SEPULCHRAL SLAB DISCOVERED AT KEDLESTON CHURCH. 39 
Kedleston who would be in the least likely to use so comparatively 
costly a stone, save the Curzons, who were lords of the manor, and 
who also held the advowson of the rectory. I take it, then, to be 
the sepulchral slab of a layman of the house of Curzon, who 
died early in the reign of Henry ITI. 
Giraline de Curzon, of Breton origin, came into England with 
William the Conqueror. His son, Richard de Curzon, held four 
knights’ fees in Derbyshire, viz., Croxall, Edingale, Twyford, and 
Kedleston. Robert de Curzon, the son of Richard, had three 
sons, Richard, Robert, and Thomas. From Richard, the eldest, 
were descended the Curzons of Croxall, Edingale, and Twyford. 
Robert de Curzon, the third son, became the celebrated Cardinal 
of that name, the intimate friend of Pope Innocent I[I.; he 
died at Damietta, in Egypt, 1218. Thomas, the second son, 
inherited Kedleston, and from him Lord Scarsdale is directly 
descended. Thomas de Curzon died young, but left an infant son 
of his own name, by his wife Sybyl, in ward to his uncle Richard. 
This Thomas de Curzon was born in 1185, but on coming of age 
was debarred from taking possession of Kedleston by his grand- 
mother, who had married a Somerville for her second husband, 
and who claimed the manor as dower. After a lawsuit of three 
years, 1206 to 1209, Thomas de Curzon entered upon the manor, 
and upon the advowson of the rectory, certain concessions being 
made to his grandmother, Alice Somerville. I have not been 
able to ascertain the date of Thomas de Curzon’s death, but he 
was living in 1226. 
I take it, then, that this sepulchral slab is the gravestone of 
Thomas de Curzon, fourth lord of Kedleston of that name, son of 
Thomas de Curzon and Sybyl, and nephew of the famous Cardinal 
Curzon, who preached the crusade against the Albigenses. 
