Origin and early history of the
Mandeville family
Niall C.E.J. O’Brien
The family of de Mandeville came from the town of Magneville (Manche
Department) in the Cotentin Peninsula in Western Normandy.[1] On
the other side of the Duchy the town of Manneville in Normandy, near Rouen is
also a candidate for the family name.[2] It
is not clear when members of the family came to England after the conquest of
1066. Certainly Geoffrey de Mandeville had acquired considerable estates there
by the time of the Doomsday Survey of 1086. In Buckinghamshire, Geoffrey had
temporary occupied part of the manor of Bertram de Verdun, ancestor of the Verdun family of County Louth Tower of London
Arms of Geoffrey de Mandeville, Earl of Essex
Geoffrey II fought with King Stephen against the Empress Matilda in the
civil war of circa 1140. Geoffrey was created Earl of Essex in February 1141 by
Stephen and this was confirmed by Matilda in June. He married Rohese de Vere,
sister of Aubrey de Vere, first Earl of Oxford. The couple had three sons. The
eldest son, Ernulf, was disinherited and exiled for backing King Stephen in the
late war.[6] By
1156 he had managed to acquire land at Highworth, Wiltshire. In 1218 another
Ernulf de Mandeville in Essex was in debt by £300 to William de St. Michael.[7] Ernulf’s
grandson or great-grandson, Ralph de Mandeville held the manor of Highworth in
1280 and his son, Thomas succeeded. This family produced many additional
branches.[8]
Geoffrey’s second son, Geoffrey III became second Earl of Essex and was
succeeded in 1166 by his younger brother William as third Earl. William was
active in the court of Henry II and witnessed many royal deeds including the
granted of the abbey and lands of Mellifont to the monks there c.1177.[9] In
that year he went on crusade to the Holy Land and returned to become chief
justiciar of England
under Richard I. William died without issue in 1189.[10]
The Earldom of Essex passed to his kinsman, Geoffrey Fitz Peter (died 1213),
grandson of Beatrice de Mandeville, William’s aunt. Two of Geoffrey’s sons
succeeded to the Earldom and both took the name of de Mandeville.[11]
The eldest son, Geoffrey and fifth Earl (died 1216), married Isabella,
Countess of Gloucester as her second husband. She was a former Queen of England
as wife of King John. Her ex had arranged the marriage so as to extract a large
fine from his former wife’s property.[12]
Geoffrey’s brother, William, became sixth Earl and died in 1227 after which
time his nephew, Humphrey de Bohun (2nd Earl of Hereford), became
Earl of Essex in a new creation. It is interesting to note that Robert Devereux
(died 1601), Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
and second Earl of Essex of a new creation, was a fourteenth generation
descendent from Humphrey.
Other records say that in 1263-4 Nigel de Mandeville held a quarter
knight’s fee at Sautre and Pappeworth in Huntingdon of the honour of Lovethot
and a half fee of the king. At Suho in Huntingdon John de Mandeville held a
third fee with reversion to the Earl of Gloucester. In 1271-2 Richard de
Mandeville held a third part of Swaneburn mills in Sussex with his wife Maud as
her dower lands.[13]
In about 1100 another de Mandeville family came to England in the form
of two brothers; Geoffrey and Roger. They travelled in the company of their
feudal lord, Richard de Redvers as followers of Prince Henry, youngest son of
William the Conquer, when Henry seized the throne of England
to become Henry I. Geoffrey got land in Dorset and on the Isle of Wight from
the Redvers family and died c.1119. He had two sons; Ralph and Robert. The
latter’s great great-grandson; Geoffrey de Mandeville, held land in Devon,
Wiltshire, Somerset and Dorset
at his death in 1269. His great-grandson, Robert de Mandeville was outlawed in
1307 and lost most of his estates.[14]
The second brother, Roger de Mandeville received lands in Devon from the
Redvers family and the manor of Erlstoke in Somerset from King Henry I, along
with other property in that county. His son Stephen de Mandeville fought for
the Empress Matilda in the civil war and against his kinsman, the Earl of
Essex. Between 1141 and 1155 Stephen consented to a grant by the widow of
Robert de Mandeville and her son, Geoffrey, of land in Normandy to Montebourg Abbey.[15]
Among a selection of other people called de Mandeville who operated in the
south-west of England in the 12th and 13th century
include; Hugh de Mandeville owner of Luccombe manor, Isle of Wight. He was the
father of Simon who was prior of Quarr Abbey and gave property in Somerset to Savigny Abbey
c.1155-61. Roger de Mandeville gave Devon land
to Launceston Priory with the consent of his daughter and heir, Sybil in 1162.
Peter de Mandeville witness a number of Devon charters between 1173 and 1191,
while Roger de Mandeville witnessed an Isle of Wight
charter around 1192.[16] In
about 1270 John de Mandeville was lord of Assebyr, Hele and Sprey in Devonshire
which he held from Isabel, Countess of Albemarle.[17]
A number of people
bearing the Mandeville name crossed over to Ireland and an account of their
activities came be found at http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2014/08/biographies-of-some-of-de-mandeville.html
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[1] Bearman, R. (ed.), Charters
of the Redvers family and the Earldom of Devon 1090-1217 (Devon &
Cornwall Record Society, New Series, Vol. 37, 1994), p. 38 accessed on 24th
August 2014
[2] Hull, P.L. (ed.), The caption
of seisin of the Duchy of Cornwall, 1337 (Devon & Cornwall Record
Society, New Series, Vol. 17, 1971), p. 168
[3] Hagger, M., The Fortunes of a
Norman Family: the De Verduns in England, Ireland and Wales, 1066-1316 (Dublin,
Four Courts Press, 2001), p. 22
[4] Round, J.H., ‘Geoffrey de Mandeville’ in the old Dictionary of National Biography
(Oxford, 1917-), vol. 12, pp. 907-8
[5] Bates, Rev. E.H. (ed.), The
Particular Description of the County
of Somerset by Thomas Gerard of Trent , 1633 [Somerset
[6] Round, ‘Geoffrey de Mandeville’ in the old D.N.B., vol. 12, pp. 907-8
[7] Dryburgh, P. & Hartland, B. (eds.), Calendar of Fine Rolls of the Reign of Henry III, Volume 1, 1216-1224
(London, 2007), nos. 3/282, 4/289
[8] Farr, M.W. (ed.), Accounts
and Surveys of the Wiltshire lands of Adam de Stratton [Wiltshire Record
Society], vol. 14 (1959), p. xix; Pugh, R. (ed.), Court Rolls of the Wiltshire Manors of Adam de Stratton [Wiltshire
Record Society], vol. 24 (1968), p. 192
[9] Sweetman, H.S. (ed.), Calendar
of Documents relating to Ireland
[10] Hepworth, W., ‘William de Mandeville’ in the old D.N.B., vol. 12, pp. 914-5
[11] Hepworth, W., ‘Geoffrey Fitz Peter’ in the old D.N.B., vol. 7, pp. 192-4. Beatrice’s husband was William de Say. It’s
possible that the John de Say, sheriff of Tweskard in Ulster, c.1282 and friend
of the de Mandeville family there, was a relation.
[12] Sharp, M. (ed.), Accounts of
the Constables of Bristol Castle [Bristol
[13] Sharp. J.E.E.S. (ed.), Calendar
of Inquisitions Post Mortem, Vol. 1, Henry III (Liechtenstein, 1973), nos. 530
(p. 161), 812 (p. 279)
[14] Bearman (ed.), Charters of
the Redvers family [D. & C. Rec. Soc.], new series, vol. 37 (1994), pp.
38, 178; London, V. (ed.), The Cartulary
of Canonsleigh Abbey [D. & C. Rec. Soc.], new series, vol. 8 (1965), p.
xxx; Bates, Rev. E.H. (ed.), The
Particular Description of the County of Somerset [Somerset Record Society],
vol. 15 (1900), p. 81
[15] Bearman (ed.), Charters of
the Redvers family [D. & C. Rec. Soc.], new series, vol. 37 (1994), pp.
38, 67, 180-1; Hobbs, S. (ed.), The
Cartulary of Forde Abbey [Somerset Record Society], vol. 85 (1998), no. 42
[16] Bearman (ed.), Charters of
the Redvers family [D. & C. Rec. Soc.], new series, vol. 37 (1994), pp.
67, 88-9, 112, 189; Hull, P.L. (ed.), The
Cartulary of Launceston Priory [D. & C. Rec. Soc.], new series, vol. 30
(1987), nos. 74-5
[17] Landon, L. (ed.), Somersetshire
Pleas (41st Henry III to the end of his reign), volume II (Somerset
Record Society, Vol. 36, 1923), pp. 118,
125
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