“Hauteville; one of the most historically interesting families of Europe, being a branch of the Norman kings of Naples and Sicily. Hialtt, a Norman Viking, c. 920, was its probable founder, whence the fief of Haultville or Hautville, Latinized Altavilla. Third in descent was Tancred, born c. 980-90, Sire de Hautville, who was in the court of Richard II., whose favour he gained in the hunting field by an exploit narrated by Galfrid de Malaterra. He was leader of ten knights in the Duke’s service (Bouquet, xi.). He married, and had eleven sons, Drogo, Umfrid, Galfrid, Serlo, Robert, Malger, Alvered, William, Humbert, Tancred, and Roger, who were the most renowned warriors of the age. Serlo was taken into the Duke’s household in reward for a remarkable feat of chivalry, and Galfrid, according to Orderic, obtained the paternal fief, when his father went to spend his last days in Italy.

“The other sons joined the Norman chivalry in Apulia, where William, surnamed Bras de Fer, became leader of the Normans, and Lord of Ascoli: Drogo, Lord of Venosa; and the others Norman chiefs and great barons. In 1043 William was elected by the chiefs their general, and Lord of Apulia. He was succeeded 1046 by his brother Drogo de Hauteville, Count of Venosa, who was succeeded by his brother Robert, surnamed Guiscard (the Adroit), Duke of Calabria, Apulia, and Sicily. Roger, his brother, became Count of Sicily, and from him descended the De Hautevilles, Kings of Naples and Sicily. Bohemund, Prince of Antioch and Tarento, so renowned in the First Crusade, was the son of Robert Guiscard, and from him descended the Kings of Cyprus and Jerusalem.

“A branch of this royal house became seated in England. Galfrid de Hauteville, who remained in Normandy, was father of Ralph de Hauteville or Altavilla, who in 1086 held a barony in Wilts (Domesday). His descendants were a renowned race of warriors. Sir John de Hauteville accompanied Ed. I. to Palestine. In 1316 John de Hauteville was Lord of Norton-Hawfield or Hauteville, Somerset; and 1316-24 Sir Geoffrey de Hautville was M.P. for Somerset, Bucks, and Wilts. He bore Sable crusilly Argent, a lion rampant Argent, being nearly the same arms as those borne by the Kings of Italy, as descendants of the Kings of Cyprus.” - The Norman People.

Many of the name are found in Somersetshire during the reigns of John, Henry III., and the first two Edwards, and were, we are told, “esteemed mighty warriors;” but no more is heard of them after the beginning of Edward III.’s time. The memory of Sir John Hauteville, the crusader, still lingers in his own neighbourhood, surrounded by legends that might do honour to the hero of some old Norse Saga. He was a mythical giant: taller and stronger than any other man of his time: no task was too heavy for him, and no obstacle ever stood in his way. We are told how he carried three stout men to the top of Norton Tower, one held under each arm, and the third between his teeth (see Mauroward): and how he heaved up a mighty stone of thirty tons weight, and flung it a distance of more than a mile, from his house at May’s- Knolle-Hill to Stanton-Drew. Here the stone (once part of a Druidical circle, but now much chipped and dwindled by frequent use in road-mending) is still known as Hauteville’s-Coit; and the crest of the hill is shown as the clearings of Hauteville’s spade. Little blame to the simple folk who heard and repeated these tales, if his name became fearful and mysterious in their ears: and had he not been signed with the Cross, and gone with Prince Edward to the Holy Land, it seems clear that this great Somersetshire champion would have been handed down to posterity as a necromancer.

In Norfolk the Hautvilles held Rainham by grant of King Stephen, as hereditary falconers to the King: and Henry II. is further “said to have given the town of Dunton, with Doketon and Kettleston, to Ralph de Hauvile, to be held by petit serjeanty, the keeping of the King’s hawks or falcons. This Sir Ralph was a knight, and had a son, Sir Robert, who wrote himself sometimes De Hauvile, and sometimes De Dunton, according to the practice and custom of the age, and was the founder of the Priory of Miremounde in Upsall, in the Isle of Ely, 5 King John. His seal was of green wax, party per pale, in chief a label of five points. Of this family were Hugh and Henry de Hauvile; and King John, in his sixth year, ordered the bailiffs of several ports to secure all the hawks and ger-falcons which should be brought beyond sea, till the said Hugh and Henry should choose what they thought fit for the King’s use; and no one was allowed to buy any till this was done. About the same time lived Walter de Hauvile, who held 60s. rent in land at Hallingbury in Essex, by serjeanty of keeping the King’s falcons.” - Blomefield's Norfolk. Raynham continued in their possession up till 1345, when James de Havile, the husband of Anne Wace, was living there. “Soon after, this lordship of Raynham-Havile’s came to the Townshends, by the marriage of Elizabeth, daughter and heir of Sir Thomas de Havile with Lewis de Townshend, as Collins, in his Peerage, observes; but this does not appear from any record on evidence that I have met with.” - Ibid. Probably James de Haville, who sold Dunton in 1256, was the last of the line.

There was, however, another of this house, who in 1196 “came and fixed at Erlham, and so became Founder of that Family, which continued Lords and Patrons many Ages. In 1199, this Ralph, being then a Knight, purchased of Humphrey his Brother all his Inheritance in Erlham for 1oos. paid to Humphrey for his Pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and a settlement made on Miryld, Daughter of Humphrey, who escheated her Lands by marrying Jurnet the Jew. In 1235 John, son of Ralph de Erlham, held this Town by Petit Serjeantry, or the Service of the Cross Bow, to defend Norwich Castle.” - Ibid. The last mentioned is another John de Erlham, about 1370. He sealed with “a fesse voided in chief three mullets,” and thus bore totally different arms from the rest of his family.

In the reign of Henry III. the Hautvilles held land in Lincolnshire and Buckinghamshire, and were “a spreading family.” Alan de Hauville, a considerable land-owner in Berkshire in 1316, received a pardon in 1321 as one of the followers of Roger de Clifford, who had been “in pursuit”of the Despencers; as was likewise Nicholas de Hauville, of the same county. This same Nicholas, the following year, paid a fine for having joined the Earl of Lancaster’s rebellion, and obtained a pardon “upon condition of serving the King in his wars.” - Palgrave's Parliamentary Writs.