Individual

Go to List of Family Names Go to List of People < Previous Next >

DE NEVILLE Gilbert ("the Admiral")
Birth:          ABT 1042 Neville, Normandy
Death:          AFT 1118 Walcot, Lincolnshire, England

Notes
familysearch.org
http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=jweber&id=I11924
Gilbert I de Neville; held in the year 1086 carucates (a carucate was an area of land 
that could be cultivated by an eight-ox plough team throughout a single year) at 
Waltcot, Lincolnshire and Yawthorpe, together with others in that part of England by 
1115-18; kinship is plausible but has not been provern with [son Geoffrey]. [Burke's 
Peerage]

-------------------------

GILBERT, identified as Gilbert DE NEVILLE, in 1086 held in Lincs a carucate, &c., at 
Walcot near Folkingham, and another at Yawthorpe, of the Abbot of Peterborough. 
Presumably the same Gilbert, about 1115-18, held of Peterborough in Lincs 2 
carucates for 2 hides, and found one knight; of the Bishop of Lincoln land in 
Scothern, Reepham, &c.; and in Middle Rasen and elsewhere of Manasser Arsic. 
[Complete Peerage IX:491, transcribed by Dave Utzinger]

-------------------------

The e-mail from Dennis Theriot indicates that many people feel that Gilbert's supposed 
role as William the Conqueror's Admiral of the Fleet is more legendary/contrived than 
historical:

Charles R Young recently wrote a book called "The Making of the Neville Family, 
1166-1400, The Boydell Press, 1996. To quote him: "The first of the Nevilles to 
emerge from obscurity was Alan, who became notorious as a justice of the forest 
under King Henry II after conducting the first comprehensive forest eyre in 1166. 
However, the family was not new to England. Alan's ancestry can be traced to Gilbert 
de Neville listed in the Domesday Book in 1086 as holding Walcot in Lincolnshire from 
Peterborough Abbey. Another Neville named Ralph who also held land from the abbey 
may have been Gilbert's brother and was certainly the ancestor of a related branch of 
the family. Through connections with Peterborough Abbey and lands in Normandy the 
family can be shown to have originated from a place in the duchy called Neville from 
which the surname was derived. In 1125 both Gilbert and Ralph continued to hold 
lands in England from the abbey for the service of one knight and one-third of a knight 
respectively." .... "Gilbert was a minor landholder in Lincolnshire as early as 1086 and 
into the early twelfth century, but there is no real evidence that he had been the 
steward of William the Conqueror and prominent at the Battle of Hastings. This story 
can be dismissed as the invention of later antiquaries anxious to please members of 
the Neville family after the family had become prominent and at a time when descent 
from a companion of the Conqueror carried social prestige."... "The more prosaic 
reality is that Alan's success as chief justice of the forest under Henry II a century 
after the conquest was the first step by any member of the family toward royal service 
and the prominence the family was to obtain in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. 
He set a precedent in royal service that was followed by the next generations of 
Nevilles who held offical positions under the sons and grandson of King Henry." So 
much for "The Admiral".

Dennis Theriot

-------------------------

A reported Companion in arms to William the Conqueror, and by some genealogists, 
Admiral of the fleet of William the Conqueror.

On the spelling of the surname Neville: The Abergavenny branch reject the final "e", 
while the Braybroooke branch retain it. For the sake of further distinction, the Grove, 
Chevet, Holbeck, Skelbrooke and Willingore branchs omit one "L". In the old 
manuscripts, from "de Nova Villa", we get Neuville, Nevylle, Nevyll, Nevyl, Nevill and 
Nevil while the Latimers are frequently styled Nevell, but the prevailing form is Nevyll 
or Nevill.

William the Conqueror was the bastard son of Robert the Devil, Duke of Normandy, 
and Harlotta (or Arlette) daughter of a tanner of Falaise. Richard de Nova Villa was a 
cousin of the Conqueror on his maternal side and he left four sons; Gilbert, Robert, 
Richard and Ralph. From Gilbert de Nevill descends the houses of Westmoreland, 
Warwick, Latimer and Abergavenny. Gilbert de Nevill is claimed by some to have been 
the Admiral of the of the Conqueror's fleet, an uncle of Gilbert, Foulk d'Anou furnished 
40 ships for the fleet.

The Norman family of Nevill came from Teutonic stock. Baldric Teutonicus was Lord of 
Bacqueville en Caux under Duke William. He married a niece of Gilbert Compte de 
Brionne, a grandson of duke Richard I who was regent of Normandy in 1040. The 
fourth son of Baldric Teutonicus was called Richard de Nova Villa, or de Neuville from 
his fife in Neuville sur Tocque in the department of the Orne, arrondissement of 
Argenton, and the canton of Grace. His sister, Hawisia, married Robert Fitz Erneis who 
was slain at Hastings on October 14, 1066.

Evidently there is some evidence from one of Alan's charters granting some land to 
Kirkstead Abbey was given in the presence of the bishop of Lincoln and witnessed by 
Alan's brother Gilbert and Gilberts son Geoffrey. Source: B.L., Cotton Mss., Verpasian 
EXVIII, f. 159v, Gilbert is identified as his brother by Alan in Harley Charters 58 H4

There is evidently a witness list of one of Gilberts charters that names his two sons 
William and Walter and includes Alan, son of Ernise

Parents
DE NOVAVILLA [DE NEVILLE] Richard (Teutonicus) (ABT 1020 - AFT 1066)
----- ----- ()

Siblings
DE NEVILLE Gilbert ("the Admiral") (ABT 1042 - AFT 1118)
DE NEVILLE Ralph (ABT 1050 - AFT 1086)

Marriage To ----- ----- () m. Notes Children by ----- -----
DE NEVILLE Geoffrey (ABT 1083 - AFT 1146) DE NEVILLE Gilbert (ABT 1085 - BEF 1169)
Produced by Fzip 1.7 6/20/2017