Umberleigh is a former large manor within the historic hundred of (North) Tawton, but today a small village in North Devon in England. It used to be an ecclesiastical parish, but following the building of the church at Atherington it became a part of that parish. It forms however a part of the civil parish of Chittlehampton, which is mostly located on the east side of the River Taw.

The manor of Umberleigh, which had its own entry in the Domesday Book of 1086, was entirely situated on the west side of the River Taw and was centred on the Nunnery which was given by William the Conqueror to the Holy Trinity Abbey in Caen, Normandy.

The site was later occupied by the manor house of Umberleigh, the present Georgian manifestation of which, a large and grand farmhouse, is known as "Umberleigh House". Next to the manor house in about 1275 was founded Umberleigh Chapel, now a ruin the single remaining wall of which forms the back wall of a farm implements shed.

According to the Devon historian Tristram Risdon (d.1640), Umberleigh was a royal manor held in demesne by King Athelstan (circa 893/895-939), King of the West Saxons from 924 to 927, and King of the English from 927 to 939. He built at Umberleigh a palace and next to it a chapel dedicated to the Blessed Trinity which served the royal family and household. Within the manor of Umberleigh Athelstan later founded two churches, at Bickington, now High Bickington and at Atherington, each of which he endowed with two hides of land.

Immediately prior to the Norman Conquest of England in 1066 the manor of Umberleigh had been held by Brictric, as recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086. He was probably the great Saxon thane Brictric son of Algar. A person named Brictric was also the pre-Conquest holder of the single possession in Dorset of the Church of the Holy Trinity of Caen, the post-Conquest holder of Umberleigh.

In the Domesday Book of 1086 Umberlei is listed as the sole possession of the Eccl(esi)a (de) S(ancta) Trinitat(e) Cadom(ensis), the Church of the Holy Trinity of Caen, Normandy, the 12th-century Norman church of which survives today as the Abbaye de Sainte-Trinité, also known as the Abbaye aux Dames ("Abbey of Ladies"), due to the fact it was founded by William the Conqueror (1066–1087) and his wife Matilda of Flanders, before the Norman Conquest of England, as a Benedictine monastery for women. The building work began in 1062 and finished in 1130.

Umberleigh subsequently became a holding of the feudal barony of Gloucester, granted by King William II (1087–1100) to Robert FitzHamon (d. 1107), whose daughter and sole heiress Maud married Robert de Caen, natural (ie. illegitimate) son of King Henry I (1100–1135).

The first subsequent holder of the manor of Umberleigh identified by Risdon and Pole was Asculph de Soleigny (or de Solarys; Latinised as Halculfus de Soleinnio), also lord of the manor of adjacent Atherington, d. 1171), who lived at Umberleigh during the reign of King Henry II (1154–1189). He was succeeded by his son, either Gilbert (according to Risdon), or Phillip de Soleigny (according to Pole). Both father and son fought under King Henry II during his battles to succeed King Stephen (1135–1154).