William de Ferrers

Notes:

"Sheriff of Notts and Derby, for 7 weeks, February-March 1194. About that time, before the King's return to England, he supported the justiciar against John, Count of Mortain, and, with the Earl of Chester, besieged Nottingham Castle. Shortly afterwards he took part at Richard's second Coronation, 17 April, being one of the four Earls who bore the canopy. After the King's death, he was at the Council of Northampton, which declared for John as Richard's successor: he was present at the Coronation, 27 May 1199. On 7 June 1199, the King restored and confirmed to him the third penny of all the pleas pleaded per vicecomitem de Dereby, unde ipse Comes est, as amply as any of his predecessors had had the same, to hold, to him and his heirs for ever, and with his own hand girded him with the sword as an Earl. On the same day the King gave him Higham with the hundred and a half, and the park of that town, and Newbottle and Blisworth, as his right and inheritance which descended to him as right heir of the land which was of William Peverel, to hold, to him and his heirs for ever, by the service of a knlght's fee. And the Earl quit-claimed the residue of the land which was of William Peverel to the King, and paid 2,000 marks for his charter. He was present at the Coronation of Henry III, 28 October 1216. On 30 October the King granted him the castles of Peak and Bolsover, co. Derby, with the homages, and on 16 January 1216/7 the manor of Melbourne in that co., to hold till the King was 14 years of age. He assisted the Regent to raise the siege of Lincoln Castle, 20 May 1217, and with his brother-in-law, the Earl of Chester, commanded the royal forces which took and razed the castle of Montsorel. In June 1218 he went on Crusade. He was warned, 26 June 1222, to surrender the castles of Peak and Bolsover before Michaelmas. Sheriff of co. Lancaster and Keeper of the honour of Lancaster, 30 December 1223 to 2 January 1227/8. He accompanied the King in the expedition to Brittany and Poitou, April to October 1230. On 19 January 1230/1 he was given the custody of all the lands of the Normans in England which were of his fee. He was at the Council of London, February 1231/2. He was summoned for Military Service against the Scots 15 May 1244, by writ directed W. de Ferar' comiti Derebi." [Complete Peerage]

Died of the complications of gout.

William married Agnes of Chester in 1192. Agnes (daughter of Hugh of Chester and Bertrade de Montfort) died on 2 Nov 1247. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Bertha de Ferrers died after 10 Feb 1267; was buried in Grey Friars, Dunwich, Suffolk, England.
2. Sibyl de Ferrers
3. William de Ferrers was born about 1193 in of Tutbury, Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England; died on 24 Mar 1254 in Evington, Leicestershire, England; was buried on 31 Mar 1254 in Merevale Abbey, Warwickshire, England.

Notes:

Earl of Derby.

"He was one of the adherents of the younger Henry on his rebellion in April 1173, and sacked and burnt Nottingham in May or June 1174. He made his submission to the King at Northampton, 31 July 1174, surrendering his castles of Tutbury and Duffield. The King took him, with other prisoners, to France in August following, and imprisoned them at Caen. [...] He died on Crusade, at the siege of Acre, in Palestine, in 1190, before 21 October. His wife survived him, and was, perhaps, living as late as 5 February 1227/8." [Complete Peerage]

His wife has long been given as Sybil, a daughter of William de Braose and Bertha of Hereford. But Complete Peerage XIV notes that the charter which was the sole evidence for this was a forgery.

William married (Unknown wife of William de Ferrers). (Unknown died after 5 Feb 1228. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Earl of Derby.

Robert married Margaret Peverel. Margaret (daughter of William Peverel and Oddona) was born in of Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

A commander at the Battle of the Standard, following which he was created Earl of Derby by Stephen.

Robert married Hawise. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Complete Peerage, Ancestral Roots, etc., show her as Hawise de Vitré, daughter of André I de Vitré (1055-1139) and Agnes de Mortain, but Keats-Rohan in Domesday Descendants says "there is no convincing evidence of her identity."

Notes:

"[A] strong supporter of King Stephen. He was taken prisoner at the Battle of Lincoln in 1141, when his lands were seized, but returned in 1143. Henry Fitz Empress in 1153 promised Ranulf, Earl of Chester, Peverel's lands, on condition of his support, whereupon Peverel, it is said, poisoned the Earl of Chester a few months later. William became a monk and his lands were seized by Henry II in 1155." [VCH Rutland, volume 2, "Parishes: Empingham," pp. 242-250.]

William married Oddona. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Between 1088 and 1089

Notes:

Earl of Derby. A Domesday commissioner.

From Complete Peerage IV:190-1:

Henry de Ferrieres, Sire de Ferrieres and Chambrais in Normandy (d), son of Walkelin de Ferrieres (e). He was a Domesday Commissioner, and held at the date of the Survey some 210 lordships or manors, more than half of which were in co. Derby, but the caput of his honour was at Tutbury, then in the district of Burton-on-Trent, co. Stafford. Near Tutbury he founded a priory for Benedictine monks. He married Bertha. He was buried at Tutbury.

(d) Ferrieres and Chambrais (now Broglie), on the Charantonne, in the chief iron-producing district of Normandy. The workers of iron, in this province, were under the jurisdiction of six barons 'fossiers'; these were the barons of Ferrieres, La Ferte Fresnel, and Chaumont, and the abbots of Lyre, St. Wandrille, and St. Evroul. The barons of Ferrieres were style 'premiers barons fossiers', which shows that the forges they had charge of were esteemed the principal, or most ancient. The popular story that Henry de Ferrieres "received his surname from holding the office of master of the farriers in the invading army" is therefore only the truth--a little distorted. Whether the English branch of the family in the twelth century bore, as the heralds say they did, Sable, six horse-shoes Argent (or the same with the tinctures reversed), or whether they bore any arms at all, is another question.

(e) This Walkelin was slain in the civil wars which distracted Normandy during the minority of Duke William.

Henry married Bertha. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

"[H]ad extensive holdings, afterwards known as the honor of Peverel, consisting of 100 lordships in co. Nottingham and Northants, fourteen in co. Derby, and some twenty others; founded Lenton Priory and St. James's Abbey near Nottingham." [The Wallop Family, citation details below.]

William married Adeline. Adeline died after 1129. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Seigneur de Ferrers & Chambrais. Also called Walkelin de Ferrers.

Died "in the civil wars of William's minority". [Encyclopedia Britannica]

Notes:

There seems little doubt that Ranulf Peverel existed; what's at issue is whether he was father to any of the other real and alleged Peverels of the late eleventh century. It seems at least plausible that he was father to William Peverel "the Elder" (d. 1114), and that Robert Peverel (father of Ascelina, wife of Geoffrey de Walterville) was William the Elder's brother -- or possibly half-brother, sharing with him a father but not a mother. A somewhat messy collection of snippets from the literature is here.