As the prefix fitz in his surname suggests he was presumably the son of Turold/Thorold/Turolf. A certain "Turulf", presumably his father, witnessed a charter to the monastery of Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy, to which same monastery Richard also granted lands.
In the 13th century his estates formed part of the Feudal barony of Cardinham, Cornwall, and in 1166 as recorded in the Cartae Baronum his estates had been held as a separate fiefdom from Reginald, Earl of Cornwall. Cornwall = Tenant of Count of Mortain He had a castle at Cardinham in Cornwall, in which county he was a major tenant and steward of Robert of Mortain, Count of Mortain, half-brother of King William the Conqueror. His holdings in Cornwall included the manor of Penhallam.
Devon = Tenant-in-chief His entry in the Devonshire section of the Domesday Book lists Ricardus filius Turoldus as a tenant-in-chief of the king and holding four properties: Woodhuish, Brixham parish, Haytor hundred Natsworthy, Widecombe-in-the-Moor parish, Haytor hundred East Allington, in Stanborough hundred One house in the City of Exeter = Mesne tenant Street Marychurch in the parish of Haytor hundred, held from the Count of Mortain.
Martin in Drewsteignton parish, Wonford hundred, held from Baldwin de Moeles, Sheriff of Devon.
