General Notes

On the first arrival in England of William, Duke of Normandy, there was amongst his companions a famous soldier called Geoffrey de Magnavil, so designated from the town of Magnavil, in the duchy, which he then possessed, who obtained as his share in the spoil of conquest, divers fair and wide spreading domains in the cos. Berks, Suffolk, Middlesex, Surrey, Oxford, Cambridge, Herts, Northampton, Warwick, and Essex; whereof Malden was one, which afterwards became the chief seat of his descendants. He was subsequently made constable of the Tower of London and continued to execute the duties of that important office for the remainder of his life. This Geoffrey, among other benefaction tot he church, founded a Benedictine monastery at Harley, in Berkshire, conferring upon it the whole lordship of that place and the woods adjoining thereto. He was s. at his deceased by his son, William de Magnavil. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, England, 1883, p. 352, Mandeville, Earls of Essex]