Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/333

 11 S. VI. OCT. 5, 1912.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

273

FAMILIES : DURATION IN MALE LINE (11 S. v. 27, 92, 132, 174, 213, 314, 355, 415, 473, 496; vi. 73, 114, 156). I have re- read the reprint from Mr. John Pym Yeat- man's work entitled ' The Early Genealogical History of the House of Arundel,' and seem- ingly in one respect my reply ante, p. 114, should be corrected. Mr. Yeatman seem- ingly identifies William Albini (de Bosco Rohardi), Pincerna of William I., as the husband of Adeliza (daughter of Osulf fil Frane, Lord of Belvoir temp. Edward the Con- fessor), sometime wife also of Robert de Todeni, Lord of Belvoir temp. Domesday ("jure uxoris "). Mr. Yeatman makes this William Albini and his wife Adeliza the parents of Roger Albini (Calvus) D'lvri (Pincerna of William I.), who in turn was the father of William Albini (of Dol), Lord of Corbuchan, Pincerna Regis Henry I., died 1136, and married Maud Bigod, daughter of Roger Bigod, Viscount of Norfolk, and Adeliza de Todeni (daughter of the above- named Robert de Todeni, Lord of Belvoir, and Adeliza, daughter and heir [?] of Osulf fil Frane, Lord of Belvoir). It was the son of William Albini of Dol (above) and Maud Bigod who was William Albini I., Earl of Arundel and the husband of Adeliza, queen of Henry I.

Mr. Yeatman also seemingly says that it was William Albini (de Bosco Rohardi) who was the son of Niel of St. Sauveur, Viscount of the Cotentin. I refrain from expressing any opinion either way upon Mr. Yeatman's conclusions.

With reference to the replies of COL. E. K. D'AusENEY and CURIOUS, ante, p. 156, Mr. Yeatman evidently differs from these gentlemen and from Burke's ' Landed Gentry,' for he makes the Earls of Bridgewater descend from Philip Albini (Lord of the Isles of La Manche and of South Petherton, Lord High Admiral of England, who held Bridg- north Castle for King John). He states that Philip Albini was the son of Ralf Albini (bore au quatre fucees en fusee), who in turn was the son of William Albini (le Meschin) (and of Cecilia Bigod, heiress of Belvoir), who was the son of Roger Albini (Calvus) D'lvri, who was the son of William Albini (de Bosco Rohardi) and Adeliza (daughter of Osulf fil Frane, Lord of Belvoir), sometime wife, of Robert de Todeni, Lord of Belvoir (" jure uxoris "). Yeatman thus seemingly makes the Earls of Bridgewater descend from this Adeliza, but by her husband William Albini (de Bosco Rohardi). son of Niel of St. Sauveur, Viscount of the

Cotentin and chief of the Norman nobility, and not by her other husband, Robert de Todeni. Mr. Yeatman does not agree that Robert de Todeni and William Albini were one and the same, as seemingly Burke's ' Landed Gentry ' asserts, as quoted by CURIOUS.

Mr. Yeatman makes the Lords Arundell of Wardour to be the senior male representa- tives of William Albini (de Bosco Rohardi), son of Niel of St. Sauveur, and so head of the family of Albini (and consequently of the old Norman nobility), from whom the following have a common origin : Dukes of Norfolk, Rutland, and Somerset, Earls of Arundel, Sussex, Northumberland, Bridge- water, and Rutland, the Lords Arundell of Wardour and Trerice, of Daubeni, Belvoir, Mowbray, Ac. RONALD DIXON.

46, Marlborough Avenue, Hull.

The instances given of far descent have chiefly been, hitherto, cases of families of the first rank, whose names are amongst the best kno-wn in the English aristocracy. It may, perhaps, be permitted to give an example of such descent, and long settle- ment, on a small estate, taken from a dif- ferent class especially as one of the old family referred to made a great name for himself in English history.

The family of de Sancroft, only a very little (if at all) superior to the yeoman class of Suffolk, were found settled there on the small estate of Ufford Hall, or Sancrofts, in the parish of Fressingfield, in 1216. This property was granted to the family by de Bavent, and the deed conveying it (which Dugdale regarded as " very particu- lar") is preserved in the British Museum. Some four centimes later, when driven from his position at Emmanuel College, Cam- bridge, the great archbishop, who was an ardent antiquary and genealogist, found amusement and occupation in thoroughly examining the family archives, and making careful copies of the local registers. His neat handwriting still adorns the Fressing- field Register, and a letter of later date shows his careful accuracy ; for he begs his father to entrust him with de Bavent's deed that he may complete his own sketch of the family history.

On this history later research can throw no doubts, and it is worth recording here that it gives the line of descent, and of uninterrupted enjoyment of the same small estate, unbroken from father to son, from the days of John to those of William and Mary.