Note: This profile would not have been possible without the pedigree and evidence presented in I. Cave-Browne's book Detling in Days Gone By, or The History of the Parish (Maidstone and London, 1880), page 63. I'd also like to thank researcher Jared Nathan for referring me to I. Cave-Browne's work.

A record dated 15 August 1279 refers to 4203240William as Dominus Willelmus Dettelinge, Miles (where Dominus is Latin for "Lord" or "Sir," and miles is "knight.") The same record notes that he had paid for a knight's fee in Detling.1 Since 4203240William was old enough to have made such a payment, he was very likely born by about 1260 at the latest. (Note: Distinguishing 4203240William from his father and son, both of whom were also named William, is difficult, but I suspect that this 1279 record refers to this 4203240William.)

A record dated 28 April 1290/1 in Otford, Kent shows that 4203240William paid for half a knight's fee that had formerly belonged to his father 8406480William.2

As best I can tell, the following passage refers to this 4203240William (as I've explained elsewhere on this site). The passage is copied from: Caroline Burt, Edward I and the Governance of England, 1272–1307 (2013), pages 217-220. Burt's internal source citations are reproduced exactly as they appear in her book, and the description of those citations follows the passage. Burt repeatedly cites records from JUST 1/396, images of which can be seen here, but I haven't been able to spot the entries of interest.

It is clear that the king’s most specific worries in 1304 as he turned his full attention to internal government were about bands of malefactors roaming the country and causing disorder, and the alleged hiring of those groups of men to commit crimes.

[...]

A case involving Sir William de Detling from Kent is illustrative of this point. Here, if the accusations in the trailbaston rolls are to be taken at face value, it might be concluded that there was at least one criminal gang in Kent, led by Detling; indeed, the suggestion was that Detling was a ringleader bringing together local criminals in the Detling/Maidstone area to do his nefarious bidding, exactly the sort of lord about whom the king was very concerned. One allegation against him, for example, is that he ordered Hamo atte Heche and Simon de Folkstone to beat the wife of Galfrid de Morton so brutally that she died. Detling then allegedly helped Heche to escape from prison.59 In another case, Detling was accused of being a blackmailer, ordering the seizure of a vicar’s horse and returning it only after the payment of a six-mark fine.60 Elsewhere he was described as a thief, keeping company with many men who are described as ‘common thieves’.61

However, other information about Detling both in the trailbaston rolls and elsewhere suggests that things were more complicated than this. In fact, Sir William was killed at Detling, near Maidstone, in 1304, well before the trailbaston justices got to Kent.62 The first mention of this was in April 1304, when the king ordered that, as a result of a petition from Detling’s 'friends' (he was linked with William de Leyburn, a member of the king’s household and captain of the king’s mariners), no writ or commission of oyer and terminer into his death was to be issued until Edward returned to England.63 Later that month, and also in June, mention was made in the chancery records of men who were now in gaol accused of his murder, or of aiding, abetting or receiving the perpetrators.64 Finally, in September 1304, a commission of oyer and terminer was issued to investigate his death.65 In the following months, a very large number of people were indicted, not only before the commissioners, but also before the sheriff and the Warden of the Cinque Ports; in fact, it would seem that many people in the immediate locality were hauled in. They were then dealt with by a special gaol delivery commission in 1305–6, as a result of which, in the end, most were acquitted, but two were hanged.66 Some of the evidence in the trailbaston records from 1305 suggests that the cause of Detling’s death was quite simple: there was an altercation between the servants of Detling’s neighbour, Nicholas de Knoville, and Detling and his esquire, Gegge, over rights to oats in a grange in Detling. During the course of this, Detling had allegedly cut off the crown of the head of one of Knoville’s servants with a ‘Scottish axe’. A mêlée followed, and both Detling and Gegge were killed. From this, it would seem that this was an unusually violent fight which ended in death.67 There are thus two pictures of William Detling: in one he is a violent man who got into an altercation and died as a result; because of his high-level connections his case was taken especially seriously and pursued determinedly by the government; in the other he is a ‘master criminal’. It is, of course, not possible to know which, if either, is a true representation, but the evidence about Detling illustrates very clearly the difficulty of concluding from the records that conspiracy and violence were always as bad as the documents seem to suggest.

59	TNA JUST 1/396, m. 6.
60	ibid.
61	TNA JUST 1/396, m. 2.
62	Quick, 'Government and Society in Kent', 285, 292, 305.
63	Chancery Warrants, vol. i, 210–11.
64	Ibid., 215, 222.
65	CPR, 1301 – 7 , 284.
66	TNA JUST 1/403/3; TNA JUST 3/26/4.
67	TNA JUST 1/396, m. 7.

Sources Cited:

1: Charles Trice Martin, ed., Registrum Epistolarum Fratris Johannis Peckham, Archiepiscopi Cantuariensis, Volume III (London, 1885), page 998, an entry that reads, "17 kal. Sept. at Mortlake, Sir Wm. Detteling for one knight's fee in Detteling." 17 Kal. Sept. corresponds to 15 August using the ancient Roman calendar method. A more thorough transcription comes from: I. Cave-Browne, Detling in Days Gone By, or The History of the Parish (Maidstone and London, 1880), page 62. It reads, "xvij. Kal. Septembr. Dominus Willelmus Dettelinge, Miles, apud Mortelak' in introitu aule, fecit homagium et juravit fidelitatem Domino Archiepiscopo pro uno feodo militari, quod clamat tenere de eo et nullo alio in villa Dettelinge, reddendo annuatim xiij. libras ad quatuor terminos principales."

2: ibid., an entry that reads, "1291. 4 kal. Maii, at Otford, Wm. de Dettling for the land of Wm. his father." 4 Kal. May corresponds to 28 April 1290/1. A more thorough transcription comes from: I. Cave-Browne, Detling in Days Gone By, or The History of the Parish (Maidstone and London, 1880), page 62. It reads, "iiijto Kal. Maij. Apud Otteford in Curia, Willelmus de Dettlinge fecit homagium et fidelitatem Domino pro dimidio feodo militari; quam terram Dominus Willelmus de Dettlinge pater ejus aliquando tenuit."