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

Prepared by Michael A. Linton
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Wely : for Vely or Vesli. "Hundfridus (a name more familiar in the form of Humphrey) was a vassal of Ilbert de Laci in Yorkshire, 1086. As 'Umfrido de Villeio,' we find him, before 1100, giving two garbs from the harvest yearly towards the endowment of St. Clement's Chapel in Pontefract Castle. He must have come from one of the places called Villey, in Calvados, in which Lassy also is situated."—A. S. Ellis. Or perhaps from the Norman fief of Vesli, as "Hugue and Guillaume de Vesli" are entered on the Dives Roll. He held in Snidal, Newton, and Ackworth; and two hundred years later we find his descendant of the same name continuing to be the tenant of the Lacies in Yorkshire. Thorner, in that county, was held of the Earl of Lincoln by Sir Humphrey de Veyley, who was likewise Lord of the manor of Owston. He was a benefactor of Selby Abbey, and in 1269 gave Herward-croft, in Holme, to Nostel Priory.—Burton's Mon. Ebor. His son's name was Robert. At about the same date, the name occurs pretty frequently in the Rotuli Hundredorum, where we find John Wiley of Northumberland, Hugh de Wiley and his son Roger of Bedfordshire, John and William de Wyly, of Wiltshire, and Ralph and Thomas de Wylies of Buckinghamshire. Nicholas de Wely, of Batham-Wily, Wilts, occurs in the Testa de Nevitt, where we likewise find he held land at Wyly of William de Dunstanville, and at Langford of the Abbess of Wilton. William de Wylie, at the same date, held in Bucks.