William de Turbeville

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William de Turbeville (c. 1095 – Norwich, January, 1174) was Bishop of Norwich (1146-74).

William de Turbeville was educated in the Benedictine cathedral priory of Norwich. Here he also made religious profession, first as a teacher and later as prior. He was present at the Easter synod of 1144 when Godwin Stuart told the improbable story that his nephew William, a boy of about twelve years, had been murdered by the Norwich Jews during the preceding Holy Week.

When William de Turbeville became bishop in 1146 he propagated the cult of the "boy-martyr" William. On four different occasions he had the boy's remains transferred to more honourable places, and in 1168 erected a chapel in his honor in Mousehold Wood, where the boy's body was said to have been found. He persuaded Thomas of Monmouth, a monk of Norwich priory, to write "The Life and Miracles of St. William of Norwich" circa 1173, the only extant authority for the legend of William of Norwich now commonly discredited.

This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.