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

Prepared by Michael A. Linton
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Watelin : for Wacelin or Gacelin. "Gacelin, or Wazelin, probably a noble of Anjou, held lands from Geoffrey de Wirce in Lincoln 1086. John Wascelin was of Lincoln 1189, and Reginald held of Crevecoeur (Testa de Nevill). Geoffry Gascelyn was summoned to parliament by writ, 1259."—The Norman People. This must have been the Geoffrey Watelin or Wacelin entered in the, Hundred Rolls, c. 1272, as seated in Norfolk, who was a benefactor of Jerveaulx Abbey; but I can find no record of his barony either in Dugdale or Banks. Another of the name, Roger Wacelyn, occurs in the Testa as holding a knight's fee of the Honour of Hastings. The family continued in Lincolnshire for a considerable time. Richard de Wacelyn or Walkelin, 28 Hen. III., held in Foteburne, in that county, by the serjeanty of finding (with two others) one balistar, with six quarrels and a sumpter horse, in the King's army, for forty days.—Blount's Tenures. John Wascelyn, and his son, Dom. Robert—perhaps the same Robert who witnesses William de Mandevilie's grant to Waltham—are mentioned there at about the same period (Rot. Hundred.): and in the reign of Henry IV., William Wacelyn's name is appended to one of the charters of Newland Abbey, Lincoln. Unfortunately there is no county history to which we can refer for details; nor do I find any but the most cursory and disconnected notices of them elsewhere. Yet it is abundantly clear that they were pretty numerous, and widely distributed. Walter Wacelin, of York, t. Ed. I. (ibid.), is evidently the "Mons. Waut. Gacelyn, De la compaignie Mons. Eymar de Valence," who served at the siege of Stirling in 1303. At about the same date, there was an Andrew Wacelyn in Norfolk, and an Edmund Gacelyn, Warden of Clarendon Forest, in Wiltshire (Hoare's Wilts). Compton-Wascelin bears the name in Hampshire. The arms of "Sire Simond Gacelin," as given in Guillim's Roll, are Or six billets Azure, and a label of five points. Two other notices of very ancient date are to be found of them in the Monasticon. William Wascelin witnesses David Earl of Huntingdon's foundation charter of Londres Abbey, Scotland (this must have been previous to 1124, when he succeeded to the throne on the death of his brother Alexander): and somewhat later in the same century we meet with John Wascelyn in Ireland, as a witness to Theobald Fitz Walter Pincerna's foundation charter of Arklow.