From Anjou. This family bore Argent, on a bend Azure a pellet between two cross crosslets Or; and was seated in Norfolk from the time of the Conquest. Beaupré Hall, in the parish of Outwell, which took its name from them, was brought to John de Beaupré, “whose ancestors had considerable possessions in these townships,” in the thirteenth century by Christiana de St. Omer. Edmund Beaupré, the last heir male, who received a grant of West Dereham Abbey in 1553, died in 1567.

In Cornwall the Beauprés are mentioned as land-owners in 1323, but became extinct in the course of that century. The heiress married Trevanion.—Lysons. They are also found in Shropshire. Beaupré’s Chantry in Ludlow Church, was founded by Peter Beaupré; and “one Oliver Beaupré presented thereto in 1518.”—Eyton's Shropshire. Beaupré Castle, near Cowbridge, “the ancient and favourite seat of the Sitsylt family,” was so named from the Welsh Maes Essylt, of which it is a translation.

[Beuill, Boiville Boville, Boeville, Beeville, Buvilla, Biville] variously spelt— in the Dives Roll it is Biville—from Beuville, near Caen. Two of this name are entered in Domesday: Humphrey de Buiville, a baron in Herefordshire; and William de Bocvilla, an under tenant in Suffolk. Their descendants must have been numerous, for “the family was widely spread in England, and in 1165 held sixteen knight’s fees.”—The Norman People. I find mention made of them in eleven different counties; and yet am only able to trace—and that tentatively—the posterity of the mesne-lord, William. Sir Philip de Boville (perhaps his son), in the time of Henry I., gave lands to Wykes Priory in Essex, his grant being confirmed by his suzerain, Geoffrey de Mandeville, Earl of Essex; and William de Boville occurs in Essex and Herts in 1130 (Rot Pip.). Paul de Boville lived in the ensuing reign; and in 1165 Otwell de Boville held—again in Essex—of the Honour of Mandeville and De Thame (Lib. Niger). Richard de Bovill, who gave his name to Bovill’s manor, temp. Henry II., “was a considerable man in these parts, and a benefactor to St Botolph’s Priory, Colchester, in 1189. And both he and William de Bovill were also benefactors to the Abbey of St. Osith.”—Morant's Essex. They held Letheringham, in Suffolk, of the Glanvilles, with whom they afterwards intermarried, and continued till the time of Edward IL, when Nicholaa, one of the daughters of William de Bovill, carried Letheringham to Simon FitzRichard.— v. Page's Suffolk. A branch of the family, descended from Sir Philip, was seated in Norfolk till about the middle of the fourteenth century. The last heiress, Margery, married 41 Edward III. All bore Quarterly Or and Sable, the coat of their suzerains, differenced only in tincture.

None of the other considerable families of the name can by any possibility be connected with this, unless it be the Bevils of Chesterton, knights, in Huntingdonshire, “an ancient family,” says Camden, “famous in this county, whose heirs general were married to Hewitt, Elnes, and Dryden.”

We next meet with the Bevills in the remotest comer of England. “The first Bevill at the Conquest was an officer under the Earl of Morton and Cornwall. One of his descendants married a Gwairnick heiress, who brought him the land of that name, which became the seat of the Bevills for about ten generations.”—Gilbert's Cornwall. They bore Ermine a bull passant Sable. The last heir died in the time of Henry VIII. “Guerneck a late was one of the Maner Places of Boville alias Beville. This Name cam out of Base Normandy, and long continued there, ontylle of late tyme it felle onto two Doughters of Boville, whereof the one was maryed unto Arundell of Trerice now lyving. The other to Granville; and so they devide almost three hundred Markes of Lande.”—Leland. This latter, Maud Bevill, the wife of Sir Richard Grenville of Buckland, Marshall of Calais under Henry VIII., was the mother of an heroic race. Her son was the bold sea-captain that “courted danger as a mistress,” and matched his single ship against the whole Spanish fleet: her great-grandson the Cavalier leader Sir Bevill, that hallowed her ancestral name with imperishable renown.

In Cumberland a family of Boyvills was seated at Skelton in the time of Henry I. “Those of the principal line were Lords of Levington. It soon came to be divided among female issue, and passed in six parts to the respective families with whom they intermarried.”—Hutchinson's Cumberland. The father of Godard de Boyville (named in ancient evidences Godardus Dapifer) was enfeoffed by Ranulph de Meschines of the great manor of Millum, in that county, which was held by his heirs-male till the reign of Henry III., when it passed through an heiress to the Huddlestones. The Boyvilles are said to have been very near of kin to Ranulph, and a romantic legend is attached to their first possession of Millum. “The Baron of Egremont being taken prisoner beyond the seas by the infidels, could not be redeemed without a great ransom, and being for England, entered his brother or kinsman for his surety, promising, with all possible speed, to send him money to set him free; but upon his return home to Egremont, he changed his mind, and most unthankfully and unnaturally suffered his brother to lie in prison, in great distress and extremity, untill his hair was grown to an unusual length, like a woman’s hair. The Pagans being out of hopes of the ransom, in great rage most cruelly hanged up their pledge, binding the long hair of his head to a beam in the prison, and tied his hands so far behind him, that he could not reach to the top when the knot was fastened to loose himself: during his imprisonment, the Paynim’s daughter became enamoured of him, and sought all good means for his deliverance, but could not enlarge him. She understanding of this last cruelty, by means made to his keeper, entered the prison, and taking her knife to cut the hair, being fastened, she cut the skin of his head, so as, with the weight of his body, he rent away the rest, and fell down to the earth half dead. But she presently took him up, causing surgeons to attend him secretly, till he recovered his former health, beauty and strength; and so entreated her father for him, that he set him at liberty. Then, desirous to revenge his brother’s ingratitude, he got leave to depart to his country, and took home with him the hatterell of his hair, rent off as aforesaid, which he commonly used to carry about with him, when he was in England, where he shortly arrived: and coming towards Egremont Castle about noon-tide of the day, where his brother was at dinner, he blew his bugle-horn, which (says the tradition) his brother the baron presently acknowledged, and thereby conjectured his brother’s return; and then sending his friends and servants to learn his brother’s mind to him, and how he had escaped, they brought back the report of all the miserable torment that he had endured for his unfaithful brother the baron; which so astonished the baron (half dead before with the shameful remembrance of his own disloyalty and breach of promise), that he abandoned all company, and would not look upon his brother, till his just wrath was pacified by diligent entreaty of the friends. And to be sure of his brother’s future kindness, he gave the lordship of Millum to him and his heirs for ever. Whereupon the first Lords of Millum gave as their arms the horn and hatterell.”—Ibid. They “held the manor with great liberties, and had Jura Regala there.” A younger branch, seated at Kirksanton in the same county, continued till the reign of Edward II.

Nichols mentions a family of Boyvilles of Stockeston in Leicestershire, that bore Gules a fesse Or between three sattires humette Argent.