Michael Linton's Bayeux Tapestry: 1066 - A Medieval Mosaic and Puzzles

Wateuil :

"from the village of Vatteville-sur-Seine, of which the Earl of Mellent was chief lord, and where he had a castle. Willielmus de Watevilla is a witness to a charter of Robert de Mellent to the Abbey of Jumieges, about the time of the Norman survey; and he himself gave to that monastery, with the consent of his wife, the church, fair, and tithes of Croixman, in the Pays de Caux."—Gage's Suffolk. It is apparent, from the accompts of the Norman Exchequer Rolls, that in 1195, Vatteville was a Royal residence, when the King hunted in the forest of Vatteville. Among the items furnished by its custodian, Robert d'Appeville, are "four nets to catch wild boars, two tunics for the use of two dog-keepers," &c, &c.

Three De Watevilles are entered in Domesday: William, who held of the King in Essex and Suffolk, and Percinges (Perching) of William de Warrenne, with two other manors—one of which was Brighton—in Sussex; Robert, who held de capite in Surrey, with five manors in other counties, under Richard de Tonbridge; and Richard, an under-tenant in Surrey.

William de Wateville—in all probability the same William who was a benefactor of Jumieges, and the head of the family, held High Rodinges and Hanningfield in Essex; and some of his descendants, "from their abode at Hanningfield, took their denomination from thence, being in old evidences written promiscuously De Hanningfield and De Wateville. Robert was probably either brother or son of that William."—Morant's Essex. According to the same authority, he was the progenitor of the Essex family. He appears as a witness to two deeds in the Bishopric of Durham in the time of Ralph Flambard (1099-1133): and has left his name to the manor of Biddic-Watervile, or South Biddic, in the parish of Houghton-le-Spring; but this would appear to have been his only connection with the North of England. His posterity was seated at Hempstead, one of the two Essex manors that he held of the Honour of Tunbridge, in which Henry III. granted Sir William de Wateville a charter of free warren in 1253. This can scarcely have been the Sir William de Waterville mentioned by Thomas of Gloucester, who, sixty-two years before, went with Coeur de Lion to the Holy Land, and was one of the six knights through whom he sent his challenge to the Soudan. (See Brande.) Both he and his son married heiresses; the latter a daughter of Sir Robert Roos of Radwinter, who bore the uncommon name of Thorema, and was the grandmother of the last of the line, Sir John, and his sister Joan. "Upon his dying without issue, she became the sole heir, and brought with her a considerable estate in marriage to Richard de Mutford, her first husband, about the year 1330. Having no issue by him, she was again married to Sir William Langham, about 1341.

"Of the same family were no less than three Knights Bannerets, all living at the same time in this county in the reign of Edward I., bearing these arms: Sir John de Wateville, Argent three chevrons Gules; Sir Robert de Wateville, the same, within a bordure indented Sable; Sir Roger de Wateville, the same, with a martlet Sable."—Morant's Essex. Sir Roger and Sir Robert were among the famous tilters at the great tournament at Stebenhithe (Stepney) in 1308, with another of the name, Sir Geoffrey Wauteville, who bore for arms: Sable semee of cross crosslets a lion rampant Argent langued Gules.

In Surrey, we find William de Waterville, in 1144, gave the manor of Warlingham, with the consent of Robert, William, and Otwell, his sons, to the convent of Bermondsey; on which either he or his son of the same name bestowed further benefactions in 1158. Hugh de Wateville was Sheriff of Surrey and Sussex in 1155; and in the same year William de Wateville, one of the King's chaplains, was elected Abbot of Peterborough. It is recorded of him that he added three stories to the central tower of his church, furnished the choir, and founded a chapel to St. Thomas of Canterbury—"a bold thing for a chaplain of Henry II. to do." Another William was among the "forty knights and good men" summoned in 1292 by the Sheriff of Surrey "to be at Lambeth to enquire after the malefactors who lately broke into the King's Treasury, and carried away the King's Treasure to the value of,10,000." Two of their manors, Chelsham-Watvyle and Esher-Waterville, are still called by their name in Surrey: and Manning and Bray, in their county history, suggest that it is highly probable the Robert de Merton who founded Merton College in 1264 was of this family. "The Watteviles had large possessions in Northamptonshire and Surrey. The surname of De Merton was an assumed one, probably from his having been educated at that place, which seems to have been the case with his father also. How the Watteviles of Surrey and those of Northampton were connected does not appear." The three chevrons of Merton College were certainly borne on the coat of the Watevilles, but differenced in tincture.

"Thorp Watervile Castelle upon Avon, sumwhat lower than Wndale," as Leland describes it, in Northamptonshire, was most probably built by Azelin de Wateville, "who," says Bridges, "first possessed the lordship." No traces of it are now remaining. It passed in the time of Henry III. to the sisters of Richard de Wateville, who, in 1234, had obtained a grant of free warren in Thorp and Marham. Richard's widow held Marham in dower, and it was transferred by purchase to Reginald de Wateville in 1240. Reginald, again, had no son, and left three co-heiresses, Joan, married to Robert de Vere; Elizabeth, or Petronella, married to John Wykham; and Margaret, married to Henry de Tichmarsh. In 17 Ed. II. Marham belonged to Robert de Wateville."—Bridge's Northamptonshire. Was this—as seems likely—the same Robert who received license of pardon for having been concerned in the death of Piers Gaveston, "the Ganymede of Edward II.," and was a commissioner of array in Hampshire in 1324? Two years afterwards, he "had summons to attend a parliament at Westminster, inter caeteros proceres et magnates regni; and in the 1st, 2nd, and 4th Ed. III., had the like summons with the nobility of the realm. In the 32 Ed. I. (if he be the same person) he had a charter for free-warren at Overton-Waterville, in the co. of Huntingdon: and in the 9th Ed. II. fined forty shillings for license, to give certain lands at Overton-Waterville, and Ashele, in Huntingdonshire, to found a chantry at St. Mary's, at Ashele."—Banks. Nothing is said of his posterity: and no other summons to parliament was ever issued to the family. Several other members of it are incidentally mentioned:—such as Berenger, "one of those great men on the part of the rebel barons, who were taken prisoners by the Royal army at Northampton" and Geoffrey, who in the previous century married Ascelina, the youngest co-heiress of William Peverell of Brune and Dover. He died in 1162, and was, according to Banks, the father of Roger, of Thorp, who had issue. Bridges, on the other hand, declares that his son was Ralph de Wateville, who died s. p. in 1185, leaving as his heirs two sisters, Ascelina, married to—Torpel, and Maud, the wife of William de Diva. In Warwickshire Dugdale speaks of a Roger de Wateville, who held Bramcote under the Earl of Leicester that founded a monastery at Leicester, and bestowed some lands there on the new Abbey. His grant was confirmed by Henry II.