From Bolbec near Dieppe, a baronial family. Osborne Giffard, baron of Bolbec, m. c. 960 Ameline, sister of the Duchess Gunnora of Normandy, and had 1, Walter; 2, Geoffry, ancestor of the viscounts of Arques and Rouen. See Saville, Arch. Walter was ancestor of Walter Giffard, who came to England 1066, and became Earl of Buckingham. His brother, Hugh de Bolbec, was a baron in Bucks, &c., 1086 (Domesd.). This barony is said by Dugdale (Bar. i. 452) to have passed to Isabel, d. of Walter, son of Hugh; but two generations have been omitted, for Isabel was living t. Henry III. Hugh de Bolbec possessed a barony in Northumberland by gift of Henry I. From him descended Walter de B., who held the barony 1165 (Lib. Niger). Walter, his son or grandson, d. c. 1205, leaving Hugh his brother and heir, whose son John d. 1262, leaving coheiresses (Dugd.; Hodgson, Northumberland). The Northumberland branch appears also to have possessed the barony in Bucks, &c.