1. Torf. According to Robert of Torigny (GND, viii. c. 37), Torf was the father of Turold and Turchetil (see also OV ii. 12). It is wrongly assumed that this Turchetil was a forefather of the Harcourts; he died childless, passing his estate to his great-nephew, Asketil (cart. Preaux, fol. 97v; CP xi. Instr., col. 201 a. d., Du Monstier, Neustria Pia, p. 522, 1663). Turold mar. Duvelina de Crepon, sister of Gunnor, the wife of ‘Duke’ Richard; they were ancestors of the Beaumont family of Pont-Audemer, and, according to Auguste le Prevost, of the Harcourts, with Turold and Duvelina being the parents of both Onfroi de Vieilles (GND vii. 1. 3.), and Turchetil. (See Ordericus, ed. Prevost, vol. i., p. 180; ii. pp. 14, 369, 370; iii. pp. 42, 229).
1.1. Turchetil.
1.2. ‘Turoldis teneri ducis pedagogus perimitur’ (Will. Gemet, VII.).
1.2.1. Hunfrid (Onfroi de Vieilles, alias Vetulis or Vaux, lord of Vieilles; a small commune in the canton of Beaumont, arrondissement of Bernay.
1.2.1.1. Roger de Beaumont; Asketil, his dapifer, being a junior kinsman. 1087-1095. Notification that “in the reign of Robert son of William king of the English, Roger de Beaumont gave, etc. The same day he gave to St. Peter, Preaux, 20 pounds of English money annually from the tithe of his revenues oversea, etc. Signa Roberti comitis de Mellent; Ricardi Wanescrot; Ricardi fiii Teoderici; Anchetilli pincerna; Willelmi Stutaville”.

1.2.1.1.1. Robert de Beaumont, Ist Earl Leicester.
1.2.1.1.1.1. Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl Leicester, founder of Garendon in 1133, to which donated his kinsmen, Hugh de Berges, and his son, Asketil.
1.2.1.2. ‘Rodbertus de Bellomonte, filius Unfredi‘. 1066-1087. Notification that “in the reign of William I. and by permission of Robert son of Humfrey de Vieilles a certain knight, Gilbert by name, having no heir, gave to St. Peter a gift of his whole inheritance, namely all that he had in the vill of Conde. Of this is witness Roger of Beaumont who with his own hand placed the gift of the said honour on St. Peter’s altar”.
1.2.1.2.1. Rogerius de Tetboldivilla. Le Prévost, Hist. of Saint-Martin du Tilleul, vol. 8: “The genealogy of the family of Thibouville is partly given by a charter of 1150, concerning Guillaume de Thibouville, first of that name. This lord is firstly mentioned in the confirmation by Henry I, in 1131, of donations from Count Galeran in favour of the Holy Trinity. It recounts: Homines comitis Mellenti: Willelmi filius Roberti (William, lord of Harcourt), Willelmi of Thibovilla, etc. Guillaume de Thibouville is precisely in the same rank among the witnesses of the confirmation by Count Galeran of a chirograph of Hugue de Meulan, his great-uncle, in favour of Saint-Wandrille: Ego Gualerannus, comes Mellenti, praescriptam donationem praedecessorum meorum concedo and hoc signo meo confirmo. Testibus: Willelmo, filio Roberti (Harcourt), and Willelmo de Teboldivili, and Roberto Bigoto, and … (Bibl. Nat., Ms 5425, 69). In these accords the lord of Thibouville occupies the first place among the vassals Guillaume d’Harcourt, who preceded him as witness, (and) was a member of the family of the lord suzerain.
Thibouville, between Neubourg and Harcourt, was the cradle of this family, probably as a result of some alliance. Fontaine la Soret, an important passage on the Risle, soon became its second settlement.
The first recorded personage of this house was called Robert. He is known only to us as the father of Roger de Thibouville: “Rogerius filius Roberti of Tetboldi Villa, Rogerius of Tetboldivilla“. This character, a contemporary of Robert de Beaumont, Earl of Meulan, left only a small number of historical records. What we know about him is nevertheless enough to constitute a magnificent illustration of the history of a Norman family: we believe that he was present at the battle of Hastings. It is not that we find his name on the very defective lists of the Norman warriors who took part in this great event; but because it seems impossible to explain in any other way the possession in England of the property of which he conceded shortly afterwards to the abbey of Bec. It is quite natural, moreover, that he should have followed in this expedition Robert de Beaumont, his contemporary, and the son of his suzerain. We can see a testimony of the relations which would have existed between them in the creation of this fief of Thibouville. Guillaume de Thibouville, who appears to have been his son, a contemporary of Count Galeran, is mentioned in a charter in favour of the priory of St. Gilles de Pont-Audemer, dated to 1150, in which he donates “Terram de Fonte”.* His son was Robert de Thibouville, one of the signatories of the treaty with the Count of Flanders, in 1197, with Amauri, his brother. *Fontaine-la-Soret.
1.2.1.2.1.1. Guillaume de Thibouville.

1.2.2. Turchetil.
1.2.2.1. Asketil (de Harcourt) de Rieu, gave the abbey of Tréport, c. 1060, the tithes of ‘decimam suam de Riu’. (Carlularium sanctae Trinilatis, p. 425). He is noted as ‘senis’, distinguishing him from his son.
1.2.2.1.1. Hugues de Rieu, confirmed his father’s gifts to Treport. At Domesday, he held Rotingedene (near Bergemere, contracted to Burg and Berges) from William de Warenne. His son, William de Warenne, 2nd Earl of Surrey (d. 1138), m. Isabelle de Vermandois, widow of Robert de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Leicester, whose son founded Garendon.
1.2.2.1.1.1. Anscherio de Moncellis. In Easter of 1107, before the barons of king Henry, he gave witness in a dispute concerning fisheries, donated to Treport by Robert d’Eu. He may have been the Ansketil de Jorz who is recorded in England in 1110 and who (it is suggested) is synonomous with the “nobis Aschetillus dispensator” and his son “Galfridus” noted by Bridgeman (The Burton Abbey Twelfth Century Surveys, Collections for a History of Staffordshire, p. 225, 1918). Sometime during the period 1133- 48, as “Asketillus de Berges,” he gave four carucates of the land of Burton to the Abbot and Convent of St. Mary at Garendon, the charter being witnessed by Robert, Earl of Leicester, and Ives de Harcourt, who d. 1148. (B.M. MS Lansdowne 415, folios 8, 31v.).
1.2.2.1.1.1.1. Geoffrey le Despenser (‘Gaufrido dispensatore’), ‘dispensarius’ to the Earl of Chester.
1.2.2.1.1.1.1.1. Thomas le Despenser, donated to Garendon as ‘Tomas Dispensator, filius Gaufridi Dispensatoris’. (John Nichols, The History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester, vol. III, part 2, 1804).
1.2.2.1.2. Asketil. D.B.: The Land of the Count of Eu, Bexill Hundred: ‘Ansketil of Rieux 1/2 hide‘.

The English Harcourts:
1.2.2.1.2.1. Robert fitz Anschetil, ob. 1118 (ctl. Preaux, fol. 102v). Held Norman fiefs.
1.2.2.1.2.1.1. William fitz Robert, fl. 1149 (P.R. 31 H. 1). Granted Stanton-under-Bardon, Leic., to Garendon Abbey, founded by Robert de Beaumont (cart. Garendon, fols. 5v., 15v.).
1.2.2.1.2.1.1.1. Robert fitz William, mar. Eve Crispin, da. of baron of the Vexin Normande, Joscelin Crispin.
1.2.2.1.2.1.2. Ivo de Harcourt. He ratified the confirmation of his brother, William, of their father’s gifts to Garendon (ctl. Garendon, fol. 15v.; Nichols’ Leic. vii.). ‘In 1148, William de Harcourt, with the consent of his brother and heir, Ivo (pincerna), and mother, Agnes, alienated to Garendon the manor of Stanton-under-Bardon, which was specifically their patrimonium’ (Benjamin Thompson, Monasteries and Society in Medieval Britain, p. 107, 1999). It was Ivo who was the progenitor of the English line of Harcourts.

copyright m stanhope 2017