Neile

This may possibly stand for "Neel-le-Viconte," as he is styled in the Chronicle of Normandy, the famous Neel de St. Sauveur "called, on account of his valour and skill, his bravery and noble bearing, Chef de Faucon—Noble Chef de Faucon was his title."—Wace. He ruled a great Norman fief as Viscount of the Cotentin, and led the men of his territory at the Battle of Hastings, where he "exerted himself much to earn the love and good will of his lord, and assaulted the English with great vigour. He overthrew many that day with the poitrail of his horse, and came with his sword to the rescue of many a baron."—Ibid. The cri de guerre of the men of the Cotentin, he tells us, was "St. Sauveur! St. Sauveur! Sire de St. Sauveur!" Yet his French commentator, M. Le Prevost, doubts whether Neel was actually present on the occasion. "His presence at Hastings is vouched by no one else. Domesday is silent: but this does not appear conclusive, as he might have died in the interval, and M. de Gerville quotes on the subject M. Odolent Desnos, Histoire d'Aleneon, where it is stated that Neel was killed in 1074 in a battle near Cardiff. The last Neel de St. Sauveur died in 1092, as appears by an account of his relation, Bishop Jeffrey de Mowbray's desire to attend his funeral: Mem. Ant. Norm. i. 286, ii. 46. One of his two daughters and heiresses married Jourdain Tesson; the other was mother to Fulk de Pratis."—Taylor.

Though Neel le Vicomte is not entered in Domesday, the name is there amply represented. Two Nigels held by barony; Nigel de Stafford (see Toesni) and Nigellus Medicus, the Conqueror's physician, who had estates in Hants, Wilts, Hereford, Shropshire, &c. Eight others were sub-tenants; Nigel homo Episcopi Dunelmensis in Lincolnshire: Nigel homo Episcopi Linc. in Notts; Nigel homo Ivonis Taillgebosc and Nigel homo Juditae Comitisstae both again in Lincoln; Nigellus quidam serviens Rotberti Comitis de Moritania, Nigellus Miles, a vassal of Roger de Poitou, and two other Nigels, both very richly endowed, whom I suspect to be one and the same person, as the entries exactly correspond in many cases.

Nigel, the vassal of the Earl of Mortaine, held, jointly with Richard de Surdeval, the whole of his Yorkshire lands, by what rent or service is not known. "This Nigel is called Nigel Fossard. He was the ancestor of a race of Lords of Doncaster who continued to possess the interest he enjoyed there till the reign of King Henry V. His rights are now vested, by a grant of King Henry VII. in the corporation of Doncaster. The name of the Earls of Mortaine does not afterwards appear, but the descendants of Nigel are represented as holding in chief of the king, and were amongst the barons of the realm.

"Nigel held much of the Mortaine lands in other parts of the county. Besides the manor and soke of Doncaster, he had Rotherham, held of him by the family of Vesci."—Hunter's South Yorkshire.

"How he acquired the name of Fossard, which means more frequently grave-digger than ditcher, does not appear. It might have become a family surname, though, of course, with this meaning when first given. 'Fossarius' holds lands of the Count of Mortaine at Berkhempsted (Domesd.)."—A. S. Ellis. Nigel held in all ninety-one Yorkshire manors: and "as became one so favoured by fortune, was a most liberal benefactor to St. Mary's Abbey, York. His charter is witnessed by Robert Fossard, Aschitell de Bulmer, and Walter Fossard; the first and last, no doubt, being his own sons, the younger one giving precedence to an important tenant. This grant is so prodigal, that we may suspect it was made on his death-bed when stricken with remorse (Old Mon. i. 394).

"Robert Fossard succeeded his father, and, by heavy fines, regained all his lands, except Doncaster, after the forfeiture of William Count of Mortaine, and became a tenant in capite of them. Doncaster, the King retained for twenty years."—Ibid.

Hunter, likewise, calls Nigel Fossard's son Robert, and says his grandson and great-grandson were both named William. Dugdale arranges the succession differently, inserting Adam Fossard as the next heir to Nigel, and thus making Robert his grandson. But all authorities are agreed that the line ended with a William Fossard in the fourth generation. Their barony, in 1165, consisted of thirty-four knight's fees. One of them had done good service with "the stout Northern Barons" at the Battle of the Standard, and been taken prisoner with King Stephen at Lincoln. The last William served in the French war of 1173, and followed the King to Normandy in 1194. His only daughter and heiress Joan was the wife of one of the heroes of Coeur de Lion's crusade, Sir Robert de Turnham, whose feats of arms in the East are chronicled by Peter de Langtoft, a rhyming Yorkshire monk—

"Robert de Turnham se mene noblement,
La terre souz maryne ad conquis nettement."

He was one of the commanders of the fleet at the siege of Cyprus in 1191, and afterwards Governor of the island. The King, on his arrival at Jaffa, despatched him and five other of his best knights with a challenge to the Soudan, inviting the infidel to come out to meet him in the open field, and cross swords in single combat. "When the King was in prison in Germany, Sir Robert was sent with the King's harness to England, and for his good service in this journey was discharged of his share of the levy for the King's ransom. On the death of King Richard he delivered up to John the castle of Chinon, where the treasure lay: and having founded an abbey at Begham in Sussex, died about 1210."—Hunter. This brave knight had no son, and his daughter Isabel—the second heiress of Doncaster—was reserved to an ignoble fate.

According to Dugdale, she was the guerdon given by King John to Peter de Manley for the murder of his nephew Arthur.

The old castle of the Fossards at Doncaster had disappeared even in Leland's time. "The Chirche of S. George," he tells us, "stands in the very area wher ons the Castelle of the towne stoode, long sins clene decayid. The dikes partely yet to be seene, and foundation of parte of the waulles."

The author of "The Norman People" believes this to have been "a Frank, rather than a Norman family, perhaps from Fossard, near Fontainebleau:" thus happily dispensing with the unsavoury derivation from Fossarius, or grave-digger.

-- Cleveland