Some researchers think Roger de Mortimer was the son of William de Warenne. Burke wrote that he was one of the principal commanders in the battle. As a result of his success, he was sent to the west of England to tame the marches of Wales. (Burke, p. 371)

St Clears Priory – Parish Church of St Mary Magdalene, in Wales

Interestingly, a Mortimer was the lord of St Clears Priory – founded late 12th C. in Wales as an alien cell of St. Martin des Champs, Paris. The fact that the St. Clairs were with Mortimer at Hastings, and the place is named St. Clears makes several credible medievalists think we were associated with St. Clears Priory

There is some dispute about whether or not this small priory is associated with the Saint-Clair family. Here’s your first clue – the website Monastic Wales says lordship of the area at the time of the foundation was the Mortimer family.

Furthermore, St Clears Priory was a dependent of Montacute Priory, Somerset. Montacute was founded between 1078 and 1102 by William, Count of Mortain. It was the only Somerset dependency of Cluny Abbey until 1407. Bretel St Clair was a witness to the foundation charter of the priory of Montacute by William, Earl of Moreton (Mortain), son of Earl Robert.

I have not found hard evidence that the church in Wales was founded by the St Clairs, but the fact that the Mortains were the lords of the land, and the association with Montacute make it extremely likely. Also, the veneration of Mary Magdalene, relatively new at the time, is very interesting.

The Vilier / Viler family were closely associated with the St Clairs associated with Savigny Abbey.

Planché (p. 281) has:
Auvilliers, “Sire d’,” 1. 13.747.- There are two communes of this name, one near Pont-l’Eveque, and the other near Mortemer-sur-Eaulne. As the “Sire d’Auvillers” is described by Wace as charging in company with Hugh de Mortemer, it is probable he hailed from the latter, and was a vassal of the Mortemers. A Hugh de Aviler was a vassal of Robert Malet, in Suffolk, in the days of the Conqueror, and a benefactor to the Priory of Eye, founded by him [Malet]; but I find nothing more to learn more about the Sire d’Auvilliers who fought at Senlac.

This Robert Malet is a good line of enquiry. Briefly, here’s what I found:

Robert Malet‘s Eye Priory received a charter of assent from his sister Beatrice. Later, a precept of Henry I made it clear that she was the wife of William de Arques of Folkstone in Kent (Eye Cart., no. 2). There is a St Clair connection here. A Main de Sancto Claro who attested a charter of Beatrice Malet to the Abbey of St. Peter, Preaux. William de Arques was a Domesday tenant of Hugh de Montford in Kent.

In further research on Malet’s Eye Priory, Vivien Brown’s Eye Priory Cartulary and Charters shows connections between several families involved in benefaction to Eye: Malet, St. Clair, Warenne, and Glanvill, to name just a few.

Following that Preaux Abbey connection, Fauroux (p. 33) shows that Richard Croc and his wife Benceline left to Préaux Abbey land at St-Clair. The identity of the place is obscure but could be either Saint-Clair-d’Arcey, near Bernay, Eure, or Saint-Clair-sur-les-Monts, near Yvetot, Seine-Maritime.

Lewis C. Loyd has the Avillers (Auvilliers from the Seing-Inf., Arrandossimennt of Neufchatel. They held Brome in Suffolk, and Shelfhanger in Norfolk. We know that because a Hugh de Avilers was a man of Robert Malet, the wealthy land owner about whom K.S.B. Keats-Rohan wrote such an interesting paper. In that paper, she mentioned Main de St. Clair as a witness of a gift of Beatrice Mallet, wife of William de Arques, which was witnessed by Main de St. Clair. So now we suspect a small affinity group comprised of St. Clair, Malet, Avilers, and likely Mortemer and Arques. (Loyd, p.9)

The name Aviler never figured prominently in Norman England, but the above-mentioned Hugh d’Aviler was a vassal of Robert Malet of Suffolk and was one of the benefactors to Eye Priory. Eye was founded circa 1086.

“Hugh de Avilers gave two thirds of his tithe of Brome and Shelfanger (1.xxxvii). There is no evidence that Hugh held land of Robert Malet who had only small parcels of land in Brome and no holding is Shelfanger in 1086. The King held land in Shelfanger and a manor of 60 acres in Brome for which no under-tenant is given. The Aviler family in the thirteenth century held the majors of Brome and Erwarton and land in Shelfanger by serjeanty tenure of the Crown, and the gift of Hugh to Eye traces this holding back to at least the early twelfth century. In 1254 the tithe was valued at 1/2m, in 1291 at 5s.” (Eye, p. 63)

Eye goes on to mention the Aviler family holding in Beria in Samford hundred (likely Bowen Hall in Wherstead), Erwarton, and Laxfield.

“The family continued in England, for in 1212 Bartholomew de Auviliers was holding Brome and Selfhanger of the king by serjeanty. It would appear therefore that the superiority over these lands was not granted out again with the rest of the honour of Eye after the forfeiture of Robert Malet.” (Loyd, p.9)

Anonymous (Round, p. 338) has the Ricardo Osovilla (Avilers) as a witness to a charter of Henry II in about 1185 to the Abbey “De Voto” Cherbourg. Other witnesses include William Malet and William de Vaux, among others. This may pull the de Vaux family into the affinity group.

Auvilliers, Neufchâtel-en-Bray, france
Mortemer, Neufchâtel-en-Bray, Dieppe, Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie

They’re less than 3 kilometers from each other.

Trying to identify the Lord of Onebac was somewhat more problematic. In 1827, the French editor of the Roman de Rou identified this place as Asnebec, which he claimed was near Vire in the Calvados department of Normandy. The only place Rondo had been able to identify as having been known as Asnebec in medieval times is Saint-Georges-d’Annebecq, some 50km south-east of Vire in the Orne region.3  Its first seigneur was Roger de Beaumont, a close associate of Duke William. For these reasons, I am sceptical of the assertion that this was Onebac. See the blog post HERE>>

Instead, I am leaning towards the claim by the Annebaut family that Onebac is one and the same place as the village of Annebaut, 17km north-west of Lisieux, in Calvados in the region named Le Pays d’Auge. As early as the turn of the 10^th century it was recorded as Olnebac. Annebaut boasts the vestiges of a feudal moat which can still be seen today.

Tenants: Amblie, Berners, Caron, Matuen, Sachevilla, St. Clair

Add details on the land they held.

Tenants: Corbun, Cuelai, Savenie

Add details on the land they held

Tenents: Champernowne, Portmort, Vilers

Add details on Gloucester’s history in Normandy and land these people held of him.

Tenants: Avilers, Clavilla, Coleville, Conteville, Esmalevilla, Rovile

Add details on the Malet paper from K.S.B. Keats-Rohan and of the land they held of him.

Tenants: Foliot, Lestre, Moreville, Oglander

Details of Redvers in Normandy and his land. then of the land these folks held.

Tenants: Bosville, Cailli, Chesney, Grandcourt, Grimnosavilla, Malquenci, Mortimer (of Attleborough), Pierrepont, Poynings, Rosel, Spinevilla, Wancy (Vaux?)

Details on all these people and their land… especially Chesney, Mortimer of Attleborough, and Wancy/Vaux

He held two parts of a knight’s fee from Bury St Edmunds in 1166. In 1200 Gilbert de St Clare held two fees at Bradfield and Wattisfield.

Brother and successor of William de Saint-Clair, tenant of the honour of Eudo Dapifer. Occurs from before Eudo’s death in 1120 until c. 1137. Twice married, first to Gunnor, eldest daughter of Roger Bigod, and then to Margaret, daughter of Robert fitz Walter de Caen, he left a son Hubert by Gunnor. He was accounting for one of these marriages, probably the second, in 1129/39. Occurs with his brother in Cart. St John Colchester in his own right with his wife Gunnor, a charter of his wife Margaret’s brother occurs. He and his brother William gave the land of Richard de Vilers to Savigny, with the assent of Stephen count of Mortain.

Son of Haimo de St Clair and Gunnor Bigod. Lord of Walkern, Hertfordshire, part of the Domesday barony of Eudo Dapifer, he was alive in 1155, His heir was his daughter Gunnor, wife of William de Lanvallay (d. 1185), Dead in 1185, when his widow Clemencia, aged 60, occurs in the Rotuli de Dominabus.

In 1166 John and Robert de St Clair each held two fees of Walter de Mayenne in Kent. In 1242/43 John de St Clair held half a fee in Eslingham of Warin de Montcanisy under the bishop of Rochester. Thomas de St Clair was his tenant there.

This Saint-Clair family member who got overlooked by all the other books on our family history was a Domesday tenant of Hugh de Montfort in Kent. However, K.S.B. Keats-Rohan found he attested a charter of Beatrice Malet, wife of William of Arques, Domesday lord of Folkstone in Kent. Richard Croc and his wife Benceline left to Préaux land at St-Clair. The identity of the place is obscure but could be either Saint-Clair-d’Arcey, near Bernay, Eure, or Saint-Clair-sur-les-Monts, near Yvetot, Seine-Maritime. His successor may have been the Normand de Assactesford (Ashford) who was an early benefactor of Monk Horton priory. (KR-3)

That land at Preaux Abbey is very interesting. It was held in 1070 by Eudo Rye. The Montfort family, a name very familiar to Sinclair researchers, was donating land to this abbey, some 40 kilometers East of Caen, in the Eastern part of the Department of Calvados, about halfway between the villages of Saint-Clair-Sur-l’Elle and Saint-Clair-sur-Epte.

In 1164 the sheriff of Dorset accounted for a purpresture of a liberate of land that had belonged to Philip de St Clair. Probably a descendant of Bretel de Sancto Claro, perrhaps a son of William de Sancto Claro.

Brother of Haimo de Saint-Clair, with whom he was closely associated throughout his life. He occurs between c. 1120 and 1139. Tenant of Eudo Dapifer, from whom he held Chalk, Kent, Hamerton

Occurs in the Pipe Roll of 1129/30 in Dorset and Wiltshire. Apparently successor, perhaps son, of Bretel de St Clair in the barony of Stoke Trister, held of Robert de Mortain in 1086, Perhaps the same as the William who occurs in the Pipe Rolls until 1164/65. Possibly father of Philip de St Claro (q.v.). Walter de Esselega (Ashleigh) held the barony of Stoke Trister in 1166. He got that land because he was married to Felicia, Bretel’s daughter.