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THE Sackvilles are eminent for their undoubted antiquity; but, what is much better, they have been eminent for ages also for their genius, and intellectual accomplishments.

It is evident as well from the Norman historians as other authorities, that this family was of noble extraction in Normandy, and denominated from a town and seignory of their name in that province of which they were owners.

Herbrand de Salkavilla occurs in Ordericus Vitalis, a as resident in Normandy in 1079, whither he is said to have returned, after having accompanied the Conqueror to England. He had three sons, Sir Jordan de Sackville, Sir William, and Sir Robert; and a daughter Avice, married to Walter, son of Gilbert, founder of the monastery of Alfage in Normandy, by whom she was mother of twelve children, whereof only four survived her, viz. Richard, Jordan, Walter, and Helias, who were in ward to Henry I. who granted the custody of them to Jordan de Salchevilla their uncle, who honourably maintained them four years. b

The said Sir JORDAN de Sackvill was Sewer of England, by grant of William the Conqueror, but 1esided in Normandy, where he died.

Sir WILLIAM Sackvill, the second son of Herbrand, was resident in England, and possessed lands in Braxted, Neyland, and Bures ad Montem in Essex, with one knight's fee in Falley, &c. in Buckinghamshire. He had issue by Albreada, his wife, a

Hist. Norman. p. 605.)
Ex Stemmate, præd.
Ex Chart. Peytonorum.

b Ord. Vit. p. 607.
d Lib. Rub, in Scaccar.
f Lib. Abb. de Colcest. M. S.

son, Sir William Sackvill, and three daughters, who on the son's decease were his heirs, viz. Hodierna, married to Matthew de Gernon; Agnes, to Richard de Anestye; and Beatrix & to William de Glanvil, Lord of Bromholme, in the reign of Henry I. and the founder of the church there.

The issue male of the said Sir William de Sackville thus expiring, Sir ROBERT de Sackville, third son of Herbrand, continued the line, and is the direct ancestor to his Grace the present Duke of Dorset. He was the first of the witnesses to a charter of King Stephen, whilst he was but Earl of Morteign, wherein he gave the church of Lillechurch to the monks of St. John of Colchester; and his name is there wrote Robertus de Salkavilla. Of this Robert it is related, that being beyond the seas, and purposing to come to England with the children of Henry I. it so chanced that the Earl of Morteign, when they should have weighed anchor and put to sea, was, on a sudden, troubled with a looseness in his body, and thereupon he left the ship and went ashore, together with two knights, Sir Robert de Sackville, and Walter, who by that means were preserved, the rest being no sooner at sea, but the ship wrecked on November 26th, 1119, and they all perished, except one, (a butcher) which was occasioned by the excessive drinking of the mariners on board. This Sir Robert Sackville, that same year, 20 Henry I. held the manors of Bergholt, Bures on the hill, and Alfemunston, in Essex, also the manors of Rishangel, Wytham, Melys, Clopton, Briswood, Coton, Drockford, Rudham, Fornham, Faltham, and Wickham, in Suffolk; by the service of one knight's fee of the honour of Eye; and was also seized of another fee in Mendham, in the same county, as a plea in 12 Henry III. shews.1

At length beholding the calamity of the state in the reign of King Stephen, and thinking it time to leave off all thought of secular affairs, he professed himself a monk in the monastery of St. John at Colchester, as his grant to that convent shews; whereby he gave to the monks there, for ever, his manor of Wickham before mentioned, with the consent of his sons and his wife, and by the advice of the archbishop of Canterbury, and the bishops of

Weever's Funeral Monuments, edit. 1613, p. 857.

h Lib. Abb. de Colcest. MS. p. 20.

i Orderic. Vital. in Hist. Norman. p 870.

*Antiq. Lib. Honoris de Eye penes M. Gray Seneschalum ejusd. Honoris. In Lib. Colcest, ut antea.

Plac. 12 Hen. III. Rot. 9 m. 12.

London and Norwich: whereunto signed as witnesses, Earl Eustace, son of the King, Ingellus, Chancellor, Jordan de Salkavilla, and Stephen his brother, sons of the said Sir Robert Sackville; and after his death he was buried in the said monastery.

His wife was Lettice, daughter of Sir Henry Woodvil, Knight," by whom he had also two other sons, Nigell, and Helias de Sackville.

NIGELL de Sackville • was excommunicated by Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury. Rapin mentions this partiticular in his history of the reign of Henry II. and speaking of the arrogance of that prelate, he says,

"Mounting his archiepiscopal chair on Christmas day, (1170, four days before his murder) he solemnly excommunicated Nigell de Sackville, and Robert Brock, both distinguished for their birth and high posts. He accused the former of unjustly detaining a manor belonging to the archbishopric, and the latter of having cut off the tail of a horse that was carrying provisions to his palace."

Helias de Sackville was a witness to Gilbert Earl of Clare's grant of the church of Tunbridge to the monks of Lewes.

Sir JORDAN de Sackville, the eldest, living in the reigns of King Stephen and King Henry II. was a Baron. He confirmed the grant which his father Sir Robert Sackville made of the manor of Wickham to the priory of St. John in Colchester, and added other lands of his own free gift, being wrote Jordanus de Saukevil miles, Baro de Bergholt Saukevil, filius et hæres Roberti Saukevil.

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He was also a benefactor to the abbot and convent of Gristine in Normandy, and a witness to William Mareschal Earl of Pembroke's grant to Carmele priory, in com. Lanc. as also to Barth. de Glanville's confirmation of lands to Bromholme priory, in com. Norf. He took to wife" Hela, daughter of Ralph de Den (and coheir to her brother Robert) lord of the manor of Buckhurst, who gave with her, on her marriage, a hide of land in Waldene, with the church of the said vill, and common of pasture in Sud park, near Chalventune; also the land which Robert Fraunceis held of Sutton's fee, the manor of Saperton, and

n Ex Stemmate, præd. Lib. Colcest. ut supra.

Lib. Prior. de Lewes.
Weever's Fun. Monuments, p. 613.
s Ibid. p. 301.
Ex Charta Rad. de Dene in Stemmate.

Dugdale's Monast. vol. ii. p. 983. • Ibid. p. 633.

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a yard land in Chalventune, with the mansion thereto belonging; and Geyle in Normandy, together with all his right in that country. The said Ralph de Den was grandson of Robert Pincerna, who was living in the twentieth year of William the Conqueror, and held in Chalventune six knight's fees, whereof the manors of Buckhurst, Claverham, Buggeley, Horsey, and Ombeford, are parcel. All which manors the said Hela brought to her husband; and in her widowhood being wrote Ela de Saukeville, daughter of Ralph de Dene, gives licence to the abbot and convent of Otteham for canons of the Præmonstratenses, in Kent, to translate their convent to Begeham, a in the same county, and confirms to them all those lands which her father gave them; viz. the lordship of Otteham, with the chapel, the land called Dudintone and Thorne; as also the land called Telletone, which her brother Robert gave them. She likewise grants, to the said convent, the land which Fulkeri held of her father in Shefford, and Megham Marsh, in the same manner as her great uncle Ralph Dene held it; and all that marsh which was Wluricus's, and the New Marsh, as much as belonged to the said Ralph Dene; whereunto her son Jeffrey de Saukeville was a witness. Which fabric at Begeham, was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and was, for some ages, the burial place of the family.

This Ela had issue Jordan de Saukeville, Richard, Jeffery, Ralph, Guy, and Warrent, who was a witness to the charter of William Sidney, chamberlain to Henry II. And Ralph Sackville, the third son, was Lord of Thorp, in Leicestershire, which now retains the name of Thorp Sachevill, as BURTON has observed in his Antiquities of Leicestershire, p. 286.

Sir JORDAN de Saukeville, the eldest son, is mentioned to be a Baron in the charter of King Richard I. signed at Birmingham (which, as customary in those times, is without date) granting to the monks of Bordesley, in Buckinghamshire, divers privileges. In 2 John, he obtained for himself, and his heirs, a weekly market on Friday; and once a year, a fair on the feast of St. John Baptist, in his town of Sauquevill (as it was then wrote) in Nor

* Hist. Norman. p. 1030.

y Lib. Prior de Lewes, ut supra.

* Monast. Ang. vol. ii. p. 637, and Weever's Fun. Monuments, Edit. 1631, P 318.

• Now Bayham, the seat of Earl Camden.

⚫ Weever's Monuments, p. 319.

c Ex Eviden. Rob. Com. Leicest. d MS. in Bib. Cotton not. Julius, C. 7. p. 22. e Cart. Norman. 2 Jon. n. 18.

f

mandy. He married Clementia, ' daughter of Alberic Vere, Earl of Oxford, but died without issue, in 9 John. And she was secondly married to Viel Engayne, a noble Baron, who, in 27 Henry III. obtained a pardon from the King of a fine of thirty marks; which his father, Viel Engayne, was to pay to the King, as a debt that Clementia de Saukvill owed for the land called Hoo.

RICHARD de Saukeville, brother of Sir Jordan, succeeded, and was also a Baron, but left no issue, so that the estate devolved on Sir JEFFERY de Saukeville, third son of Jordan, who, with Ralph his brother (bearing the surname of Marsey) both lived in the reign of King John, and incurring the King's displeasure, had their estates seized, for regaining whereof, and the King's favour, he paid a fine of three thousand marks. The said Ralph, in 5 Henry III. was possessed of Thorp Sachevile in Leicestershire, so called from his ancestor, who held it by gift of the Conqueror.

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Guy de Sackville, another of the sons of the said Jordan, m was dead in the reign of Henry III. his heir being then found to hold six knights fees in Chalvington, in the county of Sussex.

The before mentioned Sir Jeffery Saukeville confirmed the grants of Jordan his father, and Robert his grandfather, made, as aforesaid, to the abbey of St. John Baptist in Colchester, and held the manor of Buckhurst, the knight's fee of the honour of Eye, and a knight's fee P in Mendham, as in right of descent from his ancestors. He also confirmed, to the abbey of Begeham, the gifts of his grandfather Ralph de Dene, Robert his uncle, and Ela his mother, viz. his grandfather's grant of the lordship of Otteham, with the chapel of the same place; his uncle's gift of the land called Telletune; and his mother Ela's grant of the land at Thorne, and the land called Twisel and Forestrete. issue by his wife Constance, daughter of Sir Edmund Brooke, Knight, Jordan, Guy, and Joan Sackville, married to William St. Leger, of an ancient family in Kent. Robert de Sechevil was probably his son also, to whom King John, in the fifth year of his

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He had

i Lib. Rub. in Scaccario. 1 Burton's Leicest. p, 286. 16. in Bibl Cotton.

Lib. Rub in Scac.

P Placita, 12 Henry III. rot. 9. m. 12.

Monast, Ang, vol. ii. p. 637.

Ex Semmate.

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