The earliest record found to date is of a William I de Gascoigne, born about 1035 in Poitiers, Vienne, Aquitaine. Thought to have been the illegitimate son of Eudes Poitou which is why for religious reasons he did not succeed to Dukedom of Gascony. His mother may have been Gersende de Gascoigne.
William married about 1061 and died in Yorkshire about 1098. Most likely came over at the time of the Norman Conquest or the ‘Harrying of the North’ with his Poitou relative Roger the Poitevin who was given vast estates by King William which included Weeton, near Harewood.
First found in Yorkshire where they were seated from very early times and were granted lands by Duke William of Normandy, their liege Lord, for their distinguished assistance at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 AD.
Courtesy of Wikipedia:
Aquitaine is one of the 27 regions of France, in the south-western part of metropolitan France, along the Atlantic Ocean and the Pyrenees mountain range on the border with Spain. It is composed of the 5 departments of Dordogne, Lot et Garonne, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Landes and Gironde. In the Middle Ages Aquitaine was a kingdom and a duchy, whose boundaries fluctuated considerably.
