Hooton Levitt

Hooton Levitt is one of four villages in South Yorkshire, England that carry the name of Hooton, meaning 'farmstead on a spur of land.' Hooton Levitt (or Levett) carries the manorial affix of the de Livet (or Levett) family, an ancient Norman family that gained control of the manor in the 12th century after marriage with the granddaughter of Richard FitzTurgis (later 'de Wickersley') [ [http://www.rotherham.gov.uk/graphics/Learning/Archives/Local+Towns+and+Villages/EDSWickersley.htm de Wickersley family, Rotherham.gov] ] , lord of Hooton and Wickersley and co-founder of nearby Roche Abbey. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=0tgKAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA282&lpg=PA282&dq=york+lyvet&source=web&ots=ZEmL3WgVVj&sig=OPvWc-OEtXPWIX9WAya65wjl0ng&hl=en Jacob Lyvet, Hooton Levitt, Knights supplied to King Edward I, The Publications of the Surtees Society, The Survey of the County of York, Taken by John de Kirkby, 1867] ]

(It is likely that the Levetts of Yorkshire, who gave their surname to the village of Hooton, originated in Sussex, where the family had initially held land and where their holdings were in the area of Sussex controlled by the powerful Earls Warenne, among the most powerful of the Norman nobility, who held an immense baronial holding in Yorkshire stretching to Lancashire and Cheshire. William de Livet was a witness for a deed of about 1200 in which William de Warenne, 6th Earl of Surrey confirmed a grant to Kirklees Nunnery by Reyner le Fleming, lord of the manor of Clifton.) [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=8PQvAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA83&lpg=RA1-PA83&dq=%22kirklees+nunnery%22+yorkshire&source=web&ots=_AjSfKIR9P&sig=X3678OjR3jtwHuqcffROL0ne7Cg&hl=en#PRA1-PA83,M1 Kirklees Nunnery, Yorkshire Notes and Queries, Joseph Horsfall Turner, 1888] ]

"Hooton Levett," notes Samuel Lewis in his 1848 "A Topographical Dictionary of England, "a township, in the parish of Maltby, union of Rotherham, S. division of the wapentake of Strafforth and Tickhill, W. riding of York, 5¼ miles (W. S. W.) from Tickhill; containing 76 inhabitants. It derives the affix to its name from the family of Levett, who held lands here, up to about the time of Henry V. The township comprises by computation 470 acres; the soil is favourable, and the scenery pleasing." [ [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51042#s14 Hooton Levett, Samuel Lewis, A Topographical Dictionary of England, 1848 British History Online] ]

References

External links

* [http://www.rotherham.gov.uk/graphics/Learning/Archives/Local+Towns+and+Villages/EDSHooton+Levitt.htm History of Hooton Levitt]
* [http://books.google.com/books?id=awIhAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PR23&lpg=RA1-PR23&dq=wickersley+roche+abbey+levet&source=web&ots=CXzvYFoLdQ&sig=TX3xZS-mB40SE3XxHId3xtjFYyI The History of Roche Abbey]
* [http://www.rotherhamweb.co.uk/district/hlevitt.htm Origin of Hooton Levitt]
* [http://www.rotherhamweb.co.uk/h/rufford1.htm Nicholas de Lyvet, Hooton]
* [http://cistercians.shef.ac.uk/roche/history/foundation/ FitzTurgis, lord of Hooton]
* [http://fretwell.kangaweb.com.au/pdfs/William%20Fretwell%20Hoyle.pdf Hooton Levitt Hall, now demolished]