Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Neville, Jollan de
NEVILLE, JOLLAN de (d. 1246), judge, was the younger son of Jollan de Neville (d. 1207), a clerk in the exchequer, who received a grant of Shorne in Kent in 1201, and was subsequently pardoned for some offence against the king. His mother was Amflicia de Rodliston or Rolleston, a Nottinghamshire manor which she brought as dowry, and subsequently passed, through the hands of her sons John and Jollan, to a descendant of the latter, also named Jollan, who was possessed of it in the reign of Edward III (Placita de Quo Warranto, p. 618). Jollan's elder brother John, who served for some time in Gascony, died in 1219, when Jollan did homage for his lands situate in the shires of York, Lincoln, and Nottingham. His mother was still living, and held Rolleston when the ‘Testa de Nevill’ was drawn up. Jollan was justice in eyre in Yorkshire and Northumberland in August 1234, in 1235, 1240, and again in November 1241 (Whitaker, Whalley, ii. 283, 389); but from the last year until Hilary 1245 he was a superior justice, sitting at Westminster. He died in 1246, when his son Jollan succeeded to his lands, being then twenty-two and a half years old, and afterwards receiving additional grants in the reign of Edward I (Archœol. Cantiana, ii. 295; Cal. Rot. Chartarum). A Jollan de Neville married Sarah, widow of John Heriz, in 1245, but this is almost certainly the judge's son.
Neville has often been claimed as the author of the ‘Testa de Nevill,’ an account of fees, serjeanties, widows and heiresses, churches in the gift of the king, escheats, and the sums paid for scutage and aid by each tenant. This work deals with a period previous to 1250, and one entry refers back as far as 1198, for which Neville could not have been responsible. It is very possible that the ‘Testa’ was the work of more than one author, and Neville's father, Jollan—who was, moreover, connected with the exchequer—probably compiled the early entries. It has also been attributed to Ralph de Neville, an official of the exchequer. The original manuscript of the ‘Testa’ is not known to be extant, but a copy of a portion consisting of five rolls made during the fourteenth century—formerly preserved in the chapter-house at Westminster—is now in the Record Office. In 1807 the record commissioners issued a volume which they entitled ‘Testa de Nevill.’ It prints a collection of mediæval manuscript registers in the Record Office, and this collection includes some excerpts apparently copied from an early draft of the original ‘Testa de Nevill.’ But these excerpts form a small part of the record commissioners' volume, and its title is therefore a misnomer. A comparison of these excerpts, moreover, with the chapter-house rolls of the genuine ‘Testa’ does not bear out the statement made by the record sub-commissioners, that there is an exact verbal agreement between the two (Sir Henry Barkly in Selby's Genealogist, v. 35–40, 75–80).
[Testa de Nevill, Record edit.; Foss's Lives of the Judges, i. 421–3; Cal. Inquis. post mortem, p. 4; Rott. Litt. Claus. i. 409 b, ii. 43, 118 b; Dugdale's Baronage, i. 288, Chronica Ser. pp. 11, 13, and Orig. p. 43; Archæol. Cant. ii. 295; Manning and Bray's Surrey, i. 273 n.; Thoroton's Nottinghamshire, iii. 102; Whitaker's Whalley, ii. 283, 389; Rowland's History of the Nevills, p. 19.]