Treylly

From the castle of Trely, in La Manche. "Two barons of this name appear in England, sub-tenants of the great Honour of Verdun."—Sir Francis Palgrave. The Trelys or Traillys are said to have been a branch of the noble family of St. Denis-le-Gast, of whose barony their Norman fief formed part. Lysons mentions them among "the earliest extinct families" that held property in Bedfordshire. "The Traillys were not summoned to parliament after the reign of King John, but the family was not extinct till about the year 1350. Their chief seat was at Yielden, anciently called Giveldune. The traces of their castle there are extensive. The principal works form a square of about eighty paces: in the centre is a large mount called the Castle-hill; with a vallum on the West side of it, including a space ninety paces long, and forty-five wide; round these works was a moat, in some parts of which the water still remains; and beyond the moat appear traces of walls for a considerable space." Northill, in the same county, was part of the barony of Traylly. "The parish church is supposed to have been built in the beginning of Henry IV.'s reign; at which time it was made collegiate by Sir Gerard Braybrooke, one of Sir John Traylly's executors. In the roof of the porch, which is of stone, are the arms of Traylly, a cross flory between four martlets."—Ibid. Geoffrey de Trailli (entered in the Buckinghamshire Pipe Roll 1155-58) married Albreda, one of the sisters and co-heiresses of Walter Espec, the famous Lord of Helmsley, and with his four sons, witnesses his brother-in-law's foundation charters of Kirkham Priory and Rievaulx Abbey. The names of the sons are there given as Geoffrey, William, Nicholas, and Gilbert. Sir Nicholas de Trailli, in 1218-19, witnesses two of the charters of Elstow Abbey, Oxon, of which his father had been a benefactor. Geoffrey II. was succeeded by Walter, his son, who, according to Banks, had a brother who was a monk, and two sisters, of whom one married, and the other became a nun. The wooden effigies of this Sir Walter de Trailli, who died in 1290, and of his wife Dame Alianora, who survived till 1316, remain in Woodford Church, Northants. Beatrix de Trayley married Thomas FitzArnold. Another of the name, Joanna de Trayley, was elected Abbess of Elstow in 1409.

Geoffrey de Trailli had been a tenant of the Bishop of Coutances, and his descendants held two knight's fees of the Honour of Warden in Bedfordshire, and Brill, with other lands in Buckinghamshire. Trayle's Manor is mentioned in Cambridgeshire. Henry de Trailly was knight of the shire for Northants in 1324.

-- Cleveland