Research Notes:
"Nele de Mowbray, s. and h. [of Roger de Mowbray], was present at the Council of Clarendon in Jan. 1163/4. [Stubbs, Select Charters (7th ed.), p. 138.] In 1172, his father being still alive, he was in possession of the Norman lands. [The return of 1172 of knights' fees in Normandy runs: Nigellus de Moubrai v milites de honore de Moubrai et de Castro Gonteri; et ad servitium suum, xj milites quartam et viijam (Red Bk. of Exchequer, p. 629). The Chateau Gontier here mentioned is in the commune of La Courbe (Orne), not far from Bazoches-au-Houlme; for an account of this castle see Mem. Soc. Antiq. de Normandie, vol. ix, pp. 466 et seq. It must not be confounded with the better known place in Mayenne.] He joined with his father in the rebellion of 1173. [Benedict, vol. i, p. 48.] He was present at King Richard's Coronation, 3 Sep. 1189, [Benedict, vol. ii, p. 80.] and accompanied him on the Crusade. [Benedict, p. 149. His chaplain, John, lent him 20 pounds Angevin for the expedition (Pipe Roll, 5 Ric. I, p. 70).] He m., before Mich. 1170, Mabel, whose parentage is not certainly known. He d. at Acre, on crusade, in 1191. [In tertio anno obierunt apud Acram Radulfus de Aubeni, Nigellus de Mumbray projectus in mare, Simon de Wale projectus in mare (Benedict, vol. ii, p. 149).] His widow had dower in Melton Mowbray, co. Leicester, [Rot. Cur. Regis (Pipe Roll Soc, vol. xiv), p. 7.] and appears to have d. circa 1203.[Curia Regis Rolls (P.R.O.), vol. iii, pp. 73, 183.] [1]
Nele de Mowbray "confirmed to the priory of Monks Kirby, Warwks., various gifts sicut cartae Gosfridi de Wirchia et Nigelli avi mei et Rogeri patris mei testantur." [2]
In Mich. 1170 an amercement was due from Banstead, the land of Nele de Mowbray (Pipe Roll, 16 Hen. II, p. 164. [3]
Nele de Mowbray, in addition to his successor William, "had sons Philip and Robert." "A daughter was m. to Enguerrand du Hommet and had two knights' fees in Ecouche, dep. Orne, arr. Argentan, as her maritagium (Rec des Hist, de France, vol. xxiii, p. 619 m); her husband was a younger brother of William du Hommet, the constable (Idem, p. 609 k)." Nele's son William "confirmed grants made by his father Nele and his grandfather Roger to the abbeys of Fountains and Newburgh (Fountains Chartul., ed. Lancaster, p. 10; Dugdale, Mon., vol. vi, pp. 318-319). To the latter grant his uncle Robert de Mowbray and his brothers Philip and Robert were witnesses. See also Cal. Charter Rolls, vol. ii, p. 442." [4]
Complete Peerage states that Mabel, wife of Nele de Mowbray, "is said variously to have been da. of Edmund [sic], Earl of Clare (no Earl of Clare or Hertford was so named), and of William FitzPatrick, Earl of Salisbury, by Eleanor, da. of Tirel de Maniers, both accounts being apparently founded on the fact that Banstead, Surrey, of which the Clares were overlords, was her marriage portion. Dugdale (Mon., vol. vi, p. 171) prints, from the collections of the Herald Vincent (d. 1626), grants to St. Mary Overy, Southwark, (i) by Tirel de Maniers of the advowson of Banstead ; (ii) by Nele de Mowbray of the same, which he had with his wife in marriage ; (iii) [headed as by Mabel, da. of William Patrio (sic)] by Mabel, wife of Sir Nele de Mowbray, of land held of them of the manor of Banstead. Mabel herself named her father in her action, Trin. 1194, against Southwark. Unfortunately the first part of the name is torn from the edge of the roll; all that remains is the ending, either cus or tus. The latter is adopted in Rot. Cur. Regis (Pipe Roll Soc, vol. xiv), p. 42. There is room only for a baptismal name—e.g. Robertus, Gilbertus, Herbertus, Henricus." [5]
Colin Flight, "A List of Holders of Land in Kent" [6] presents a tree showing Willelm Patric (d. 1174) with four children: Willelm Patric (d. 1174), Ingelram Patric (c. 1190-1, two daughters), Eudo Patric (d. 1212-13), and Mabilia, married to Nigel de Mowbrai (d. 1191), son of Roger de Mowbrai (d. 1188), and Mabilia and Nigel's son, Willelm de Moubrai (d. 1224). Flight states that land in Kent seized from Tirel de Maineres (supporter of the King's nephew Willelm Clito) were given to Willelm Patric by 1129. (Citing E 372/1, p. 66, a n entry brought forward from the previous roll.)
The crucial evidence comes from Surrey, where the manor of Banstead is known to have belonged to Tirel: it was he who gave the church to the canons of Southwark.[34] Later the manor belonged to Willelm Patric, who gave it to his daughter Mabilia when she married Nigel de Moubrai (Greenway 1972, nos. 266, 269); when Mabilia died, it descended to her son.[35] The lands in Kent continued with Willelm's heirs. Barony of Patrixbourne (Sanders 1963, 135).
34 Caley, Ellis and Bandmel 1817-30, 6, 171; cf . Maitland 1891, 42-3.
35 The only explicit statement that Mabilia was Willelm Patric's daughter occurs in the heading prefixed to Dugdale's text of Mabilia's charter for Southwark (reprinted as Greenway 1972, no. 269), which was based on the excerpts copied by Augustine Vincent (d. 1626) from a cartulary which does not survive. Not unreasonably, it has been doubted whether this evidence can be trusted; but the author is sure that it can. The manor of Ash in Kent, which is known for certain to have belonged to Willelm Patric, descended later to Mabilia's heirs; and Ryarsh has a similar history.
D.E. Greenway (ed.), Charters of the honour of Mowbray 1107-1191 (British Academy, Records of Social and Economic History, NS I, 1972)
[1] George E. Cokayne, H. A. Doubleday, Howard de Walden, eds., The Complete Peerage, rev., Vol. 9, Moels to Nuneham (London: St. Catherine Press, 1936), 373.
[2] George E. Cokayne, H. A. Doubleday, Howard de Walden, eds., The Complete Peerage, rev., Vol. 9, Moels to Nuneham (London: St. Catherine Press, 1936), 372, citing Dugdale, Mon., vol. vi, p. 996.
[3] George E. Cokayne, H. A. Doubleday, Howard de Walden, eds., The Complete Peerage, rev., Vol. 9, Moels to Nuneham (London: St. Catherine Press, 1936), 372.
[4] George E. Cokayne, H. A. Doubleday, Howard de Walden, eds., The Complete Peerage, rev., Vol. 9, Moels to Nuneham (London: St. Catherine Press, 1936), 373.
[5] George E. Cokayne, H. A. Doubleday, Howard de Walden, eds., The Complete Peerage, rev., Vol. 9, Moels to Nuneham (London: St. Catherine Press, 1936), 372-373.
[6] Colin Flight, "A List of Holders of Land in Kent c. 1120," Archaeologia Cantiana 125 (2005), 371 and 379, [KentArchaeologicalSociety].