William II de Gascoigne born about 1062 in Normandy.
He had a son William born 1089 in Yorkshire.
One historian says this family are descendants of Ailrichus, which is the Latin form of Aethelric, the pre Conquest Bishop of Durham, who was living as a monk at Peterborough Abbey in 1069, when he was taken to Westminster to answer accusations. He died there on 15 October 1072.
According to the Anglo Saxon Chronicle, it was Aethelric’s brother and his successor as Bishop of Durham, Aethelwine, who was outlawed in 1069 Aethelwine returned to England in 1071 with an armed band of outlaws who made a failed attempt to help Hereward the Wake establish a centre of resistance to Norman rule at Ely. Bishop Aethelwine surrendered to William the Conqueror’s forces, and was held captive at Abingdon Abbey in Berkshire, where he died that winter. Presumably the first William Gascoigne may have married a niece or other female relative of the Bishops.
According to Ralph Thoresby’s “Ducatus Leodensis” published in 1816, the information about Ailrichus, and the descent of the Gascoigne family up to the time of parish registers, came from sixteen large sheets of parchment kept at Parlington Hall. In 1696, they were copied and attested by Sir Henry St. George, Norroy King of Arms.