The Battle Abbey Roll. Vol. II.
by
The Duchess of Cleveland.
Prepared by Michael A. Linton
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Griuil : or Greville, from the castle of that name in the Cotentin. "There is another Greville or Graville, in Normandy, but this is the original habitat."[1]—Sir Francis Palgrave. This cannot be intended for the existing family of Greville, Earls of Warwick, who would appear to be a branch of the Grenvilles. Dugdale speaks of their name as "Greyvill or Greynvil (for both ways it is written)," and the arms of Greville are those of Grenville with the tinctures changed and a border added for a difference. They were seated at Drayton in Oxfordshire (the adjoining county to Bucks) which Leland calls "the veri ancient house of the Gravilles": and their ancestor, "John Greville (or Grenville) appears to be the same who is mentioned by Collins as of Wotton in 1308, and whose father John, son of John de Grenville, was living in 1305. There can be little doubt that the present branch sprang from the Grenvilles at about this date, both from the arms and the recurrence of the same contemporary Christian names."—The Norman People. Once only have I succeeded in meeting with a Greville who did not bear the cross and roundels of the Grenvilles. This was Sir Adam de Greyville, whose daughter and heir, Elizabeth, married Sir Humphery Stafford of Hooke, one of the retinue of the Black Prince. His coat was Argent, six lionels rampant Gules, three, two, and one; armed Azure. But in this case even, it may have been adopted through some previous intermarriage with an heiress. The name is spelt "Gravale" in the Rotuli Curiae Regis of 1194-99; and "Grovil" in Poulson's History of Holderness. In the former case I believe it refers to a different family; for I find in Robson's British Herald that Gravell or Gravill bore Gules three buckles Or, and Grauell Argent a lion rampant Azure crowned Or a chief Gules.