Robert de Auberville (de Albervilla, in Latin), of Iham (Higham, in Icklesham) and Iden, Sussex, representative of a wealthy Norman family in Kent and Sussex, was a Justiciar in Kent, Constable of Hastings Castle, and Keeper of the Coast to King Henry III of England.
Origins
The de Auberville family was seated at Westenhanger, near Stanford, Kent. William de Auberville the elder, King's Justiciar (son of Hugh de Auberville (the elder) and his wife Wynanc), married Matilda (Maud), eldest daughter of Ranulf de Glanville (Chief Justiciar of England to King Henry II) and his wife Bertha de Valoines. (Bertha's sister was the wife of Hervey Walter, and mother of Archbishop Hubert Walter.)
William de Auberville (the elder) was associated with the foundation or patronage of various religious houses including the Augustinian Canons Regular of Butley Abbey (1171) and the Premonstratensians of Leiston Abbey (1182) in Suffolk, both founded by Ranulf, and by his own founding, c. 1192, of West Langdon Abbey in Kent, as from Leiston Abbey, assisted by the priors of both Suffolk houses. The Langdon foundation was confirmed by Simon de Averenches, Lord of Folkestone (died c. 1203) who, as his fee-lord, refers to "the charter of my revered knight William de Auberville". William died c. 1195, and his heirs became wards of Hubert Walter.
William's principal heir was his son Hugh (the younger), who inherited from him, but there was also a son William and a daughter Emma. Hugh de Auberville the younger, together with Robert his brother, were c. 1199-1205 witnesses to a charter of John of Eu, a son of John, Count of Eu, confirming to the Cistercian abbey of Robertsbridge in Sussex their tenements, liberties and customs in his fee of the Rape of Hastings. Hugh died c. 1212, whereupon William Briwere paid 1000 marks for custody of his lands, his heirs and their marriages. The inheritance descended through Hugh's son William de Auberville the younger (died by 1248) to William's daughter Joan, who married Nicholas de Crioll.
Robert de Auberville maintained connections with Robertsbridge Abbey, married the heiress of another of its patron families, and became settled at the western edge of Romney Marsh. Robertsbridge was originally founded in 1176 in the parish of Salehurst by Alvred de St. Martin, Sheriff of the Rape of Hastings, whose wife was Alice d'Aubigny, widow of John, Count of Eu.
Marriage
The Sheriff of Sussex was ordered to effect full seisin of the land of "Ihōme" and Iden in eastern Sussex to Robert de Auberville, in the right of his wife Claricia, which had been in the keeping of Hubert Walter, in July 1205. Claricia is identified as a daughter of Robert de Gosteling on the basis of a deed of quitclaim made by her to the priory of Christ Church, Canterbury of lands in the vicinity of Fairfield, Snave and Appledore, on the west side of Romney Marsh, near Iden. This shows her as the wife of Robert de Auberville, who has enclosed 36 acres from the sea. A further reference to her in the Curia Regis rolls shows that Claricia was the granddaughter of Samson de Gestling.
Samson and Robert de Gosteling appear frequently as witnesses to the Robertsbridge Abbey deeds. William de Auberville, as justiciar, presided at an early transaction, and Hugh, alone, at another. Robert witnessed three other Robertsbridge charters in the Lisle muniments. Sussex Fines of 1219 reflect the dealings of Robert and Claricia with the Abbey respecting lands at Northiam, Pett and Playden.
Rebellions
In 1210 King John took a large army to Ireland in order to suppress a revolt by the Anglo-Norman lords whom he held there in governance. Robert de Auberville fought in Ireland in that year, and Hugh is named in the same entry.
In 1215, following the sealing of Magna Carta at Runnymede, Robert de Auberville was with William d'Aubigny, William de Averenches, Reginald de Cornhill (the High Sheriff of Kent), Thomas de Moletun, Osbert Giffard and a hundred others who held Rochester Castle against King John, until he besieged them there and they were captured. At this time Cecilia, widow of Simon de Averenches, sold her manor of Sutton next Seaford to Robertsbridge, in order to ransom her son William.
Robert was however loyal to Henry III at the time of the revolt stirred up by William de Fortibus, Earl of Aumale, and in 1221, having been listed for the general levy of scutage, he was with the young king at the siege of the Earl's castle at Bytham in Lincolnshire in February and March of that year. After the castle was fired a number of prisoners were taken, and on 15 March the order was given that he and Paul de Tayden should have charge of conducting them in their carts to London.