Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Stuteville, Robert de

​STUTEVILLE, ROBERT de (d. 1186), baron and justiciar, was son of Robert de Stuteville, one of the northern barons who commanded the English at the battle of the Standard in August 1138 (Gesta Stephani, p. 160). His grandfather, Robert Grundebeof, had supported Robert of Normandy at Tenchebrai in 1106, where he was taken captive and kept in prison for the rest of his life (Rog. Hov. iv. 117–18). Dugdale makes one person of the Robert Stuteville who fought at the battle of the Standard and the justiciar, but in this he was no doubt in error.

Robert de Stuteville the third occurs as witness to a charter of Henry II on 8 Jan. 1158 at Newcastle-on-Tyne (Eyton, p. 33). He was a justice itinerant in the counties of Cumberland and Northumberland in 1170–1171 (Madox, Hist. Exchequer, i. 144, 146), and sheriff of Yorkshire from Easter 1170 to Easter 1175. The king's castles of Knaresborough and Appleby were in his custody in April 1174, when they were captured by David, earl of Huntingdon. Stuteville, with his brothers and sons, was active in support of the king during the war of 1174, and he took a prominent part in the capture of William the Lion (1143–1214) [q. v.] at Alnwick on 13 July (Rog. Hov. ii. 60). He was one of the witnesses to the Spanish award on 16 March 1177 (ib. ii. 131), and from 1174 to 1181 was constantly in attendance on the king, both in England and abroad (Eyton, passim). He seems to have died in the early part of 1186 (ib. p. 273). He claimed the barony, which had been forfeited by his grandfather, from Roger de Mowbray, who by way of compromise gave him Kirby Moorside (Rog. Hov. iv. 118). Stuteville married twice; by his first wife, Helewise, he had a son William (see below) and two daughters; by the second, Sibilla, sister of Philip de Valoines, a son Eustace. He was probably the founder of the nunneries of Keldholme and Rossedale, Yorkshire (Dugdale, Monast. Angl. iv. 316), and was a benefactor of Rievaulx Abbey.

Robert de Stuteville was probably brother of the Roger de Stuteville who was sheriff of Northumberland from 1170 to 1185, and defended Wark Castle against William the Lion in 1174 (Jordan Fantosme, passim). Roger received charge of Edinburgh Castle in 1177 (Eyton, p. 214).

William de Stuteville (d 1203) was governor of Topclive Castle in 1174, and of Roxburgh Castle in 1177 (Rog. Hov. ii. 58, 133). He was a justice itinerant in Yorkshire in 1189, and in the following year was sheriff of Northumberland. He remained in England during the third crusade, and was at first a loyal supporter of Richard's interests. William de Longchamp sent him to arrest Hugh de Puiset [q. v.] in April 1190, and in 1191 made him sheriff of Lincolnshire. Afterwards he seems to have been won over by John, and in March 1193 he joined with Hugh Bardolf in preventing Archbishop Geoffrey of York from besieging Tickhill (ib. iii. 35, 135, 206). Stuteville was nevertheless reconciled to the king, and in 1194 was one of the commissioners whom Richard appointed to settle the dispute between Archbishop Geoffrey and the canons of York (Madox, Hist. Exch. i. 33). On the accession of John, William de Stuteville received charge of the counties of Northumberland and Cumberland (Rog. Hov. iv. 91). From the new king he received a grant of fairs at Butter-Crambe and Cottingham, and by his influence at court was able to obtain a settlement of his dispute with William de Mowbray (ib. iv. 117–18). John visited him at Cottingham in January 1201, and in that same year made him sheriff of Yorkshire (ib. iv. 158, 161). Stuteville died in 1203, leaving by his wife Berta, niece of Ranulph de Glanville [q. v.], two sons—Robert (d. 1205) and Nicholas (d. 1219); the latter had a son Nicholas, who died in 1236, and with whom the male line of William de Stuteville came to an end. From a collateral branch of the ​family there descended Sir William de Skipwith [q. v.]

C. L. K.