John "Monoculus" Fitz Richard of Saxlingham

  General Notes:

~Cockayne's Complete Peerage, (Chart - Family of Lacy & the Earldom of Lincoln), Vol. VII, p. 677, Shown as the father of Payn, William and Eustace. ¹⁴¹

~Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America before 1700, 8th Edition, John Fitz Richard, probably forn before 1056, of age 1076 and living in 1107 ¹⁶⁰

  Information about this person:

• Background Information. ¹⁴¹
John, son and heir, was presumably born before 1056, for about 1076 he suddenly claimed and seized the mill of Vains, but after a trial before the King's Court judgement was delivered against him. As John son of Richard he gave the tithe of Saxlingham, Norfolk, to St. Peter's Abbey, Gloucester, in the time of Abbot Serlon (1072-1103/4). In 1086, described as John nepos W., he was a tenant-in-chief in Norfolk, his estates including the manor of Saxlingham to which the church was appurtenant; and as John nepos Walerami (sic) he held also the single manor of Elsenham ("Alsenham"), in Essex, in chief, and a carucate and a half at Saxlingham of the abbot of St. Benet of Holme. He is said to have been given the advowson of Hockham, Norfolk, by Roger Bigod (died 1107). Nothing is known of his marriage, death or burial.

John had at least three sons and two daughters. His son Payne was his son and heir. His second son, Eustace, was the heir of his brother Payne. William Fitz John became an officer of Henry I like his brothers and acted as on of his stewards and a justiciar in Normandy. John's three daughters were Alice, Abbess of Barking before 1137; and Agnes, who married Roger de Valognes and was a widow in 1185. Agnes's age suggests that she may have been a daughter of John's second wife.

~Cockayne's Complete Peerage, (Vescy), Vol. XIIB, pp. 269-270

Dugdale, citing Gover's collections, stated that Eustace Fitz John's father John was called 'monoculus.'

~Cockayne's Complete Peerage, (Appendix B), Vol. XIIB, p. 11

John married Cecily.