Walter de Claville

Walter I de Claville (floruit 1086) (alias de Clarville and Latinised to de Clavilla) was an Anglo-Norman magnate and one of the 52 Devon Domesday Book tenants-in-chief of King William the Conqueror. He also held lands in Dorset. His Devonshire estates later formed part of the feudal barony of Gloucester.[1]

Origins

He is believed to have originated at any one of the manors called Claville or Clasville in the Duchy of Normandy, namely:[2]

  • Claville near Évreux[3]
  • Claville-Motteville near Yvetot
  • Clasville near Cany Barville

His brother was Gotshelm, also a Devonshire tenant-in-chief, whose estates also later formed part of the feudal barony of Gloucester.[4]

Progeny

It is not known whether he married and left progeny, however Walter II de Claville (supposed by Cleveland to be his grandson[5]) in about 1170 gave many of Walter I's former Domesday Book estates to a priory which he established on his estate of Leigh within his manor of Burlescombe, later known as Canons' Leigh Priory.[6] Furthermore, several of his estates were held in the 13th century by a certain "William de Claville", as recorded in the Book of Fees (see list below).[7]

Succession
Arms of Clavell of Burlescombe: Or, three keys gules.[8] These are canting arms derived from the Latin Clavis, a "key"

Sir William Pole (d.1635) gives the descent of the manor of Lomen Clavill, in the parish of Uplowman, as follows:[9]

  • Walter I de Claville, Domesday Book tenant
  • William I de Claville
  • Sir Walter II de Claville
  • William II de Claville
  • Sir Walter III de Claville
  • Sir William III de Claville
  • Sir Roger I de Claville, who according to Risdon died sans issue and was succeeded by his nephew William Clavell.[10]
  • John I de Claville (brother), heir of Roger I according to Pole. Apparently the John Clavell who according to Risdon was the grandson of William and died in the reign of King Edward III (1327-1377), having been "slain the next day after his marriage, coming from London to these parts, but his wife was conceived with child and brought a son, who had this (Lomen Clavell) and other his father's inheritance".[11] Risdon however gives his son and heir as William.
  • John II de Claville (son), according to Pole.
  • John III de Claville
  • William IV de Claville (son)
  • William V de Claville (son), died without progeny

According to Sir William Pole (d.1635), the male line of the Clavell family was extinguished during the reign of King Richard II (1377-1399).[12] The heir to Lomen Clavell was the Beare family, lords of the nearby manor of Huntsham.[13] There was however at some time a dispute over the inheritance between Thomas Beare and Sir Henry Perchey (alias Percehay).[14] The hamlets of Lomen Clavell and Bukinton Clavell still retained the family's name in the 19th century.[15] According to Pole the arms of "Clavill of Burlescombe" were: Or, three keys gules[16] which are thus canting arms alluding to the Latin clavis, meaning a "key".

In Dorsetshire however the family continued longer than the Devonshire branch and according to Hutchins (d.1773) the Dorsetshire historian: "the family of Clavell could boast an antiquity not to be equalled in this county and very rarely in any other", and was carried on in the male line until the latter half of the 17th century.[17]

Landholdings in Devon

The manors or fees held by Walter I de Claville were recorded as 32 separate entries in the following order in the Domesday Book (with modern-day spellings):[18]

Name of feeParishHundredBook of Fees
tenant-in-chief		Book of Fees
mesne tenant
BywoodDunkeswellHemyockHonour of GloucesterJohn de Claville (whose tenant was Dunkeswell Abbey)
Brampford SpekeBrampford SpekeWonfordHonour of GloucesterAgnes de Esford (i.e. de Ayshford, see below)
Withycombe RaleighWithycombe RaleighEast BudleighHonour of GloucesterWilliam de Claville
West RaddonShobrookeWest Budleighunrecorded TiCunrecorded
Washford PyneWashford PyneWitheridgeunknownHerbert de Pinu
DrayfordWitheridgeWitheridgeHonour of GloucesterJohn le Despencer
SydehamRackenfordWitheridgeunknownHerbert de Pinu[19]
Craze Lowman (Claville Lomene)TivertonTivertonHonour of GloucesterWilliam de Claville
KidwellUplowmanHalbertonHonour of GloucesterWilliam de Claville
MurleyUplowmanHalbertonHonour of GloucesterJohn Lancelevee
CoombeUplowmanHalbertonHonour of GloucesterRobert Avenel
BoehillSampford PeverellHalbertonHonour of GloucesterWilliam de Claville
AyshfordBurlescombeHalbertonHonour of GloucesterAgnes de Esford
AppledoreBurlescombeHalbertonHonour of GloucesterWilliam de Claville
Canonsleigh (Leige)BurlescombeHalbertonUnknown(post 1170 Canonsleigh Priory)
LeonardHalbertonHalbertonHonour of GloucesterDunkeswell Abbey
Bere (possibly Netherton)possibly FarwayColytonunknownunknown
Buckland-Tout-Saints(Woodmanstone in Bearscombe)Buckland-Tout-SaintsColeridgeHonour of GloucesterThomas de Wodemaneston
North PoolSouth PoolColeridgeHonour of GloucesterWilliam de Bykelegh
Lupridge (Colemore)North Huish (formerly in Ermington)StanboroughHonour of GloucesterWilliam de Bykelegh[20]
Leigh (All Hallows Leigh/Leigh All Saints)ChurchstowStanboroughHonour of GloucesterGeoffrey de Insula (de L'Isle)
One virgate in IddesleighIddesleighShebbearHonour of Gloucesterunknown
DowlandDowlandNorth TawtonHonour of GloucesterHenry de Nuny and wife Matilda
Loosedon (Lullardeston)WinkleighNorth TawtonHonour of GloucesterRoger Cole
One virgate in DowlandNorth TawtonNorth Tawtonunknownunknown
Instow (DB:Lohannestov (i.e.Johannes Stow, "John's Church")InstowFremingtonHonour of GloucesterJohn de Sancto Johanne (de St John)[21]
Chetelescote (possibly "Gillscott")possibly Coldridgepossibly North Tawtonunknownunknown
Nimet (Wolvys Nymet/Wolfin)Down St MaryNorth TawtonHonour of GloucesterWalter le Lou (le loup, "wolf")
ShobrookeMorchard BishopCreditonunknownunknown
BurlescombeBurlescombeBamptonunknowngiven c.1170 to Canonsleigh Priory by Walter II Claville[22]
Cicletunknownpossibly Bamptonunknownunknown
Virworthy (held jointly with brother Gotshelm)PancrasweekBlack Torringtonunknownunknown

Landholdings in Dorset

In Dorset he held five manors including East Morden, since known as Morden-Maltravers.[23] According to Hutchins four of the manors held by Walter de Claville in Domesday "seem to have passed at a very early period to a younger son—perhaps before the time of Henry II. Robert de Clavile held a fee in 'Porbica' in the time of Henry I., of which two hides were given to the Abbot of Tewkesbury, probably about 1106, soon after the Monastery of Cranborne became a priory dependent upon the former house. The gift was conferred by charter of King Henry I. In 12 Hen. II., (i.e. 1166 Cartae Baronum) Radulphus de Clavill held one fee in Dorset of Alured de Lincoln, of the "new feoffment", and Robert de Clavile held another of Gerbert de Perci, of the "old feoffment".[24] Tewkesbury Abbey was founded by the Earl of Gloucester and thus is a link to the Honour of Gloucester to which Walter I's Devonshire holdings passed. The arms of the Clavell family of Dorset were: Argent, on a chevron sable three chapeaux or.[25]

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References
  1. Thorn, part 2, chap 24
  2. Thorn, part 2, chap 24
  3. Hutchins' Dorset (quoted by Cleveland): "Which of the places in Normandy called Claville gave name to this family has not been discovered, but there is a village of that name in the Campagne de Neubourg, a little to the west of Evreux, from which it is rather more probable they sprung than from Claville Motteville in the arrondissement of Rouen, mentioned as their original seat, because a great majority of the followers of the Conqueror were drawn from that part of the Duchy that lies Southwards of the river Seine.
  4. Thorn, 2, chap 24; Gotshelm's estates listed in Thorn, 2, chap 25
  5. Cleveland, Battle Abbey Roll
  6. Thorn, part 2, chap 24,15
  7. Thorn, part 2, chap 24, passim
  8. Pole, pp.447, 478
  9. Pole, Sir William (d.1635), Collections Towards a Description of the County of Devon, Sir John-William de la Pole (ed.), London, 1791, p.212
  10. Risdon, Tristram (d.1640), Survey of Devon, 1811 edition, London, 1811, with 1810 Additions, p.69
  11. Risdon, p.69
  12. Pole, Sir William (d.1635), Collections Towards a Description of the County of Devon, Sir John-William de la Pole (ed.), London, 1791, p.511
  13. Pole, p.511; Risdon, p.69
  14. Risdon, p.69; Pole, p.212
  15. Cleveden, Duchess of, Battle Abbey Roll
  16. Pole, p.478
  17. Cleveland, quotingHutchins (d.1773), History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset (1774)
  18. Thorn, 2, chap 24, 1-32; some combined entries expanded into constituent fees
  19. See Thorne, 2, 24,5
  20. Held by same tenant as Pool Thorn, 2, 24,20
  21. Thorn, 2, 24,26 Book of Fees name of manor: Jonestowe
  22. Thorn, 2, 24,30
  23. Cleveland
  24. Cleveland, quoting from Hutchins
  25. Cleveland

Sources
  • Thorn, Caroline & Frank, (eds.) Domesday Book, (Morris, John, gen. ed.) Vol. 9, Devon, Parts 1 & 2, Phillimore Press, Chichester, 1985, part 2 (notes), chapter 24
  • Cleveland, Duchess of (Catherine Powlett), The Battle Abbey Roll with some Account of the Norman Lineages, 3 vols., London, 1889, Vol. III, "Clarvaile"
  • Hutchins, John (d. 1773), History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset, 1774
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