Eustace FitzJohn de , Lord of Alnwick BURGO

                   Eustace Fitz-John (nephew and heir of Serlo de Burgh, founder ofKnaresborough Castle), one of the most powerful of the northern baronsand a great favourite with King Henry I. With his two brothers, he was awitness to the foundation of the abbey of Cirencester, co. Gloucester,1133. He m. 1st, Agnes, eldest dau. of William Fitz Nigel, Baron ofHalton, constable of Chester. By this lady he acquired the Barony ofHalton, and had an only son, Richard Fitz-Eustace. Eustace Fitz-John m.2ndly, Beatrice, only dau. and heiress of Yvo de Vesci, Lord of Alnwick,in Northumberland, and of Malton, in Yorkshire, by whom he had issue,William, progenitor of the great baronial house of de Vesci. [Sir BernardBurke, Dormant and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883,p. 121, Clavering, Barons Clavering]

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Eustace Fitz-John, nephew and heir of Serlo de Burgh (of the great familyof Burgh), the founder of Knaresborough Castle, in Yorkshire, and son ofJohn, called Monoculus, from having but one eye, is said by an historianof the period in which he lived, to have been "one of the chiefest peersof England," and of intimate familiarity with King Henry I, as also aperson of great wisdom and singular judgment in councils. He had immensegrants from the crown and was constituted governor of the castle ofBamburg, in Northumberland, temp. Henry I, of which governorship,however, he was deprived by King Stephen, but he subsequently enjoyed thefavour of that monarch. He fell the ensuing reign, anno, 1157, in anengagement with the Welsh, "a great and aged man, and of the chiefestEnglish peers, most eminent for his wealth and wisdom." By his firstwife, the heiress of Vesci, he had two sons, and by Agnes, his 2nd wife,dau. of William FitzNigel, Baron of Halton, and constable of Chester, heleft another son, called Richard Fitz-Eustace. [Sir Bernard Burke,Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd.,London, 1883, p. 555, Vesci, Barons Vesci]