Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Neville, Geoffrey de (d.1285)
NEVILLE, GEOFFREY de (d. 1285), baron, son of Geoffrey de Neville (d. 1249), and younger brother of Robert de Neville (d. 1282) [q. v.], first appears as taking an active part in the barons' war, siding, like most of his family, with the king. In 1264 he was with Prince Edward, and was captured at the battle of Lewes, but was soon exchanged for Robert Newington, who had been made prisoner by the king at Northampton. On Edward's escape in 1265 Neville again joined him, and was present when he recaptured Dover, being left in charge as constable of the castle (Gervase of Canterbury, ii. 243). The following year, perhaps as a reward for his fidelity, he was granted the right of free market in his town of Appleby, Lincolnshire. In 1270 he was governor of Scarborough Castle, and also head of the justices in eyre for pleas of the forests beyond the Trent. In 1275 he was appointed chief assessor in Cumberland and Lancashire, of the fifteenth granted by the prelates, earls and barons. The next two years he was summoned to serve in the campaigns against Llywelyn. In 1280 he was chief justice in eyre for pleas of the forest in Nottinghamshire, and in 1282 he was summoned to serve against Llywelyn in April, May, and August. In 1283 he was present at the Shrewsbury parliament, and in the same year was one of the executors of his brother Robert. Geoffrey died in 1285.
Like his father, Neville is said to have married a Margaret, daughter of John de Longvillers (d. 1255), who brought him Hoton Longvillers and various other manors. Geoffrey, and after his death his widow, had considerable difficulty in proving their titles to some of these manors when Edward I instituted his ‘quo warranto’ inquiry (Placita de Quo Warranto, pp. 186, &c.) By Margaret, who survived him many years, Neville had one son, John, from whom were descended the Nevilles of Hornby.
[Foss's Lives of the Judges; Dugdale's Chron. Series, p. 23, and Baronage, i. 291; Parl. Writs, i. 757; Rotul. Origin. Abbreviatio, i. passim; Placita de Quo Warranto and Placitorum Abbreviatio; Rymer, edit. 1816, I. ii. 538, &c.; Cal. Inquisitionum Post Mortem, p. 86; Cal. Rotulorum Patentium, p. 35; Cal. Rotul. Chartarum, p. 95; Roberts's Calend. Genealogicum and Excerpta e Rot. Fin. vol. ii; Gervase of Canterbury, ii. 243; Whitaker's Deanery of Craven, pp. 9, 11, 217, 230, 256; Surtees's Hist. of Durham, passim, esp. iv. 158–9; Hunter's South Yorkshire, ii. 401; Foster's Yorkshire Pedigrees; Thoroton's Nottinghamshire, i. 178; Daniel Rowland's Account of the Family of Nevill; H. J. Swallow's De Nova Villa, Newcastle, 1885.]