Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/30

 22

NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. x. JULY 12, 1002.

Sibillae uxori sui in dote de hereditate sua ut illud teneat ipsa Sibilla de Rogerio et Cecilia uxore sua." So that Sibilla, Pain's wife, had important possessions, and the serious ques- tion arises at once, Who was Sibilla ?

The answer comes from a charter of hers to the Priory of Ewyas Harold, communicated to me by the Rev. A. T. Bannister, vicar of Ewyas, who intends, I understand, shortly to bring out a volume relating to that hold of De Laci and FitzJohn :

" Sibilla de Laceio omnibus ballivis et forestariis suis de Ewias salutem. . Sciatis me concessisse Waltero Abbati, avunculo meo [113p-39]terram de

Leghe pro aninia mea et pro anima Pagani filii

Johannis, mariti mei Witnesses, Walter de

Scudymer, Gilbert de Eschet, and others."

It becomes clear, therefore, that Hugh de Laci left issue, and that Sibilla his daughter passed her portion of his lands, including Wyke, to her own issue. As a matter of fact, this consisted of two daughters, Cecilia, Countess of Hereford (d. s.p.), and Agnes = William de Monchensi, whose direct de- scendants remained lords of Painswick until the death of Aymer de Valence. Sibilla was still living in 1138, having survived both her father, Hugh de Laci, and her husband, Pain FitzJohn.

Finally, another question arises, Who was Hugh's wife? and this too is partly answered by a document (deed of gift) in the ' Hist, et Cartul. S. Petri Gloucestrise,' vol. i. ccciii. dated

"Ab Incarnatione Domini millesimo centesimo, Hugo de Laceyo et Adelina uxor ejus, dederunt Ecclesise S. Petri de Gloucestria ecclesiam S. Petri de Herefordia, &c., pro animabus patris et matris, et omnium parentum suorum, et pro suis," &c.

I am unable to show who Adelina was. Was Gilbert de Laci a sister's son indeed, or may he not have been Hugh's own son ?

ST. CLAIR BADDELEY.

P.S. I regret, in the interest of students, that the Master of the Rolls finds himself unable to accede to my respectful application, made lately to him, to permit me to examine and make use of the ' Cartularium ' of Lan- tony Secunda. now at the Public Record Office, which has been happily utilized by the editors of the ' Liber Rubeus,' " by reason of rules made under 40 & 41 Viet., c. 55." Sources of mediaeval information regarding special localities are not so abun- dant that the student can without regret see a door closed to him.

BIRMINGHAM : " BRUMAGEM." BIRMINGHAM is not mentioned in any existing Anglo-Saxon charter, and the first

record of it is in Domesday Book (1086), where it appears as Bermingeham. The next State record is the 'Liber Niger,' or Black Book of the Exchequer (1166), where we find Peter de Bremingeham registered as holding nine knights' fees. He was the "dapifer" (steward) of Gervase Paynell, a great manorial lord, and held under him, as of the Barony of Dudley, Birmingham, Edgbaston, and other manors. He was the founder of the family of "de Birmingham," taking his name, as was customary, from his principal manor, where he probably resided. In a Ridware charter, circa 1158, he is recorded as Peter de Brimigharn ; in the Pipe Rolls for 1165 as De Bremingham ; for 1167 as De Bremingeham ; for 1168 as De Bruningeham (the n being doubtless a mistake of the scribe for m). In the same Rolls for 1170 and 1171 he appears as De Bremingeham ; in 1207 his son William is recorded as De Bermingeham ; and in the Hundred Rolls for 1255 the same William, or his son, appears as William de Burmingeham. In later times I find the following forms in English records : in 1316, Bermingham ; 1330, Bermincham ; 1333, Burmyncham ; 1346, Burmyngham and Bermyngham ; 1347, Bermingeham and Bermyngeham (3) ; 1352, Birmingham ; 1376, Byrmincham ; 1393, Byrmingham ; 1403, Burmyngeham ; 1408, Birmincham ; 1413, Bermyngeham ; 1584, Byrmycham. In 1880 a pamphlet was pub- lished by Mr. J. Ward, of Sheffield, showing 141 ways of spelling Birmingham. The forms he gives are mostly between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries. Sixty- three of them commence Br- (the vowel following) ; in the remaining seventy-eight forms (sucli as Ber-. Bur-, Byr-, Bir-, &c.) the vowel precedes the r. Of the terminals fifty end in -cham, five in -sham, the re- mainder in -gham or -ham, but the ge (as in Domesday) is repeated in nineteen of them.

It frequently happens that English words, transplanted to America, the colonies, or Ire- land, retain their archaic forms with greater tenacity than at home, and Birmingham is an example. A son of Peter de Bremingeham went to Ireland with Strongbow about 1170, and there founded a family, which grew into a clan known in Irish as Mac Feorais, and in English as after mentioned, the forms being taken from annals and charters: 1243, De Bremingham; 1325, 1327, 1328, 1329, 1330, De Brimagham; 1391, De Breinighain. In the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries the name is recorded, in Ireland, as Brimidgham, Brymigham, Brymudg- ham, Brymugham, Brimugham, Brimigham,