Research Notes:
Eyton states, [1]
Ralph Crassus gave the Church of Alberberie to Shrewsbury Abbey. We learn the date of his grant to have been between 1141 and 1155; for it is not mentioned in the Empress's Confirmation of 1141, but is clearly recited in Henry II.'s Confirmation of 1155. [ftn. 2] Of Ralph Crassus we hear no more. I have spoken, in a former Volume, of Warin de Metz, of his two elder sons, Roger and Fulk, and of his presumed third son, William. Roger, I suppose, was living in 1145, but dead without issue before the accession of Henry II. The earliest extant Pipe-Roll of that King, the Roll of 1156, shows that--
Fulk fitz Warin was then the head of his house. The King had given him the Gloucestershire Manor of Aloestan (Alveston), Previously reputed to yield a blanch ferm of £10. yearly to the Royal Exchequer. [ftn. 3] We know or may presume that Fulk fitz Warin had during the civil wars been a supporter of the Empress. He is found in company with, and probably was related to, the Peverels, the staunchest of Legitimatists. Before 1148 the second William Peverel of Dover had given him a Knight's-Fee in Tadlow, Cambridgeshire; and Henry II., soon after his succession in 1154, confirmed the gift in form following.--Henricus Rex Angliae (Dux) Normanniae et Aquitaniae et Comes Andegaviae Episcopo de Ely, Baronibus, Vicecomitibus, etc. de Cantabrigg' etc. Sciatis me concessisse Fulconi filio Warini et heredibus suis tenementa sua de Thadesley quae Willelmus Peverel eidem Fulconi dedit pro servicio 1 feodi militis. Testibus, Ricardo de Humet, Constabulario; Willelmo filio Hamonis. [ftn. 4] In 1158 the King indirectly makes a present of 40 merks to Fulk fitz Warin; that is, he excuses Fulk fitz Warin a crown debt of that amount, which had been paid by the actual debtor to the said Fulk. In the same year Fulk fitz Warin was excused a sum of 12s., his quota of the donum of Essex and Hertfordshire, and 1s., his quota of the donum of Shropshire. In 1165 we find that Fulco fitz Warin had been newly enfeoffed in a knight's fee of the Earl of Gloucester’s demesne. [ftn. 5] Possibly this fee was in Tadlow, Cambridgeshire, but my evidence on the point is inconclusive. [ftn. 6] Of Fulk fitz Warin's interests in Shropshire I can only say that, though otherwise favoured by the Crown, his claim upon Whittington seems to have been disregarded by Henry II., but that he probably held Moston of the Barony of Pulverbatch, Alderton (near Middle) of the Barony of Fitz Alan, and Alberbury and Welbatch of the Barony of Caus. Whether he was in any way heir to Radulf Crassus of Alberbury, or whether he had only succeeded to a lapsed tenure there, I cannot say. The period of his death can be fixed to a year.--He was living at Michaelmas 1170, when the Gloucestershire Pipe-Roll assigns the Manor of Aloestan to Folcho fitz Warin: he was dead at Michaelmas 1171, when the Gloucestershire Pipe-Roll assigns the same Manor to Fulko, son of Fulko fitz Warin.
Fulk fitz Warin (II.), thus introduced to our notice, was he who having married Hawise, daughter and coheir of Joceas de Dinan, is stated by Legends to have made a claim upon Ludlow, a claim which, as I have before pointed out, was never allowed. [ftn. 7.]
ftn. 2. Salop Chartulary, No. 36.
ftn. 3. Rot. Pip. 2 Hen. II, Gloucestershire
ftn. 4. Sloane MS. 1301, fo. 68, b.
ftn. 5. Liber Niger, I. p. 165.
ftn. 6. One Feodary (Testa de Nevill, p. 353) makes the FitzWarin fee in Tadlow to have been held of the Barony of Hugh de Dune (probably Hugh de Dive, a coheir of the Peverals of Brun and Whittington.) Another Feodary (ibidem, p. 355) makes it to be held of the Barony of Mowbray. The same Record shows another part of Tadlow to have been in the Earl of Gloucester's Fief; but we are not told that Fitz Warin held it.
ftn. 7. Supra, Vol. V. p. 248.
[1] Robert William Eyton, Antiquities of Shropshire, Vol. 7 (London: 1858), 67-68, [HathiTrust], [GoogleBooks].