A sketch of early Fitzherbert history reports [1]:
The ancestor of the Fitzherberts was a Norman, who seems to have been a retainer of one of the Conqueror's most powerful barons, Henry de Ferrers. This ancestor, Herbert by name, had a son named William, who, according to a custom prevalent among the Normans, was known as Fils or Fitz Herbert, and thus Fitzherbert became the family patronymic.
His feudal lord, Henry de Ferrers, had a vast share of the spoil when the Conqueror began to apportion it out among his followers. He received no less than 113 manors in Derbyshire alone. He thus laid the foundation of a great family, which has survived to our own day, and in one of its elder branches (the Ferrers of Baddesley Clinton) has had, like the Fitzherberts themselves, the grace to preserve the faith intact throughout all the vicissitudes of fortune.
The Norman conquerors were devout Catholics, and gave the Church a generous share of their spoil. In 1080 Henry de Ferrers founded the Benedictine Priory of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Tutbury, though the first charter of foundation was not granted until the succeeding reign (1087-1100) by Robert, first Earl Ferrers. Among the numerous manors with which he endowed the monastery was that of Norbury.
Norbury is situated on the Dove, close to the south-western border of Derbyshire, and about four miles from Ashbourne. It belonged in the reign of the Confessor to a great Saxon thane named Siward. There was even then a priest and a church, besides a mill, twenty-four acres of meadow land, and a wood, one mile in length and breadth, for pasturing swine.
Research Notes:
Burke reports that Herbert had, in addition to two younger sons (Robert fitz Herbert, of Osmetson; Hugh fitz William fitz Herbert, of Derby): William fitz Herbert; [who was] granted [the] manor of Norbury, Derbyshire, [in] 1125 by William, prior of Tutbury, Derbyshire [2].
Burke reports that The family of Fitz-Herbert, whose name appears in the Roll of Battle Abbey, descends from a Norman knight, called Herbert, which in conformity to a prevalent custom amongst the Normans of describing themselves as the son of some eminent ancestor, became the patronymic of the family. In Latin, Filius Herberti; in Norman, Fils, or Fitz-Herbert. In the year 1125, (25th Henry I.) William Prior, of Tutbury, by his charter, attested by Robert de Ferrers, Earl of Derby, the superior Lord of Tutbury, and his two sons, Robert and William de Ferrers, Hawise, his wife, the Bishop of Litchfield, Abbot of Burton, and divers other distinguished persons, granted to William Fitzherbert. [3]
"Hathersage, in the hundred and deanery of High-Peak, lies about eight miles from Tides well, and about five from Stony-Middleton, where is a post-office. The parish contains the townships of Hathersage, Bamford, Outseats, and Nether-Padley; and the chapelries of Derwent and Stony-Middleton. The manor of Hathersage (Hereseige) was, at the time of taking the Domesday Survey, the property of Ralph Fitzhubert. In the reign of Henry III. it belonged to the family of De Hathersage, whose coheiresses brought it to Goushill and Longford. In the reign of Henry VI. this manor, or rather perhaps Goushill's moiety, belonged to the family of Thorp, with remainder to Robert Eyre, and his heirs. Sir Nicholas Longford died seised of the other moiety in 1481." [4]
[1] Bede Camm, Forgotten shrines; an account of some old Catholic halls and families in England (London : Macdonald & Evans; 1910), xx, [HathiTrust].
[2] Charles Mosley, ed., Burke's Peerage, Baronetage, & Knightage, 107th edition, Vol. 3 (Willington, Delaware: Burke's Peerage & Gentry, LLC, 2003), 3710.
[3] 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].
[4] Daniel Lysons and Samuel Lysons, Magna Britannia, Vol. 5, Derbyshire (London: 1817), 177, [GoogleBooks].