Roland de (Alvers) Danvers (1030 - abt. 1086)

Born 1030 in Aluers, Normandy, France

Descendants

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Michelle Brooks [send private message]

Biography

Excerpts from Memorials of the Danvers Family (of Dauntsey and Culworth)

Sir Roland de Alvers, a Norman knight, came into England at the Conquest.^[1]

And now we may picture Roland of Alvers leaving home in the autumn of the year 1066 to join the army which Duke William was assembling at Dives for the invasion of England.^[2]

Sir Roland was probably born about the same time as the Conqueror, A.D. 1027, and may very well have been brother to William de Auvers the son of Helge, whome we find amongst the early benefactors of the Convent of St. Sauveur le Vicomte. It seems likely that he married before the time of the Conquest, A.D. 1066, as we find his sons holding manors when the Survey was completed in the year 1086. Probably Roland was then dead, or possibly he may have returned to Normandy, leaving his sons in possession of the inheritance which he won in England.

.... Sir Roland's son, Sir Ralph, married the sister of Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln, an opinion which is based upon the mention, in the charter of Alan Earl of Brittany and Richmond, of Robert de Aluers of that time, as son of the Bishop's nephew - son, that is of Geoffrey, son of Ralph and the Bishop's sister. This Ralph, the Duchess of Cleveland tells us, signed as witness to a charter of Robert Earl of Leicester's to St. Ebrulf's monastery, and he is probably the same Ralph de Aluers when we find signing, as on of Bishop Alexander's men, to a charter given by Robert Earl of Leicester to the Bishop.^[3]

...Ralph left two sons, Roland and Geoffrey, of whom the elder, Roland, succeeded his father in Buckinghamshire and Berkshire estates, while Geoffrey received lands at Bourton in North Oxfordshire, and probably in Warwick also.^[4]

Sources

• Memorials of the Danvers Family (of Dauntsey and Culworth); openlibrary.org ebook. author: F. N. MacNamara

Footnotes

1. ↑ Memorials of the Danvers Family (of Dauntsey and Culworth); p 26. Entered by Michelle Brooks.
2. ↑ Memorials of the Danvers Family (of Dauntsey and Culworth); p 33. Entered by Michelle Brooks.
3. ↑ Memorials of the Danvers Family (of Dauntsey and Culworth); p 38. Entered by Michelle Brooks.
4. ↑ Memorials of the Danvers Family; p. 39. added on 2013 Nov 28 by Michelle

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Michelle Brooks for starting this profile. Click the Changes tab for the details of contributions by Michelle and others.