1125 Henry de Ferrers founded the Priory of Tutbury about the year 1080; the manor and church of Norbury, in the county of Derby, forming part of the endowment. But in the year 1125, the Priory gave Norbury in feefarm to William Fitzherbert, at a yearly rental of 100s. From this date the Fitzherberts held the Norbury manor as tenants of Tutbury Priory up to the year 1444. [1] [2] An image of the deed has been preserved. [3]
William the Prior granted it by charter to William Fitz Herbert and to his heirs, to be holden in fee of the Priory of Tutbury, subject to the yearly fee-farm rent of one hundred shillings, and of five shillings annually in lieu of tithes for the lands in demesne and two bovates, and subject also to the usual feudal burdens.
From this date the Fitzherberts held Norbury as tenants of Tutbury Priory. However, in the fifteenth century, the then lord of Norbury, Nicholas Fitzherbert, with Ralph, his son, enfranchised the manor from these rents and services, giving in exchange to Thomas Gedney, then Prior of Tutbury, various lands, tenements, and rents in Osmaston, Foston, and Church Broughton, Derbyshire.
The precious charter which granted Norbury to William Fitzherbert is still in the possession of his twenty-seventh lineal descendent, Basil Fitzherbert, Esquire, of Swynnerton, County Stafford, as is the later document by which the manor was enfranchised.
William Fitzherbert was a knight. [4]
Research Notes:
See also, [5]
Herbert reportedly had son William fitz Herbert; [who was] granted [the] manor of Norbury, Derbyshire, [in] 1125 by William, prior of Tutbury, Derbyshire [6].
Burke reports that William Fitzherbert, son of Herbert, the manor of Norbury, in the county of Derby. (The original charter, with the manor, are in the possession of the present Mr. Fitz-Herbert). [7]
Burke reports that William Fitzherbert was father to William Fitzherbert, Lord of Norbury. [8]
William Fitzherbert reportedly had, in addition to a daughter Agnes, a son William Fitzherbert of Norbury. [9]
[1] J Charles Cox, "Norbury Manor House and the Troubles of the Fitzherberts," Journal of the Derbyshire Archaeological and Natural History Society 7 (1885), 221-259, at 221, [GoogleBooks], [HathiTrust].
[2] Sir William Dugdale, Derbyshire visitation pedigrees, 1569 and 1611 (London: 1895), 35, [HathiTrust], [GoogleBooks].
[3] Bede Camm, Forgotten shrines; an account of some old Catholic halls and families in England (London : Macdonald & Evans; 1910), 2-3, Transcription and image of the deed, [HathiTrust].
[4] Sir William Dugdale, Derbyshire visitation pedigrees, 1569 and 1611 (London: 1895), 35, [HathiTrust], [GoogleBooks].
[5] John Pym Yeatman, Brownes of Bechworth castle; the ancestors of the viscounts Montague; the Brownes of Horton-Kirby, Cubley, Bentley & Derby; the Cave-Brownes of Stretton & of many other places in the counties of Derby, Leicester, Northampton, Kent, Surrey, Sussex & Essex. (1903), 176, [HathiTrust].
[6] Charles Mosley, ed., Burke's Peerage, Baronetage, & Knightage, 107th edition, Vol. 3 (Willington, Delaware: Burke's Peerage & Gentry, LLC, 2003), 3710.
[7] John Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 1 (London: Henry Colburn, 1834), 78, in "Fitz-Herbert of Norbury and Swinnerton," pp 78-82, [GoogleBooks].
[8] John Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 1 (London: Henry Colburn, 1834), 78, in "Fitz-Herbert of Norbury and Swinnerton," pp 78-82, [GoogleBooks].
[9] Charles Mosley, ed., Burke's Peerage, Baronetage, & Knightage, 107th edition, Vol. 3 (Willington, Delaware: Burke's Peerage & Gentry, LLC, 2003), 3710.