The Battle Abbey Roll. Vol. I.
by
The Duchess of Cleveland.

Prepared by Michael A. Linton
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Beteuile : Bertevile in Duchesne's copy; Bretteville, as it is twice given by Leland. In the Liber Niger it is spelt, as here, Betevile: for we there find Ralph de Betevill holding one fee of Hubert de Rie in Norfolk.

The barony of Bretteville was near Caen, and had been granted by the Duchess Gunnor to Mont St. Michel.—Recherches sur le Domesday. The name is entered among the "Gentilshommes Normands" in the Nobiliaire, as Sieurs de Francourt, bearing D'azur a trois glands d'or.

Gilbert de Bretteville was a Domesday baron, holding lands in Hampshire, Wiltshire, Oxfordshire, and Berkshire. The Hampshire Estate was in the hundred of Andover (the "Anna" country), for the most part on the Wiltshire border, at Bramshill, Stratfieldsaye, &c, and he likewise owned three houses at Southampton, of which the Conqueror granted him the customs.—Woodward's Hants. Of his posterity we hear nothing; but it seems likely that the William de Bretteville of Oxfordshire entered in the Rotuli Cancellarii of 1202, was his descendant. Hugh de Bretteville, in 1165, held half a fee of the old feoffment of Simon de Beauchamp in Bedfordshire; and in 1316 William de Bretteville, Bretvile, or Brutteville, senior, was one of the Lords of Barford in Bedfordshire and Yafforth in Yorkshire, and received a writ of summons to serve against the Scots in 1322. His son, William de Bretteville, junior, attended the great Council held at Westminster two years afterwards.—Palgrave's Parliamentary Writs. Four of the name are found in the Testa de Nevill: Eustace de Brutvil, who held, or had held, Bromley in Surrey; Galfrid de Bretteville, in Bettislow Wapentake, Lincolnshire: Robert, in the same county, holding one fee of John de Bayeux and another of the Archbishop of York; and Guy de Bretteville, a tenant of Reginald de Valletort's in Devonshire, holding eight knight's fees of his Honour of Totness.