Raoul Botin

Raoul Botin was a kinsman of count Alain Le Roux of Brittany, earl of Richmond, in whose train he came to England at the conquest. He is entered in Domesday as the holder of an immense estate in Yorkshire, including Tanfield, which was one of the most beautiful in the earldom of Richmond, and possessed there also Kirkby-Ravensworth, where he built his castle. He died a monk in the abbey of St-Mary, York, having transferred his vast estates to his younger brother Bardolf, whose posterity remained there for 400 years. They ranked among the foremost barons of Yorkshire, where they possessed the large moorlands of Arkendale and Hope, and were the progenitors of the family of Fitz Hugh. Bardolf bestowed the churches of Patrick, Brompton and Kirkby-Ravensworth on the abbey of St-Mary, where, at the end of his life, he was shorn a monk. His son Akaris founded Fors abbey, called the abbey of Charity, in Wensleydale. The family remained prominent for many generations and Petrus Bodin occurs in Normandy in the 12th century. The Beadons of Gotton house, Somerset, claim descent from the Devonshire Beaudins. --(This name appears on the Falaise Roll)