Ferrers family
The Ferrers family were a noble Anglo-Norman family that crossed to England with the
Origin
The family is first documented holding Ferrières-Saint-Hilaire in Normandy, an important centre for ironworking, perhaps the reason the manor took its name.[a] Their Norman toponymic surname, de Ferrières, evolved into simply de Ferrers, sometimes Latinized as de Ferrariis.
Walkelin de Ferrières, the first documented family member, was killed in the civil wars of
Henry acted as a Commissioner for the compilation of the
Earls of Derby
Robert de Ferrers, youngest son of Henry, rose in the service of king
Barons Ferrers of Chartley
John Ferrers, son of the 6th Earl, carried on an unsuccessful life-long struggle to have his father's properties restored, but was himself summoned to Parliament in 1299 as Baron Ferrers of Chartley. This peerage continued in his line until William de Ferrers, 7th Baron Ferrers of Chartley died in 1450 without male issue, after which it passed into several successive families descending from them in the female line before going into abeyance in 1855.
Baron of Wem
In 1375, Robert de Ferrers, a younger son of the 3rd Baron Ferrers of Chartley and grandson of the 1st Baron, was summoned to parliament as Robert Ferrers of Wem. By modern usage, this would be seen to have created a novel peerage, the Barons Ferrers of Wem. However, Vicary Gibbs has argued that such a formulation would be anachronistic, and that he should be viewed as simply a recognition of his claim, jure uxoris to the title inherited by his wife, heiress of the Barons Boteler of Wem.[6][7] Were it a new creation then his son Robert Ferrers of Wem would be considered the 2nd Baron, but following Gibbs, he held no title as he predeceased his mother. Any claim to the title would have gone into abeyance via the son's two daughters.[6]
Barons Ferrers of Groby
Months after John de Ferrers became the 1st baron Ferrers of Chartley, his first cousin
Ferrers of Oakham, Rutland
The Norman lands of English founder Henry de Ferrers passed to one of his two elder sons, William or Engenulf, and thence to a younger Henry de Ferrers, a son of one of these two. He also held lands in England, at Lechlade, Gloucestershire, and Oakham, Rutland. His son, Walchelin de Ferriers, inherited both Henry's English and Norman lands, but the loss of Normandy to the King of France led to a division of the estate, with the Norman properties continuing through his son Henry to a line of lords of Ferriers and Chambrais that only went extinct in 1504, while Lechlade and Oakham passed via his daughter Isabel to the Mortimers of Wigmore.[8]
Heraldry
Due to the etymology of their surname, sources[
At Oakham Castle in Rutland, built in 1180/90, ceremonial horseshoes are still presented today by prominent visitors in honour of the de Ferrers family, described in James Wright's 1684 History and Antiquities of the County of Rutland:[10]
The Lord of the castle and manor of Okeham for the time being claims by prescription a Franchise or Royalty very rare and of singular note, viz. : That the first time any Peer of this Kingdom shall happen to pass through the precincts of this Lordship, he shall forfeit as a Homage a Shoe from the Horse on which he rideth unless he redeem it with money. The true Original of which custome I have not been able on my utmost endeavour to discover. But that such is, and time out of mind hath been, the Usage, appears by several Monumental Horseshoes (some gilded and of curious Workmanship) nail'd upon the Castle Hall Door.
Many survive, each inscribed with the name and title of the peer who presented it. Many bear crests and coronets, the so-called "Golden Shoe" (taken off Lord Willoughby de Eresby's favourite horse "Clinker") was "once abstracted by some ingenious thief who mistook the gilding for gold; but returned it in a railway parcel on discovering his error".[11]
In lieu of his paternal arms, the first Baron Ferrers of Groby adopted his maternal arms Gules, seven mascles or conjoined 3:3:1, the arms of de Quincy.[12]
Notes
References
- ^ Larousse, Dictionnaire de la langue francise, "Lexis", Paris, 1979, p.735: "ferrer: garnir un objet avec du fer"
- ^ Collections for a History of Staffordshire, William Salt Society, London, 1887, vol. 8, p. 66.
- ^ a b K. S. B. Keats Rohan, Domesday People, Boydell Press, Woodbridge, 1999, p. 247.
- ^ a b Cokayne, vol. 5. p.340, note (d)
- ^ Cokayne, vol. 4. pp 190–203
- ^ a b Cokayne, vol. 2. pp. 232–233
- ^ Cokayne, vol. 4. Chart following p. 320
- ^ Cokayne vol.4. p. 191.
- ^ Larousse, Dictionnaire de la langue francise, "Lexis", Paris, 1979, p.1107, Maréchal (marhskalk, 1155), officier chargé du soin des chevaux
- ^ Cited in: Cleveland, The Battle Abbey Roll, p. 28.
- ^ Cleveland, The Battle Abbey Roll, p. 28
- ^ Cokayne, vol. 5. p.343, note (c)
- Sources
- Cokayne, George Edward (1912). Gibbs, Vicary (ed.). The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct or dormant. Vol. 2. London: The St. Catherine Press.
- Cokayne, George Edward (1916). Gibbs, Vicary (ed.). The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct or dormant. Vol. 4. London: The St. Catherine Press.
- Cokayne, George Edward (1926). Gibbs, Vicary (ed.). The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct or dormant. Vol. 5. London: The St. Catherine Press.