222 NORBURY MANOR HOUSE AND THE FITZHERBERTS. 
Derby, in 1330, Sir John Fitzherbert, sixth lord of Norbury, 
established before a jury this resisted right of free warren that had 
been granted to his grandfather.* Sir William Fitzherbert, seventh 
lord of Norbury, paid half a mark in 1377 for procuring a con- 
firmation charter of this free warren.t 
Sir Henry Fitzherbert, fifth lord of Norbury, who came into 
his inheritance in 1267, married the daughter of Ralph Chaddes- 
den. He was living in 1310, but the exact date of his death is 
not known. His stone effigy, in chain armour, occupies the 
centre of the chancel of Norbury church.* Towards the end of 
his life he rebuilt the Manor House in stone on a large scale, con- 
sisting of two courts. Previous to this, it had probably been 
throughout a timbered or half-timbered dwelling. The court of 
the original Manor House was sufficiently spacious to permit of the 
high-road from Yeaveley to Ellaston passing through the centre. 
This road from the Preceptory of the Knights Hospitallers at 
Yeaveley, crossing the Dove just below the Manor House of Nor- 
bury, by a ferry and also by a foot and packhorse bridge, and lead- 
ing to several Staffordshire Abbeys of importance, would be one of 
considerable traffic for a country district, and we are not surprised 
to find that Sir Henry Fitzherbert sought to close or divert the 
road before beginning the enlargement of his house. An Inqui- 
sition was held in 1301 to decide on the expediency of permitting 
the closing of this road, and the jury reported favourably ;¢ but it 
was not till four years later that he obtained the royal license to 
effect this, on payment of forty shillings, and on condition of mak- 
ing another road through his own lands equally commodious for 
travellers.§ The road that he then made was probably the one 
now used, which turns off to the west just in front of the Manor 
House, and closely skirts it. 
Of this Manor House, as built by Sir Henry, the Great 
* Quo Warranto Rolls; Derby 4 Edw. III., wherein the previous grant. 
36 Henry III. is recorded. 
7 haeter Rolls, 51 Edw. III., rot. 25. 
+ Chanc. Inq., 29 Edw. A o. 68. 
§ Charter Rolls, 33 Edw. I., ie 15. 
