THE VKRNONS OF HADDON HALL. 185 



accounts that year for 68s. for the corn on his land ; either he was 

 dead, or in rebellion, or he had settled abroad. 



This may have been the year of his death, though it is more 

 likely that he had forfeited his lands for some act of rebellion ; for 

 as late as 23 Hy. II., Gervase Avenel was one of the overseers of 

 the works on the Castle of Peak. 



There are but few notices of the family until the sixth year of 

 Rich. I. Unfortunately for Derbyshire history, the Pipe Rolls for 

 this county are lost from the ist until the 6th year of that 

 monarch, in the latter half of which year, William Briwere, the 

 judge and regent of the king, was Sheriff of Notts, and Derby- 

 shire. As this period saw many changes of ownership, the loss 

 is the more to be regretted. Ralf Murdach had been sheriff, 

 as he was apparently in the early part of the 6th, and the 

 first notice we have is that William Briwere, who was sheriff for 

 the half-year, accounts for the sale of the goods of Robert Avenel, 

 one of the king's enemies ; probably he was the son of Gervase, 

 and possibly he suffered for his rebellion ; however, this again is 

 doubtful, for we know that King Richard was now in prison 

 abroad, and the meaning of being a king's enemy at that period 

 was probably that he was acting in the king's interest against 

 Prince John and William Briwere. The following year Robert 

 Avenel paid one mark for seven shillings rent in Pleslie and in 

 Sutton. Was this some compensation for turning him out of 

 his Haddon estates? For sure it is that WilliHm Briwere had 

 now secured them in moieties for his kinsmen Richard Vernon 

 and Simon Basset. Referring to the pedigree, it will be seen that 

 Richard Vernon, if of the house of Redvers, was half-brother of 

 his son's wife. Vernon and Basset had married the two daughters 

 of William Avenel, and the following charter (still at Belvoir) gives 

 evidence of the fact, though it does not supply the information 

 necessary to account for a ^\^illiam, son of another William 

 Avenel, being in possession : evidence which can only be supplied 

 probably by the missing Pipe Rolls of 1-5 Rich. I. This record 

 is in the form of a fine, by no means a usual means of settling 

 estates in free marriage, but probably dictated by the necessities 



