Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Paganel, Ralph
PAGANEL, RALPH (fl. 1089), sheriff of Yorkshire, was probably a member of the Norman family which held land at Montiers Hubert in the honour of Lieuvin (Ordericus Vitalis, v. 69). In 1086 he held ten lordships in Devon, five in Somerset, fifteen in Lincolnshire, fifteen in Yorkshire, and others in Gloucestershire and Northamptonshire (Ellis, Domesday, i. 464). He received the lands which had belonged to Merleswain (Freeman, William Rufus, i. 31). In 1088 he was sheriff of Yorkshire, and seized the lands of William of St. Calais, bishop of Durham, at the command of William II, whose cause he defended at the meeting at Salisbury in November 1088 (ib. i. 31, 90). In 1089 he refounded the priory of Holy Trinity, York, and made it a cell to Marmoutier; to it he gave Drax, his chief Yorkshire vill (Mon. Angl. iv. 680). His wife's name was Matilda, and he had four sons—William, Jordan, Elias, and Alan.
The eldest son, William, founded a house of Austin canons at Drax or Herlham in the time of Henry I, by the advice of Archbishop Thurstan (Mon. Angl. vi. 194). He confirmed his father's grant to Selby (ib. iii. 501). It was probably he who was defeated at Montiers Hubert in 1136 by Geoffrey Plantagenet (Ordericus Vitalis, v. 69). William Paganel appears on the Yorkshire pipe rolls, 1160–2, 1164–5, 1167–9, and in the ‘Liber Rubeus,’ 12 Henry II, as holding under the old enfeoffment fifteen knights' fees, and half a fee under the new. He married Avicia de Romeilli and died before 1140; his daughter Alice married Robert de Gaunt [see Gaunt, Maurice de].
His son Fulk (d. 1182), baron of Hambie in Normandy, was a constant attendant on Henry II when abroad. He is found attesting a charter at Silverston, 1155, urging a claim on lands in possession of Mont St. Michel, 1155 (R. de Monte, ed. Delisle, ii. 341); in 1166 he was at Fougères in Brittany, 1167 at Valognes, 1170 at Mortain and at Shaftesbury, 1173 at Mont Ferrand and Caen, 1174 at Falaise, 1175 at Caen, always with the king. In 1177 he held an assize at Caen, acting as king's justiciar; in 1180 he was at Oxford, where the king confirmed his gift of Renham to Gilbert de Vere (Abbrev. Plac. p. 98, Essex), and perhaps in this year he confirmed his father's grants to Drax (Mon. Angl. iii. 196). In this year he paid one thousand marks for the livery of his mother's honour of Bampton (Rot. Pip. Devon. 26 Henry II, quoted by Dugdale). In June 1180 he was at Caen and at Bur-le-roy, and in 1181 at Clipston with the king. He married Lescelina de Gripon or de Subligny, sister of Gilbert d'Avranches (Stapleton, Rot. Scacc. vol. ii. p. vi), and had four sons and three daughters, Gundreda (ib. vol. i. p. lxxix), Juliana, and Christiana (Mon. Angl. v. 202). His eldest son, William, married Alianora de Vitré, and died in 1184.
His second son Fulk (d. 1210?), forfeited Bampton, but recovered it in 1199 on payment of one thousand marks (Rot. Obl. 1 John, m. 22). In 1190 he confirmed his father's grant to Drax (Mon. Angl. vi. 196). In 1203 he was suspected of treachery to John (Rot. Norm. 4 Joh. in dorso m. 2), but was restored to favour on delivering his son as a hostage (Rot. Scacc. vol. ii. p. ccxliv). He died about 1210. He married first a Viscountess Cecilia, and, secondly, Ada or Agatha de Humez (Mon. Angl. v. 102), and had two sons, William and Fulk. William (d. 1216?) sided with the barons against John; his lands were seized, and he died about 1216. He married Petronilla Poignard (Rot. Scacc. vol. ii. p. lv). The younger son, Fulk, did homage to Henry III in Brittany, and tried to induce him to recover Normandy (Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. iii. 197). He was disinherited by Louis IX (ib. p. 198). The Yorkshire family died out in the fourteenth century. William Paganel was the last of his family summoned to Parliament as a baron in the reign of Edward II (Lysons, Devon, p. li).
Adam Paganel (fl. 1210), a member of the Lincolnshire branch of this family, founded a monastic house at Glandford Bridge in the time of John. The Lincolnshire Paynells of Boothby were an important family to the time of Henry VIII (Leland, Itin. i. 25).
[Dugdale's Baronage; Stapleton's Rotuli Scaccarii Normanniæ; Eyton's Court and Itinerary of Henry II; Archæol. Instit. Proc. 1848; and authorities cited.]
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.213
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 37 | ii | 12 | Paganel, Ralph: after married insert Avicia de Romeilli and died before 1135; his daughter Alice married Robert de Gaunt [see Gaunt, Maurice de]. Another William Paganel, lord of Routiers, Hubert, and Hambie, married |
| 14-17 | omit by his second marriage . . . [see Gaunt, Maurice de]. | ||
| 18 | for His son Fulk read Fulk Paganel |