Juhel de Totnes

     Juhel de Totnes was born circa 1049; The estates which Juhel de Totnes held in Domesday Book later formed part of the barony of Totnes. It is stated that when William the Conqueror died, in 1087, Juhel was expelled from Totnes, which was granted by William II to Roger I de Nonant. This finds support from the fact that in 1091 Roger's gift of the church of St. Mary, Totnes, to the abbey of SS. Sergius and Bacchus, Angers, was confirmed by the king; this was confirmed by King Henry I in 1102-5. He is also called Juhel fitz Alfred or Juhel de Mayenne. He died between 1123 and 1130; In 1069 Juhel was one of the leaders of the Breton forces on the Norman side, fighting against the remaining forces that had been loyal to King Harold. He had been granted by William the Conqueror the feudal baron of Totnes, Devon, and held many manors in south-west England, at the time of the Domesday Book of 1086, including Clawton, Broadwood Kelly, Bridford and Cornworthy. In about 1087 he founded Totnes Priory. He was expelled from the barony of Totnes shortly after the death of King William I in 1087. According to the historian Frank Barlow (1983), King William II "replaced the Breton Judhel, whom he expelled from Totnes at the beginning of his reign for an unknown reason, with his favourite, Roger I of Nonant". However at some time before 1100 Juhel was granted the large feudal barony of Barnstaple, Devon.
It was not until the reign of Henry I that Juhel de Totnes replaced the wooden castle in Barnstaple [England] with a stone one and had the town circled with walls, outside of which he also built St Mary Magdalene Priory.¹