Runhall, Norfolk, England

Village in central Norfolk, England. Coordinates: 52.6195, 1.0100.

Location of the Runhall manor held by the junior Gurney branch in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Significant mainly as the subject of the plea between Sir Matthew de Gournay and Gilbert de Runhall (DG-I Appendix LIII) — the legal record establishing Matthew as son of William de Gournay I (G30).

Why this place matters structurally

Runhall is not primarily a long-lived family seat. Its importance in the project is evidentiary. In that respect it belongs with Montigny-sur-Andelle: both are places whose chief value is that they support a major genealogical argument. Montigny helps prove junior-line blood descent from the Barons of Gournay; Runhall helps prove the early Norfolk father-to-son chain from William I to Matthew. [DG-I]

That makes Runhall one of the key proof-places in the Norfolk set. It should remain focused on legal and evidentiary significance rather than being inflated into a larger manorial narrative than the current source base supports.

Gurney ancestors holding here

The Matthew–Runhall plea

DG-I Appendix LIII contains the text of a legal plea between Sir Matthew de Gournay and Gilbert de Runhall. This document is the primary evidentiary basis for identifying Matthew as the son of William I. Without it, the William I to Matthew to William II sequence becomes much more traditional than documentary.

Interpretive note

Runhall is a good example of why the place library needs both concise JSON and fuller MD narrative. The structured layer can honestly keep it as a junior-line manor locality, but the narrative layer needs to explain that its real force in the project is legal proof, not social or architectural prominence.

Primary-source hooks

• DG-I Appendix LIII — Matthew v. Gilbert de Runhall plea.
• Placit. 8 John (1207) — retrospective record naming William I as lord of Runhall manor in Henry II’s time.
• Gaywood deed naming William I as dominus Willelmus de Gurney.

Post-Gurney tenure

Runhall appears to have passed out of the direct Gurney line after William I and Matthew. The fiefs of Runhall and Swathings may have come to the junior branch through the forfeiture of the Le Bourguignon family when Normandy was lost in 1204 — a plausible explanation, but one that still needs a firmer source trail.

Open items

• Locate DG-I Appendix LIII in the project corpus.
• Pull the published Placita text for the Runhall reference naming William I.
• Locate the Gaywood deed and check whether it survives in NRO or BL charter collections.
• Clarify the Le Bourguignon forfeiture timing and whether Runhall and Swathings entered the line together.

Sources

• Daniel Gurney, Record of the House of Gournay, Part I (1848), pp. 277–278 and pedigree p. 286. [DG-I]
• DG-I Appendix LIII (Matthew v. Gilbert de Runhall plea) — cited, not transcribed here.
• research/places/hardingham.md

Crosslinks

• research/people/g30-william-de-gournay-i-fact-sheet.research.md
• research/people/g29-matthew-de-gournay-fact-sheet.research.md
• research/places/hardingham.md
• research/places/montigny-sur-andelle.md
• research/places/kings-lynn.md