Buford History Page

PRE-AMERICAN HISTORY AND EXTRACTS FROM WILLS AND DEEDS

BEAUFORT, BEAUFORD, BUFFORD AND BUFORD

The name Beaufort , or as it came to America, Beauford, is French, and as a family name extremely rare, being essentially a place name, meaning "beautiful fort or castle." It grew into a family name during the Eleventh and Twelfth centuries, from the ownership of such places, the lords or masters being spoken of as "de Beaufort," of, or belonging to, the beautiful castle.

The given names of both the English and American families, such as John, Thomas, William, Richard and Robert, are Norman, and came to England with the North men.

By referring to the extracts below from old English wills and deeds, it will be seen that the progenitors of the Bufords in America were in England long before John of Gaunt adopted the name Beaufort for his children or the French Huguenots had emigrated.

John of Gaunt came into possession of the castle of Beaufort, in the Province of Anjou, in France, at the close of the Thirteenth century, and from it named his children by Catherine Swinford "Beaufort." with the title of Duke of Somerset. This family became extinct with the John who was exiled to France and killed in the Battle of Tewsburg, in 1470. An illegitimate branch of this family was given the name of "Somerest," and in 1682 the title Duke of Beaufort.

There has been, from the earliest day, a tradition in the family in America that they were descendants of John of Gaunt; but this could be only through the female side of the house, and they could then have no legitimate claim to the name of Beaufort, and could come by it only by adoption.

Beaufort City and County, South Carolina, were evidently so-called in honor of the Duke of that name, one of the "Lords Proprietors," whose descendants still own vast estates in Somerset and Wales, though mortgaged and impoverished of later generations to the extent that the present incumbent of the title recently felt compelled to put up huge tracts, forests and ruined castles for sale at public auction in order to secure for himself a regular meal ticket. The small town, Beaufort, in Monmouth shire, England, is located in the heart of the ducal ancestral domain, and Raglan and Chepstow castles were two of the magnificent ruins auctioned off and falling to bids of Yankee millionaires a few years since.

The French Beauforts originated with the children of Henry IV and Gabrille dÕEstrees, who became Duchesse de Beaufort, from an estate of the name in Champagne, France, which belonged to her family in 1590 to 1600 - too late for the English Buffords to be descended from them. Some members of this family, French Huguenots to England after the edict of Nantes, and their descendants are still found in that country and this. They are "Beauforts," having never changed the spelling of their name.

The first English Beauforts came over with William the Conqueror, and got their name, as did the Dukes of Beaufort, in Belgium, in the Tenth century, from the Castle of Beaufort, in Namur, Belgium.

If they brought any titles with them, none have survived in England, and they became knights, dignitaries of the church, merchants, husbandmen, yeomen, and men of position in every walk of life.