Acknowledgements:There are three main groups of Eustaces in the British Isles:
The English Family has been in the southeast of Oxford since the 1200s. They are descended from Eustace, Count of Boulogne, chief ally of William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings, 1066. The first to make his home in England was Geoffrey of Boulogne who appears in the Domesday, 1086 as holding manors from the Boulogne estates and from his wife’s family, the De Mandevilles. He had three grandsons and it is from the middle one, Master Eustace, a lawyer, in the service of the Archbishop of Canterbury that the family and the name are descended. One of his sons was the seal bearer to Richard, Coeur de Lion, later Bishop of Ely and with his brother and stepfather was involved in the negotiations leading to Magna Carta.
The family name of FitzEustace was used during the 1200s but the ‘Fitz’ was dropped about 1300 and the ‘Eustace’ continued as the family name. There is a father to son record until William who supplied stone from his quarry at Wheatley to build part of Windsor Castle. He sold the quarry to Abingdon Abbey in 1375. As there were no personal records at that time, the trail becomes difficult but we know of a Eustace who fought at Agincourt, another who was warden of the Queen’s wood at Bray and several who were university students at Oxford. From 1550 to the present day there is a record of every generation including branches in USA, New Zealand and Australia.
Successive generations produced leaders in the community including lords of manors of Watcome and Britwell; one was mayor of the city of Oxford. There are records of a continuous emigration into London and into Birmingham during the 19th century. One of the earliest migrations to the USA was in 1657 when William and Sarah went to Boston. They took the spelling ‘Eustis’ which has remained to this day. There are at least three villages and three townships in the USA named for members of the family.
There have been three US ambassadors named Eustis and one served as Governor of Massachusetts. Another emigration in 1676 by John Eustace, born in Bucks, who went with his wife Sarah, and her parents to take over a property in the colonial Virginia. A Eustace of a later generation married one of their neighbours, a member of the prominent Lee family, who trace their roots to passengers on the Mayflower. Further members of the Bucks connection went to Kansas in the late 19th century.
In England, considerable movement of Eustaces has taken place along the line of the Chiltern Hills into Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire to the north and into Berkshire and Wiltshire in the south. Gravestones, memorials inscriptions and church bells commemorate their part in the life of the community over the centuries.
The Irish Family came from Normandy at the time of the Conquest. Around 1100 Eustace FitzJohn inherited the castles of Bamburgh and Knaresborough from his uncle Selo de Burgh to which Alnwick castle was added on his marriage to Beatrice de Vesci. His second marriage, to Agness of Halton, brought him the castle at Halton and hereditary constableship of Chester. He was amongst the most powerful men in the north. His sons of the first marriage took their mothers family name Vesci. The son of the second marriage, Robert, married Aubrey de Liscours who was a daughter of the de Lacy family and brought him the lordship of Pontefract. Their eldest grandson took the name de Lacy in order to inherit from his great-uncle. His brother, John FitzEustace went with Hugh de Lacy in Strongbow’s expedition to Ireland and founded the family in Dublin and County Kildare around 1180. The prefix Fitz’ was dropped about 1300.
The family fortunes in Ireland peaked in the 1400s when Sir Edward was Lord Deputy of Ireland and his son, Sir Roland, was Lord Treasurer and Lord Deputy being given the title Lord Portlelster. Thirty years later Sir Thomas, nephew of Sir Roland, was made Lord Kilcullen by Henry VIII and then Viscount Baltinglass. His grandson James, the 3rd Viscount, was a devout Catholic and joined the rebellion against Elizabeth defeating the English army at Glenmalure, on the Kildare-Wicklow border, but later lost his lands and titles. James Eustace’s properties were forfeited but his life was spared when he fled to safety in Rome.
Many Eustaces died in this tragic campaign but some survived with the result that almost half of the Eustaces in the British Isles are of Irish connection. In the 17th century, Sir Maurice Eustace became speaker of the Irish House of Commons and Lord Chancellor of Ireland. He was promised the barony of Cry Eustace or Portlester by Charles II but died before it could be bestowed. Eustace Street in Dublin, is on the site of his town house. His cousin, Maurice of Castlemartin, raised Eustace’s regiment for James II, but on the latter’s abdication, he was attainted and fled to France. Subsequent generations have had distinguished careers in the armed services, six generals and an admiral. Possibly the most outstanding record is that more than twenty have been High Sheriffs of Kildare and Carlow.
The Cornish family divides historically into two groups, one spanning the Cornwall/Devon border of which there are occasional records from the 13th century to the 15th, including the dedication to the parish church of Tavistock to St. Eustachius (the largest of only three so dedicated in England) - A family in St. Budeaux prospered in Elizabethan times and expanded their land holdings far into north Cornwall. There were also namesakes in Bodmin from 1602 onwards. It was in 1702 that the village of Crowan developed into a thriving mining town where Eustaces were very evident. This went on until the collapse of Cornish mining in the mid 19th century. Namesakes were scattered all over the world to utilize their mining skills. Today a visitor from overseas seeking roots in Cornwall will almost inevitably find them in Crowan.
Richard Eustice was born 8 April 1821 in Cornwall Co. England probably came from the area of Crowan parish or Camborne in Cornwall Co. England. He was the son of Richard Eustice and Ann Pooley. He came to the United States about 1840 as many of the mines in Cornwall, England were no longer productive, so he ventured forth with many other downhearted people of Cornwall, to establish his home in the mining areas of the United States. On 3 April 1845 he married Jennifer Carnsew daughter of James Carnsew and Mary Harvey. Jennifer was born 22 May 1825, also in Cornwall, England. They were married by a Justice of the Peace in Galena, Jo Davies County, Illinois. After their marriage they settled around the areas of Hazel Green, Grant County and Benson, LaFayette County in the state of Wisconsin. They apparently moved about a great deal. Tradition says that they had 13 children, but only 9 are on record. Today the descendants of this particular family are very numerous.
The spelling of our name has presented difficulty everywhere, but nowhere as much as in Cornwall.
Several other variations of the name have become commonplace:
Eustance - this variation appears in various early records. It is clearly a variation of the surname Eustace. Captain William S Eustance trained as a boy on the SS Indefatigable and in a career of more than 50 years afloat in Liverpool ships and rose in rank from seaman to senior captain. For his many career accomplishments, he was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 1962.
Stacy - research by the late EFA Master President Donald W Eustace has verified that Stacy is a shortened version of the name Eustace. The name Stacy is fairly prevalent on all three continents where we find Eustaces and other variants. We hope to learn more of our Stacy connections in the future and share these with you.
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