General Notes

Held in Normandy, the fief of Neuville-sur-Tocque
Reported cousin to William the Conqueror on maternal side
fourth son of Baldric Teutonicus (some say also known as)
Called Richard de Nova Villa
founded Horncastle, Lincolnshire

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The following addition information is supplied in a post-em by Curt Hofemann, curt_hofemann@@yahoo.com:

FWIW:

had fief of Neuville sur Tocque in Normandy

Gilbert Neville, b c1035, came to England as an admiral in William the Conqueror's fleet.... The father of Gilbert is supposedly Richard Teutonicus D'Novavilla., b c1000 in Neuville, Normandy. Richard's father was supposedly Baldricus Teutonius or Baldric the German. [Ref: Kenneh Harper Finton 21 Dec 2000 message to Gen-Medieval/soc.genealogy.medieval]

From the book "De Nova Villa" by Henry J Swallow, pub jointly in 1885 by Andrew Reid of Newcastle upon Tyne and Griffith, Farran and Co of London, pp 2 and 3:

"Richard de Nova Villa was cousin to the Conqueror on his mother's side.  The name and parentage of his wife remain in obscurity; but it is known  that he left four sons, Gilbert, Robert, Richard and Ralph.  From  Gilbert descended the houses of Westmorland, Warwick, Latimer and Abergavenny.

"'Gilbertus Normanus' commonly called the _Admiral_, is placed at the head of the Nevill pedigree by all the early genealogists.  Leland styles him the Conqueror's Admiral, on the authority of a 'roulle of the genealogie of the Erles of Westmoreland'.  Henry Drummond--into whose work Stapleton's researches into the Norman ancestry of the Nevills were incorporated--considered Leland's information as a mere family fabrication, introduced towards the close of the 15th century.  Whether the device of the ship on the seal of Henry de Nevill (date circ. 1200) supports the tradition, or whether the tradition arose from the seal, is a matter on which opinions differ.  Foulk d'Anou, the uncle of Gilbert, certainly furnished forty ships for the invasion of England.  There is no other evidence to support Leland's assertion that Gilbert himself was Admiral.

"'From a passage in Odericus Vitalis it is clear that the Norman family of Nevill issued from a Teutonic stock, some members of which offered their services to Richard, second duke of Normandy, and are known to have held high office, contracted important alliances, and possessed large fiefs in England _previous_ to the Conquest.  Baldric Tuetonicus was Lord of Bacqueville en Caux, and _Archearius_ under Duke William. He married a niece of Gilbert Comte de Brionne, grandson of Duke Richard I., and Regent of Normandy in 1040.'"

"'The fourth son of Baldric was called Richard de Nova Villa [*], or De Neuville, from his fief of Neuville sur Tocque, in the department of the Orne, the arrondissement of Argenton, and the Canton of Gacé. Hawisia, sister of Richard de Nova Villa, married Robert Fitz Erneis, who fought and fell at Hastings.'--_Vide Planché's Norman Ancestry of the Nevills, a paper read at Durham in 1865, and published in the British Archaeological Journal, Vol XXII, p.279_."

Swallow adds a footnote:
"[*] The name of Richard de Nevill is given by M. Leopold de Lisle in his catalogue of the companions of the Conqueror, and by the Vicomte de Magny in his book, entitled _La Nobiliare de Normandie_.  The name of Ralph occurs in the _Clamores in Westreding, co Lincoln_.  Ralph Nevill held Thorpe of Turold, Abbot of Peterborough, but the name is omitted by Sir Henry Ellis in his _Introduction and Indexes to Domesday_.  De Nove Villa _is_ found in the Roll of Battle Abbey, and in other lists of doubtful authority, but Odericus Vitalis makes no mention of the presence of any Nevill at the battle of Hastings, nor does Wace in his _Roman de Rou_; but that some of the brothers, sons, or nephews of the elder Richard de Nova Villa, of not Richard himself, were present at the battle is very probable."

Obviously this has to be contrasted with Ethel Stokes' article i