"Of the William de Ferrars whom King John, by special charter dated at Northampton in the first year of his reign, created Earl of Derby, girding him with a sword with his own royal hands, and granting him every third penny arising out of all pleas made before the Sheriff of Derbyshire; as well as the manors of Wirksworth and Asliborne - of this thrifty old Baron, Hollinshed chronicles 'that toward the end of October 1247 William Earl Ferrars and of Derby dyed a man of great yeres and long troubled with ye goute a just man and peacable In the same mouth dyed also the Countess his wyfe a woman of yeres vertue and fame lyke to her husband Thomas Becket the Archbishop of Canterbury did minister the priestes office at their marriage Their eldest son William succeeded his father in ye Earldome a good man and a discret but vexed with ye goute very pityfully having that disease also as it were by inheritaunce from his fader.'" [1]
[1] John Sleigh, "Ferrars, Earls Ferrars, and Derby," The Reliquary 10 (1870), 226, [HathiTrust].