William Levett (baron) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

William Levett (ca. 1200 – ca. 1270) was lord of the manor

Lord of the Manor

The Lordship of a Manor is recognised today in England and Wales as a form of property and one of three elements of a manor that may exist separately or be combined and may be held in moieties...

of the South Yorkshire

South Yorkshire

South Yorkshire is a metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It has a population of 1.29 million. It consists of four metropolitan boroughs: Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham, and City of Sheffield...

village of Hooton Levitt

Hooton Levitt

Hooton Levitt is a village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham in South Yorkshire, England; one of four villages in the county that carry the name of Hooton, meaning 'farmstead on a spur of land'...

, a village named in part for his ancestors, and became the owner of the patronage

Patronage

Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows to another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings or popes have provided to musicians, painters, and sculptors...

of Roche Abbey

Roche Abbey

Roche Abbey is a now-ruined abbey located near Maltby, South Yorkshire, England. It is situated in a valley alongside Maltby Beck and King's Wood.-Early history:...

on marriage to the granddaughter of the Abbey's cofounder Richard FitzTurgis, a Norman baron who co-founded Roche with the great-nephew of one of England's most powerful Norman barons, Roger de Busli

Roger de Busli

Roger de Busli was a Norman baron who accompanied William the Conqueror on his successful conquest of England in 1066....

.

Levett

Levett

Levett is an Anglo-Norman territorial surname deriving from the village of Livet-en-Ouche, now Jonquerets-de-Livet, in Eure, Normandy. Ancestors of the earliest Levett family in England, the de Livets were lords of the village of Livet, and undertenants of the de Ferrers, among the most powerful of...

(also spelled de Livet, de Lyvet, Levet) was likely born in Hooton Levitt

Hooton Levitt

, the son of Nicholas de Lyvet, the lord of the manor

Lord of the Manor

The Lordship of a Manor is recognised today in England and Wales as a form of property and one of three elements of a manor that may exist separately or be combined and may be held in moieties...

. There were four Hootons in Yorkshire, the name meaning 'a farmstead on a spur of land,' from the Old Norse

Old Norse

Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....

.

Following the Norman Conquest, William the Conqueror gave the village to his half-brother, Robert, Count of Mortain

Robert, Count of Mortain

Robert, Count of Mortain, 1st Earl of Cornwall was a Norman nobleman and the half-brother of William I of England. Robert was the son of Herluin de Conteville and Herleva of Falaise and was full brother to Odo of Bayeux. The exact year of Robert's birth is unknown Robert, Count of Mortain, 1st...

, who continued to hold the village, rather than granting it to one of his knights. By the 12th century, control of Hooton had come to Richard FitzTurgis, who later co-founded Roche Abbey

Roche Abbey

Roche Abbey is a now-ruined abbey located near Maltby, South Yorkshire, England. It is situated in a valley alongside Maltby Beck and King's Wood.-Early history:...

. Undoubtedly a Norman

Anglo-Norman

The Anglo-Normans were mainly the descendants of the Normans who ruled England following the Norman conquest by William the Conqueror in 1066. A small number of Normans were already settled in England prior to the conquest...

, FitzTurgis's name betrayed his likely, like many Normans, Viking

Viking

The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...

origins.

Hooton Levitt

Hooton Levitt

was a tiny village, bordering on Nottingham Forest. As late as 1379, it had only 30 taxpayers. What made it valuable were its quarries, and those controlled by the nearby Cistercian Abbey of Roche. It was these quarries, and others like them nearby, that would later supply the grinding stones necessary to the cutlery industry that emerged at nearby Sheffield

Sheffield

Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...

, and that in the meantime supplied building material to much of the county.

The Lyvet family were lords of the manor of several South Yorkshire

South Yorkshire

villages, and Hooton Levitt

Hooton Levitt

(sometimes spelled Hooton Levett) was given the manorial affix of the Anglo-Norman

Anglo-Norman

family who eventually came to own it. William Levett married Constantia, granddaughter of Richard FitzTurgis, founder of Roche Abbey

Roche Abbey

Roche Abbey is a now-ruined abbey located near Maltby, South Yorkshire, England. It is situated in a valley alongside Maltby Beck and King's Wood.-Early history:...

and first to style himself 'de Wickersley' after his holding of the nearby village of Wickersley

Wickersley

Wickersley is a village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham in South Yorkshire, England, situated from central Rotherham. The area is very near to road junctions for the M1, M18 and A1...

.

Following the marriage of William Levett and Constantia de Wickersley, the Levett family controlled the Abbey through its patronage

Patronage

. In today's world such abbeys seem an odd concept, but during the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

they controlled huge swaths of land. Roche Abbey's holdings -- and it was only of middling rank -- were enormous, sprawling across five counties: Yorkshire

Yorkshire

Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...

, Nottinghamshire

Nottinghamshire

Nottinghamshire is a county in the East Midlands of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west...

, Derbyshire

Derbyshire

Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...

, Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...

and Lancashire

Lancashire

Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...

.

Little is known of the life of William Levett, lord of the manor of Hooton Levitt

Hooton Levitt

and controller of Roche. He appears to have been a power in the region, having witnessed a charter in 1240 confirming a grant under William de Warenne, 5th Earl of Surrey, one of the most powerful Norman magnates, of land to the Kirklees

Kirklees

The Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees is a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, England. It has a population of 401,000 and includes the settlements of Batley, Birstall, Cleckheaton, Denby Dale, Dewsbury, Heckmondwike, Holmfirth, Huddersfield, Kirkburton, Marsden, Meltham, Mirfield and Slaithwaite...

nunnery. Levett (referred to as 'William de Livet') served as Steward to the Earl of Surrey. The Levett family's name is often connected with grants of land to the Abbey through the centuries. As lords of the manor of Hooton Levitt and principal patrons of Roche Abbey, the Levett family wielded considerable influence in the region.

But these were turbulent times, punctuated by the Black Death

Black Death

The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Thought to have...

and the evolving feudal order, in which labor imbalances due to plague deaths gave the common laborer leverage against his lords. By the time of the tenure of Roche Abbey Abbot

Abbot

The word abbot, meaning father, is a title given to the head of a monastery in various traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not actually the head of a monastery...

John de Aston (1356–1358) the Levett family seemed to have been stretched thin. In 1377 John Levett, son of William and likely grandson or great-grandson of the original William who gained control of the Abbey through marriage, sold control of Roche to a London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

merchant. The deed records Levett's words: "I, John Levet, son and heir of William Levet, of Hooton Levet, have given, granted, and by this present charter confirmed to Richard Barry, citizen and merchant of London, the whole of my estate, which I have or my ancestors have ever had in the foundation of the Abbey of Roche...."

At the height of the Abbey's power, during the tenure of the FitzTurgis family and their Levett descendants, Roche had some 80 monks within its walls. Quarrying its stone-rich meadows yielded large profits, as did income from its sprawling holdings, principally of grazing land but also within the city of York

York

York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...

. The family's ties to this ecclesiastical bedrock during the turbulent Middle Ages

Middle Ages

likely provided some measure of spiritual comfort. All this passed out of the family's hands in 1377, perhaps because of financial mismanagement or the collapsing labor market due to the Black Death

Black Death

.

The family continued to remain in the area, moving on to nearby Normanton

Normanton, West Yorkshire

Normanton is a town and civil parish within the City of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England. It is northeast of Wakefield and southwest of Castleford, and at the time of the 2001 Census, the population was 19,949.-History:...

, where they were lords of the manor of the Newlands estate, and had longstanding ties to the Knights Hospitallers, and to High Melton

St James' Church, High Melton

St James' Church, High Melton, is a parish church in the Church of England in High Melton.-Background:The Church of St James dominates the village of High Melton, near Doncaster, in South Yorkshire...

, where many of the original charters of Roche, as well as the Chartulary

Chartulary

A cartulary or chartulary , also called Pancarta and Codex Diplomaticus, is a medieval manuscript volume or roll containing transcriptions of original documents relating to the foundation, privileges, and legal rights of ecclesiastical establishments, municipal corporations, industrial...

of the St. John of Pontefract Abbey, eventually fell into the hands of Thomas Levett

Thomas Levett

Thomas Levett , was an Oxford-educated Lincoln's Inn barrister, judge of the Admiralty for the Northern Counties and High Sheriff of Rutland...

, a descendant who turned them over to eminent Yorkshire antiquarian

Antiquarian

An antiquarian or antiquary is an aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient objects of art or science, archaeological and historic sites, or historic archives and manuscripts...

Roger Dodsworth

Roger Dodsworth was an English antiquary.-Life:He was born at Newton Grange, Oswaldkirk, near Helmsley, Yorkshire, in the house of his maternal grandfather, Ralph Sandwith...

for study and publication. Most of the other records of Roche were lost when the chest in which they were kept in St Mary's Tower

St Mary's Abbey, York

The Abbey of St Mary in York, once the richest abbey in the north of England, is a ruined Benedictine abbey that lies in what are now the Yorkshire Museum Gardens, on a steeply sloping site to the west of York Minster. The original abbey on the site was founded in 1055 and dedicated to Saint Olave...

, York

York

, was blasted by the Parliamentary forces of Oliver Cromwell

Oliver Cromwell

Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....

during the siege of June 1644 in the English Civil War

English Civil War

The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...

External links

Further viewing

Simon Schama's A History of Britain
Simon Schama's A History of Britain
A History of Britain is a BBC documentary series written and presented by Simon Schama, first transmitted in the United Kingdom from 30 September 2000....

, Simon Schama, BBC, 2002

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Further reading

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