land with reversion to their s. & h. John, and yr. son Thomas. (Pole Coll. No. 328; The Gen., cit.).

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“Gilberts of Compton” From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia retrieved 30 March 2020

Origins

The Gilberts of Compton were a noted Anglo-Norman family of knightly class,[1] having seats at both Compton Castle and Greenway Estate, Devon, England. They were prominent in the British colonization of the Americas during the Elizabethan era.[2]

There are conflicting origin stories of the Gilberts of Compton among antiquarians. A popular story is that the Gilberts descended from Gilbert, Count of Brionne, through his sons Richard Fitz-Gilbert and Baldwin Fitz-Gilbert.[3][2] While the Fitz-Gilbert brothers were active in Devon, there is no evidence to suggest that their progeny became the Gilbert family. This claim is especially dubious considering the name Fitz-Gilbert was not, at that time, a hereditary surname under the Norman naming system.

A second claim is that the Gilberts “possessed lands in Manaton, (in or near Dartmoor,) in Edward the Confessors’ days”, placing the Gilbert family in Devon before 1066.[4][5][3] Though surnames at that epoch were rare in Europe, it is possible that the surname Gilbert existed at that time as evidenced by Guillaume I Gilbert, Bishop of Poitiers from 1117 to 1124.[6][7][8] However, the quote was likely a misreading of a passage from an earlier work: “This riveret parts Manaton, alias Magneton, and Lustlegh. Many have possessed lands here: in the Confessor's time Gilbert; after Sauls, Horton, Le Moyn, and others”, itself based on entries in the Domesday Book.[1] This passage simply states someone named Gilbert, a popular first name at the time, lived in Devon.

What is more demonstrable is that the male line leading to the Gilberts of Compton likely rose from obscurity with the marriage of a William Gilbert of Devon to Elizabeth Champernowne of Clist, a descendant of William the Conqueror, sometime in the first few decades of the 13th century. Their great grandson, Sir Geoffrey (Galfried) Gilbert (Member of Parliament for Totnes in 1326) married Lady Joan Compton, heiress of Compton Castle, thereby becoming “of Compton”.[9][10]

Notable Descendants

Little is known of the family's activities during the Middle Ages aside from Sir Otho Gilbert of Compton serving as High Sheriff of Devon from 1475 to 1476. It was descendants of this Otho Gilbert who would set out during the Elizabethan period on the family's “hereditary scheme of peopling America with Englishmen”.[2] Most famous among these were the half brothers Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Sir Walter Raleigh, both famous explorers of the New World and perhaps infamous military figures in Ireland due to their military exploits there. Their lesser-known brother, Sir Adrian Gilbert of Compton, was nonetheless of the same cloth, having an especially savage military reputation in Ireland while also seeking a Northwest Passage to China under a patent from Queen Elizabeth I.[2] Another brother, Sir John Gilbert, was Sheriff of Devon, knighted by Elizabeth I in 1571, and was Vice Admiral of Devon – responsible for defense against the Spanish Armada.[11]

In the following generation, Bartholomew Gilbert named Cape Cod during his 1602 expedition to establish a colony in New England. He was killed by a group of Algonquians during a voyage the following year in search of the missing Roanoke Colony. In 1607, Sir Humphrey Gilbert's son, Raleigh Gilbert, established a fortified storehouse he called Fort Saint George on the coast of Maine. In the face of “nothing but extreme extremities”, this colony ultimately voted to return to England. It is said that they were so resolute in this goal that they built a ship to facilitate the return voyage, which would probably have been the first oceangoing vessel built in America.[2]

Later, brothers Jonathan and John Gilbert would have a hand in establishing Hartford, Connecticut, acting as emissaries between the Governor in Hartford and the local indigenous tribes. Jonathan was a skilled linguist of local tribal languages and served as a militia leader.[2] John's young son, another John Gilbert, was famously captured by Narragansett, Wampanoag and Nashaway/Nipmuc tribes led by Monoco after their attack on Lancaster, Massachusetts.[12] In another unfortunate incident John's sister-in-law, Lydia Gilbert, was sentenced to death for witchcraft in Windsor, Connecticut, in 1654 during the infamous Connecticut Witch Trials.[13] However Jonathan's younger son, Captain Thomas Gilbert, was said to have been “a brave and successful officer, and a leading man in the primitive navy of the colony”. Thomas commanded the twelve-gun ship Swan during King William's War, capturing the French ship Saint Jacob. He was captured in 1695, spending the rest of the war as a prisoner in France.[2]

Current Day

Compton Castle is still today in the hands of the Gilbert family. Geoffrey Gilbert, a modern descendant, resides at Compton and administers the estate for the National Trust. His wife, Angela Gilbert, was appointed High Sheriff of Devon in 2016.[14]

Myths and Legends

According to one of the many purported versions of the now lost Battle Abby Roll, a T. Gilbard (Gilbert) fought alongside William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. This claim comes from a 1655 work called The church-history of Britain from the birth of Jesus Christ until the year M.DC.XLVIII, written by Thomas Fuller. Fuller relied on source material provided by an antiquarian named Thomas Scriven, who was operating under the alias Mr. Fox. There is no evidence so far to corroborate this claim.[15]

Another, more modern legend, plays on Adrian Gilbert's noted intelligence and love for mathematics and alchemy. His studies brought him into the social circles of contemporary scientists and occultists such as John Dee and Mary, Countess of Pembroke (having even served as her laboratory assistant for a time). From this premise, the 2000 book Following the Ark of the Covenant, by Kerry and Lisa Boren, claims that Dee entrusted to Gilbert the Arc of the Covenant to carry to the New World on one of his voyages.

References

• The Visitation of the County of Devon, 1564 page 112 link
• Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists who Came to America Before .... By Frederick Lewis Weis, Walter Lee Sheppard, William Ryland Beall, Kaleen E. Beall. Page 230. GoogleBooks
• See "My Lines" ( http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cousin/html/p215.htm#i24211 from Compiler: R. B. Stewart, Evans, GA (http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cousin/html/index.htm )
• ”Genealogies of Connecticut families: from the New England historical and ...” By Judith McGhan, Genealogical Publishing Co. Page 4. GoogleBookswww.celtic-casimir.com

Galfrid GILBERT of Compton, Esq. Born: Abt 1295, Compton, Devonshire, England Married: 1325, Compton, Devonshire, England Died: 1349, Compton, Devonshire, England

Marriage Information: Galfrid married Joan COMPTON, daughter of William COMPTON of Compton, Esq. and Unknown, in 1325 in Compton, Devonshire, England. (Joan COMPTON was born about 1298 in Paignton, Devon, England.)