Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Orivalle, Hugh de
ORIVALLE, HUGH de (d. 1085), bishop of London, was the first bishop appointed by William the Conqueror to the see of London, and was consecrated by Lanfranc in 1075. William of Malmesbury simply calls him ‘Hugonem quendam’ (Gest. Pontiff. p. 145). Mr. Freeman speaks of him as ‘an obscure name enough’ (Norman Conquest, iv. 375). Dean Milman calls him ‘Hugh of Orwell,’ but he gives no authority; and, if Orwell in Suffolk is the place intended, it must be regarded as in the highest degree unlikely that William should have selected a native Englishman for the bishopric of his capital. We may feel pretty certain that, like William's other bishops, he was a Norman. The only thing recorded of him is that he was afflicted with leprosy, which attacked the lower parts of his abdomen; by the advice of his physicians, Orivalle resorted to the remedy adopted by Origen, ‘but for the health of his body and not of his soul’ (Freeman, ib.) It proved ineffectual; he remained a leper to the day of his death, and thus, in Malmesbury's words, ‘opprobrium spadonis tulit, et nullum invenit remedium.’
[Godwin, De Præsul. i. 175.]