A Genealogy of the Buford Family in America - With Records of a Number of Allied Families #219953

By referring to the extracts given below from old English wills and deeds, it will be seen that the pro genitors of the Bufords in America were in England long before John of Gaunt adopted the name of Beau fort 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 thetitle of Duke of Somerset. This family became extinct with the John, who was exiled to France, and was killed in the Battle of Tewksbury, in 1471. An illegitimate branch of this family was given the name of Somerset, 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.