William de Ferrers, 7th Earl of Derby

Other Events and Attributes:

• Death: 24 Jan 1288, Groby, Leicestershire, England

Family/Spouse: Anna Durward. Anna (daughter of Alan Durward and Marjory) was born in 1248 in Loughborough, Leicestershire, England; died in 1280 in Groby, Leicestershire, England; was buried in Groby, Leicestershire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. William de Ferrers, 1st Baron Ferrers of Groby was born on 30 Jan 1272 in Yoxall, Staffordshire, England; died on 20 Mar 1325 in Groby, Leicestershire, England; was buried in Groby, Leicestershire, England.

Family/Spouse: Unknown. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. William de Ferrers, 1st Baron Ferrers of Groby was born on 30 Jan 1272 in Yoxall, Staffordshire, England; died on 20 Mar 1325 in Groby, Leicestershire, England; was buried in Groby, Leicestershire, England.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Burial: Merevale, Warwickshire, England
• Name: William de Ferrers

Notes:

William de Ferrers, 7th Earl of Derby, upon doing homage in the 32nd Henry III [c. 1248], had livery of Chartley Castle and the other lands of his mother's inheritance; and the same year he sat in the parliament held in London wherein the king made so stout an answer to the demands of his impetuous barons. His lordship m. 1st, Sibel, one of the daus. and co-heirs of William Mareschal, Earl of Pembroke, by whom he had seven daus., viz., Agnes, m. to William de Vesci; Isabel m. 1st to Gilbert Basset, of Wycombe, and 2ndly, to Reginald de Mohun; Maud, m. 1st to William de Kymes; 2ndly to William de Vyvon, and 3rdly, to Emerick de Rupel Carnardi; Sibil m. 1st to John de Vipont, 2ndly to Franco de Mohun; Joane m. to William Aguillon, and 2ndly to John de Mohun; Agatha m. to Hugh Mortimer of Chelmersh; Eleanor m. 1st to William de Vallibus, 2ndly to Roger de Quincy, Earl of Winton, and 3rdly to Roger de Leybourne, but had no issue. The earl m. 2ndly Margaret, one of the daus. and co-heirs of Roger de Quincy, Earl of Winchester, and had issue: Robert, his successor; William, upon whom his mother conferred the lordship of Groby, co. Leicester; Joan, m. Thomas, Lord Berkeley; and Agnes, m. to Robert de Muscegros, Lord of Deerhurst.

His lordship, who from his youth had been a martyr to the gout, and in consequence obliged to he drawn from place to place in a chariot, lost his life by being thrown through the heedlessness of his driver over the bridge at St. Neots, co. Huntingdon, in 1254. He was survived by his eldest son, Robert de Ferrers, 6th Earl of Derby. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 197, Ferrers, Earls of Derby]

William married Margaret de Quincy. Margaret (daughter of Roger de Quincy, 2nd Earl of Winchester and Helen "of Galloway") was born in 1218 in England; died in 1281 in England; was buried in Merevale, Warwickshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

This nobleman, upon the return of King Richard from captivity, took arms in his behalf and, joining the Earl of Chester, besieged Nottingham Castle, which, after a brief resistance, surrendered. For this and other acts of fidelity, he was chosen by the king to sit with the rest of the peers in the great council held at the said castle in Nottingham in the ensuing March. Moreover, at Richard's second coronation he was one of the four that carried the canopy over the king's head. Upon the accession of King John, his lordship, with the Earls of Clare and Chester, and other great men, swore fealty to the new monarch but upon the condition that each person should have his right. His lordship was present at the coronation of King John and 7 June following, being solemnly created Earl of Derby by special charter dated at Northampton, he was girt with a sword by the king's own hands (being the first of whom in any charter that expression was used). He had also a grant of the third penny of all the pleas before the sheriff throughout the whole country whereof he was earl, to hold to him and his heirs as amply as any of his ancestors had enjoyed the same. Moreover, in consideration of 4,000 marks, he obtained another charter from the king of the manor of Higham-Ferrers, Northampton, with the hundred and park; as also of the manors of Bliseworth and Newbottle, in the same shire; which were part of the lands of his great grandfather, William Peverel of Nottingham. King John also conferred upon him a mansion-house situated in the parish of St. Margaret within the city of London, which had belonged to Isaac, a Jew, at Norwich, to hold by the service of waiting upon the king (the earl and his heirs), at all festivals yearly without any cap, but with a garland of the breadth of his little finger upon his head. These liberal marks of royal favor were felt so gratefully by the earl that in all the subsequent struggles between the king and the refractory barons, his lordship never once swerved from his allegiance, but remained true to the monarch; and loyalty to the interests of his son, King Henry III. His lordship assisted at the coronation of the new monarch and immediately after the ensuing Easter, he took part with the famous William Marshall(governor of the king and kingdom), the Earls of Chester and Albemarle, and many other great men in the siege of Mountsorell Castle in Leicestershire, then held by Henry de Braybroke and ten other stout knights. And the same year was likewise with those noble persons at raising the siege of Lincoln, which place the rebellious barons with Lewis, King of France, had invested. His lordship m. Agnes, sister and one of the co-heirs of Ranulph, Earl of Chester, by whom he had two sons, William and Thomas. He died of the gout in 1246 and his countess d. in the same year after a union, according to some authorities, of seventy-five, and by others, of fifty-five years. His lordship was s. by his elder son, William de Ferrers, 5th Earl of Derby. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 196, Ferrers, Earls of Derby]

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There is substantial confusion over his name. See The Complete Peerage Vol. 4, p 193 for an account. Personally, I feel there could have been two brothers, William and Robert, Robert being the Earl and when he died at Acre his nephew William son of his brother William succeeded, but no documents support this theory either! In The Complete Peerage vol. XIV, p.250 it is suggested that Robert is a fabrication by Vincent, Earl of Ferrieres. [Brian Tompsett, Directory of Royal Genealogical Data]

William married Agnes de Meschines on 2 Nov 1192. Agnes (daughter of 3rd Earl of Chester Hugh de Kevelioc, 5th Earl of Chester and Bertrade de Montfort) was born about 1174 in Chester, Cheshire, England; died on 2 Nov 1247. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Roger married Helen "of Galloway". Helen (daughter of Lord of Galloway Alan FitzRoland) was born about 1196 in Wigtownshire, Scotland; died after 21 Nov 1245 in England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

William de Ferrers, 3rd Earl of Derby, rebelled against Henry II and marching at the head of the Leicestershire men (19th Henry II) upon Nottingham, then kept for the king by Reginald de Luci, got possession of the town which he sacked, putting the greater part of the inhabitants to the sword and taking the rest prisoners. He was soon afterwards, however, reduced to submission and obliged to surrender to the crown his castles in Tutbury and Duffield, which were demolished by order of the king. His lordship m. Sibilla, dau. of William de Braose, Lord of Abergavenny and Brecknock, by whom he had issue. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p.196, Ferrers, Earls of Derby]

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There is substantial confusion over his name. See The Complete Peerage Vol. 4, p 193 for an account. Personally, I feel there could have been two brothers, William and Robert, Robert being the Earl and when he died at Acre his nephew William [son of his brother William] succeeded, but no documents support this theory! In The Complete Peerage vol. XIV, p. 250 it is suggested that Robert is a fabrication by Vincent, Earl of Ferrieres. [Brian Tompsett, Directory of Royal Genealogical Data, http://www.dcs.hull.ac.uk/cgi-bin/gedlkup/n=royal?royal04492]

William married Sybil de Braose about 1167 in Sussex, England. Sybil (daughter of 1st Baron of Gwentland William de Braose and Heiress of Brecon Bertha FitzMiles de Gloucester) was born in 1147 in Bramber, Sussex, England; died after 5 Feb 1227 in England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

This nobleman, Hugh (Keveliok), 3rd Earl of Chester, joined in the rebellion of the Earl of Lancaster and the King of Scots against King Henry II, and in support of that monarch's son, Prince Henry's pretensions to the crown. In which proceeding he was taken prisoner with the Earl of Leicester at Alnwick, but obtained his freedom soon afterwards upon the king's reconciliation with the young prince. Again, however, hoisting the standard of revolt both in England and Normandy, with as little success, he was again seized and then detained a prisoner for some years. He eventually, however, obtained his liberty and restoration of his lands when public tranquility became completely reestablished some time about the 23rd year of the king's reign. His lordship m. Bertred, dau. of Simon, Earl of Evereux, in Normandy, and had issue, I. Ranulph, his successor; I. Maud, m. to David, Earl of Huntingdon, brother of William, King of Scotland, and had one son and four daus., viz., 1. John, surnamed le Scot, who s. to the Earldom of Chester, d. s. p. 7 June, 1237; 1. Margaret, m. to Alan de Galloway, and had a dau., Devorguilla, m. to John de Baliol, and was mother of John de Baliol, declared King of Scotland in the reign of Edward I; 2. Isabel, m. to Robert de Brus, and was mother of Robert de Brus, who contended for the crown of Scotland, temp. Edward I; 3. Maud, d. unm.; Ada, m. to Henry de Hastings, one of the competitors for the Scottish crown, temp. Edward I; II. Mabill, m. to William de Albini, Earl of Arundel; III. Agnes, m. to William de Ferrers, Earl of Derby; IV. Hawise, m. to Robert, son of Sayer de Quincy, Earl of Winchester.

The earl had another dau., whose legitimacy is questionable, namely, Amicia, * m. to Ralph de Mesnilwarin, justice of Chester, "a person," says Dugdale, "of very ancient family," from which union the Mainwarings, of Over Peover, in the co. Chester, derive. Dugdale considers Amicia to be a dau. of the earl by a former wife. But Sir Peter Leicester, in his Antiquities of Chester, totally denies her legitimacy. "I cannot but mislike," says he, "the boldness and ignorance of that herald who gave to Mainwaring (late of Peover), the elder, the quartering of the Earl of Chester's arms; for if he ought of right to quarter that coat, then must the be descended from a co-heir to the Earl of Chester; but he was not; for the co-heirs of Earl Hugh married four of the greatest peers in the kingdom."

The earl d. at Leeke, in Staffordshire, in 1181, and was s. by his only son, Ranulph, surnamed Blundevil (or rather Blandevil) from the place of his birth, the town of Album Monasterium, modern Oswestry, in Powys), as 4th Earl of Chester.

* Upon the question of this lady's legitimacy there was a long paper war between Sir Peter Leicester and Sir Thomas Mainwaring---and eventually the matter was referred to the judges, of whose decision Wood says, "a tan assize held at Chester, 1675, the controversy was decided by the justices itinerant, who, as I have heard, adjudged the right of the matter to Mainwaring." [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, pp. 365-6, Meschines, Earls of Chester]

Hugh married Bertrade de Montfort in 1169 in Montfort-sur-Risle, Eure, Normandy, France. Bertrade (daughter of Count d'Evereux Simon III de Montfort and Amicia (Maud) de Beaumont) was born in 1155 in Montfort-sur-Risle, Eure, Normandy, France; died on 12 Jul 1189 in Evreux, Eure, Normandy, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Burial: Shepshed, Leicestershire, England; Just his heart is here.

Notes:

Saier de Quincy was created Earl of Winchester by King John about the year 1210. This nobleman was one of the lords present at Lincoln when William, King of Scotland, did homage to the English monarch, and he subsequently obtained large grants and immunities from King John; when, however, the baronial war broke out, his lordship's pennant waved on the side of freedom and he became so eminent amongst those sturdy chiefs that he was chosen one of the celebrated twenty-five barons appointed to enforce the observance of Magna Carta. Adhering to the same party after the accession of Henry III, the Earl of Winchester had a principal command at the battle of Lincoln and, there being defeated, was taken prisoner by the royalists. But submitting in the following October, he had restitution of all his lands and proceeded soon after, in company with the Earls of Chester and Arundel and others of the nobility, to the Holy Land where he assisted at the siege of Damietta, anno 1219, and d. the same year in his progress towards Jerusalem. His lordship m. Margaret, younger sister and co-heir of Robert Fitz-Parnell, Earl of Leicester, by which alliance he acquired a very considerable inheritance, and had issue, Robert, Roger, and Robert. At the decease of the earl, his 2nd son, Roger de Quincy, had livery of his father's estates.

[Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, England, 1883, p. 447, Quincy, Earls of Winchester]

Buried:
Church Of Saint Cross

Saer married Margaret de Beaumont in 1173 in Winchester, Hampshire, England. Margaret (daughter of 3rd Earl of Leicester Robert III de Beaumont and Petronella de Grandmesnil) was born in 1156 in Beaumont, Leicestershire, England; died on 12 Jan 1235 in Northamptonshire, England; was buried in Brackley, Northamptonshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]