3rd Earl of Derby William de Ferrers

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]

1. Millicent de Ferrers was born about 1060 in Wigmore, Herfordshire, England; died before 10 Mar 1087/88.
2. Gather de Ferrers was born in 1168 in Chartley, Staffordshire, England; died on 4 Sep 1201 in France.
3. 4th Earl of Derby William II de Ferrers was born in 1172 in Ferrers, Derbyshire, England; died on 22 Sep 1247.
4. Petronella de Ferrers was born about 1175 in Ferrers, Derbyshire, England.

William married Goda de Toeni about 1162. Goda (daughter of Lord Flamstead Roger III de Toeni and of Hainault, Heiress of Brinkley Ida (Gertrude)) was born in 1140 in Eggington, Derbyshire. England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Robert de Ferrers, 2nd Earl of Derby, in the 12th Henry II, upon levying the aid for marrying the king's daughter, certified the knights' fees then in his possession to be in number seventy-nine for which he paid the sum of 68 marks. This nobleman was also a liberal benefactor to the church. His lordship was buried at the Abbey of Meervale, Warwick, one of the religious houses which he had founded, wrapped in an ox's hide according to his desire. His lordship m. Margaret, dau. And heiress of William Peverel, of Nottingham, by whom he had issue. He was s. by his son, William de Ferrers, 3rd Earl of Derby. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 196, Ferrers, Earls of Derby]

Robert married Margaret Peverel in 1135. Margaret (daughter of William "The Younger" Peverel and Avice de Lancaster) was born in 1114 in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Robert de Ferrers, having contributed, at the head of the Derbyshire men, to King Stephen's victory over King David of Scotland at Northallerton (commonly called the battle of the Standard), was created by that monarch Earl of Derby. By Hawise his wife, he had William who d. s. p.; Robert this successor; Walcheline, of Okeham; Isolda, m. to Stephen de Beauchamp; and Maud, m. to Bertram de Verdon. The earl d. in 1139 and was s. by his son, Robert de Ferrers, as 2nd Earl of Derby. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 196, Verdon, Earls of Derby]

Robert married Hawise de Vitre in 1087. Hawise was born in 1069 in Vitre, Brittany, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

William married Avice de Lancaster in 1112 in La Marche, Normandy, France. Avice (daughter of Count la Marche Roger de Montgomery) was born in 1088 in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England; died in 1149. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

He is widely believed to have fought at the Battle of Hastings, 1066, as his name appears on various versions of the Battle Abbey Roll,
though it is impossible to be certain. He was a Domesday Commissioner, 1086, and held some 210 lordships and manors at the time of the Survey, mostly inco. Derby, by gift of William the Conqueror. Founded a priory of Benedictine monks near Tutbury, Staffs.

HENRY DE FERRERS
The Conqueror and His Companions
by J. R. Planché, Somerset Herald. London: Tinsley Brothers, 1874..

"Henri le Sire de Ferriers," commemorated by Wace as a combatant at Senlac, was Seigneur de Saint Hilaire de Ferriers, near Bernay, and son of Walkelin de Ferrers, who fell in a contest with the first Hugh de Montfort we hear of in the early days of Duke William II, and therefore, though a younger son, for he had an elder brother named Guillaume, who Monsieur de Pluquet tells us, was also in the great battle, must have been well advanced in years in 1066.

Whatever his services, it was not till after Hugh d'Avranches was created Earl of Chester, in 1071, that Henry de Ferrers received at least the Castle of Tutbury, his "caput Baronie," which had been previously granted to the said Hugh, and resigned by him on becoming Earl of Chester. In 1085, we find him appointed one of the commissioners for the general survey of the kingdom, and in that year he is recorded as the holder, besides the Castle of Tutbury, of seven lordships in Staffordshire, twenty in Berkshire, three in Wiltshire, five in Essex, seven in Oxfordshire, two in Lincolnshire, two in Buckinghamshire, one in Gloucestershire, two in Herefordshire, three in Hampshire, thirty-five in Leicestershire, six in Warwickshire, three in Nottinghamshire, and one hundred and fourteen in Derbyshire! When bestowed, however, or how obtained, whether wholly by grant of the King, or partly by marriage, is not recorded. Neither have we succeeded in identifying his wife, Berta, in conjunction with whom he founded and richly endowed the Priory of Tutbury in 1089, "by the concession and authority of William the younger (Rufus), King of the English." The date of his death also is unknown; but he had issue three sons, Enguenulf, William, and Robert. The two eldest died in his lifetime without issue, and Robert, who succeeded him, was the first Earl of Ferrers, not Earl Ferrers, as incorrectly described, by some, but "Robertus, Comes de Ferrarius" or "de Ferriers," as in the charter of the second Earl Robert, who was also Earl of Nottingham, and according to Orderic Vital, the first Earl of Derby.

It is no part of the plan of this work to enter into details respecting the descendants of the actual companions of the Conqueror, but there are exceptions to most, if not to all, rules, and there is so little to be said about Henry de Ferrers, and so much about his immediate successors, that I am tempted to depart from my own rule on this occasion.

There is considerable difference of opinion, in the absence of indubitable facts, as to which of these two Roberts - father and son - distinguished himself in the famous battle at Northallerton, known as the Battle of the Standard, also as to the exact period at which the earldoms of Nottingham and Derby were conferred upon an Earl of Ferrers; but the principal bone of contention is the identification of the fortunate member of that family who married Margaret, daughter and heiress of William Peverel, Lord of Nottingham, who was dispossessed of his estates by King Henry II, for conspiring with Maud, Countess of Chester, to poison her husband, Ranulph Gernons, Earl of Chester, in 1155.

Now this is a very curious story, which has been received in perfect confidence, and handed down from writer to writer, as a portion of the history of England, until, at the Newark Congress of the British Archaeological Association, I ventured to question the very existence even of the Margaret Peverel, who has been married by various genealogists to at least three successive Earls of Ferrers.

In the charter of King Stephen to the monks of Lanton we find mention of this William Peverel, of his wife Oddona, and his son Henry, at that time most probably his heir apparent; but there is no notice of any daughter, and the rolls of the reign of Henry 1, Stephen, and Henry II, in which mention is made of many Peverels, including the mother and sister of William Peverel of Nottingham, are equally silent on the score of a daughter, and acknowledge no Margaret Peverel of any branch.

Vincent gives Margaret to the first Earl William, who tells us himself that his wife's name was Sibilla; others to William's father, the second Robert, who explicitly declares that his wife was another Sibilla, daughter of William, Lord Braose of Bramber; and my dear lamented friend, the late Rev. C. Hartshorne, in the "Archæological Journal" (vol. v., p. 129), calls Margaret the wife of the first Robert, who married Hawise de Vitry.

For the proof that William was the happy man we are referred to the Oblate Boll of the 1st of John, in which it is said that William, the third earl of that name, calls Margaret his grandmother. Now here is the entry referred to, in which you will find no such thing: - "The Earl of Ferrers gives two thousand marks for Hecham, Blidsworth, and Newbottle, that the King may forego all claim to other lands which were William Peverel's, and the King gives to him the park of Hecham, which the Lord Henry, his great-grandfather (that is, King Henry II) gave in exchange to the ancestors of William Peverel," Where is Margaret? Where any mention of the grandmother of the Earl of Ferrers?

The next reference is to a plea-roll of the 25th of Henry III, which certainly proves that some Earl of Ferrers assumed a right of heirship to William Peverel, but by no means hints that it was in right of his wife, or makes any mention of Margaret. The words are remarkable. The Earl of Ferrers is therein stated to have made himself heir of the aforesaid William Peverel, and to have intruded himself into the same inheritance during the war between the King and his barons. Now, we are told that one of the earliest acts of Henry II in the year after his accession, viz., 1155, was to disinherit William Peverel, the staunch supporter of his old rival Stephen, upon the opportune charge of poisoning the Earl of Chester, as before mentioned. Henry himself does not charge him specifically with it, but the cause is distinctly stated by the Chronicon Roffense, the register of Dunstable, Matthew Paris, Matthew of Westminster, and Gervase of Dover, a goodly array of highly respectable authorities.
But how are we to reconcile this statement with the fact that Henry, before he ascended the throne, most probably at the time of the pacification with Stephen in 1152, and certainly not later than 1153, in which year Earl Eanulph died, gave to this very Ranulph the man Peverel is accused of poisoning, with other large estates of hostile nobles, the castle and town of Nottingham, and the whole fee of William Peverel, wherever it was (with the exception of Hecham) unless he (William Peverel) could acquit and clear himself of his wickedness and treason? Are we not justified in believing, upon the evidence of this agreement - for such is the nature of the instrument, which is witnessed by parties both for Henry and Ranulph, - that Peverel was dispossessed of his estates, not for assisting to poison the Earl of Chester, for to that very Earl the estates are given, but for wickedness and treason generally - in plain words, for supporting Stephen manfully and faithfully against Henry and his mother.

Such was evidently the opinion of Sir Peter Leycester, who printed this important document at length in his "Prolegomena," prefaced with these words, "How Randal Earl of Chester was rewarded for taking part with Henry Fitz-Empress, being yet but Duke of Normandy and Earl of Anjou, may appear by this deed following." No hint of its being a compensation to him for injury inflicted by Peverel.

And what was the punishment of the Countess Maud, the supposed accomplice of Peverel, and if so, the most culpable of the twain? She survived the Earl her husband many years, and her name is associated with that of her son, Hugh Kevilioc, in several acts of benevolence and piety, amongst them actually the purchase of absolution for her husband, who died excommunicated.

Hugh Kevilioc, who succeeded to his father's earldom with all his possessions, had a daughter named Agnes, who became the wife of William, second of that name, Earl of Ferrers and Derby, and thus it is clearly evident how that Earl made himself heir of Peverel and intruded himself into that inheritance, having purchased Hecham of the King, which had been excepted from the rest of the fee of Peverel in the grant of Henry Duke of Normandy to Ranulph Gernons, and claiming heirship to the estates of Peverel, in right of his wife Agnes, sister and co-heir of Ranulph Blondeville, Earl of Chester, the grandson of the grantee, and not through any marriage with this phantom Margaret Peverel, no trace of whom has ever been found in one authentic document.

The reputed victim of Peverel's machinations is said by King, in his "Vale Royal," to have died after lingering in agonies, which I suspect to be an absurd translation of the "post multos agones" of Gervase of Dover. His words are, "post multos agones militaris gloriæ," and the context proves that the words do not apply to bodily torture, but to struggles or contests as a soldier in pursuit of military glory. (Vide Ducange sub agonia and agonizare.) What conclusive proof have we that Ranulph, Earl of Chester died of poison at all? "Ut fama fuit" is all Gervase of Dover can say about it.

Henry married Bertha in 1061 in Normandy, France. Bertha was born about 1040. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]