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 A HISTORY OF DERBYSHIRE Here the first point to be noted is the danger of inferring that all the men who bear the same Christian name are identical. 1 In this short list we find three distinct bearers of the name Robert. In Earl Robert's charter we also find two Englishmen appearing as benefactors of Tutbury : ' Chetel ' (Ketel) gave the customary two-thirds of his demesne tithes in Sturston, and 'Ulsius' (Wulfsige ?), the same in Twyford and Stenson. In neither of these cases is the immediate holder of the manor mentioned in Domesday, and we must add them to our list of Englishmen who weathered the Conquest in Derbyshire. But the list has other features of note. It is interesting to see that the undistinguished Nigel who held Catton of Henry de Ferrers was so important a person as Nigel de Albini, the lord of Cainhoe in Bedfordshire and the son in law of his overlord. He also seems to have held part of Awstrey in Warwickshire of Henry de Ferrers, and his tenure of Catton illustrates the process by which one tenant in chief often held of another. This is also curiously shown in the case of Henry de Ferrers himself. Vast as his possessions were he did not disdain to hold of the abbey of Burton the latter's portion of Ticknall at a rent of i os. yearly. 2 As the ' valet ' of this part of Ticknall was IQS. it is interesting to find this sum identical with that actually received by the abbey for this estate. The case of Nigel de Albini given above also illustrates in a striking way the possibility of confusing different bearers of the same name. Nigel is not a very common name in Domesday, and yet the Nigel who is entered in the Leicestershire survey as the undertenant of Henry de Ferrers at Linton, which is only distant some four miles from Catton, was not Nigel de Albini but Nigel de Stafford, an important tenant in chief in the south of Derbyshire where he was lord of Drakelow. 8 One of Henry de Ferrers' undertenants can, as it happens, be proved to be the ancestor in the male line of a still existing family. This is the man who appears in the Survey with the strange name of Saswalo, which in the Tutbury Register is reduced to Sewallus. He held of Henry de Ferrers in several counties ; in Derbyshire his estate consisted of Hatton, Hoon, and Etwall. He has been ascertained to be the ancestor of the Shirley family, and his position is discussed in the Victoria History of Warwickshire, vol. i. 2812. The statement under the manors ofMarston on Dove andDoveridge that ' the monks hold (them) of Henry ' deserves notice because it is the earliest record of the existence of Tutbury Priory. The foundation charter of the latter, printed in the Monasticon* purports to have been 1 This has been illustrated by Mr. Round in the case of the knights of Peterborough (Feudal England, 138), and he has shown what error has resulted from confusing Henry's undertenants Nigel de Albini and Nigel de Stafford. 8 This appears from a very interesting grant made by Abbot Geoffrey de Malaterra to Robert de Ferrers the first Earl of Derby. He is to hold Ticknall ' quam tenuit pater suus,' paying los. yearly at Martinmas, and also 'debet diligere et manutenere nos et ecclesiam nostram et per se et per suos sicut amicus et tutor ipsius ecclesiae.' Burton Chartul, (Salt Soc.), i. 32. Doubtless the monks found it advisable to enlist in their behalf the greatest landowner in Derbyshire. 3 See Mr. Round's paper on the origin of the Shirleys and of the Gresleys in Derbyshire Arch. 'Journal (1905). It may be noted that Mr. F. Madan, ' The Gresleys of Dtakelowe? 182, wrongly includes Catton among the original possessions of the Gresleys. * iii. 391. 302