122 UUFFIELD CASTLE. 



eldest daughter and co-heiress of William Peverel, Earl of Notting- 

 ham and Derby, who died in 1137. He founded the Priory of 

 Derby, afterwards translated to Darley, as well as a Cistercian 

 Abbey at Mirevale, Warwick: at the latter of which religious houses 

 he was buried in 1162, wrapped in an ox-hide 



He was succeeded by his son William. William Earl Ferrers 

 joined the king's sons in a rebellion against their father, Henry II., 

 and was deprived of his Earldoms of Derby and Nottingham. He 

 plundered and burnt the town of Nottingham, driving out the 

 king's garrison, but when he found that Tutbury was besieged by 

 Welshmen, and that the king was advancing against him with con- 

 siderable forces, he submitted himself to the royal clemency at 

 Northampton. It is at this time that we get further direct mention 

 of the castle of Duffield. Dugdale* tells us that the Earl 

 Ferrers, in the 19th year of Henry II. manned his castles of Tut- 

 bury and Duffield against the king, and marched to Nottingham 

 and burnt it ; but that submitting himself afterwards to the king, 

 rendering his castles of Tutbury and Duffield, and giving security, 

 he was pardoned, though " so little did the king trust him that he 

 forthwith demolished those forts." 



Among the Wolley MSS. at the British Museum, is a small 4to. 

 volume entitled " Reynolds Derbyshire Co//ec/ions." Mr. Rey- 

 nolds, a well-known Derbyshire antiquary, resident at Crich, thus 

 writes of this event, adding a comment as to the site of the old 

 castle : — 



"(Robt.) de Ferrariis, Earl of Derby, manned his castles of Tut- 

 bury and Duffield against King Henry the Second, in favour of 

 his son. But was quickly reduced to such straits, that he went to 

 the king, and begging his pardon, submitted himself, and surren- 

 dered his castles to him. The king taking security for his future 

 fidelity pardoned him and gave him his estate ; but not daring to 



* Dugdale's Baronage, vol. I., p. 259. The marginal reference is to Rad. 

 de Diceto, 588, n. 20. Dugdale, following an error of the chronicler Roger de 

 Hoveden, mistakes the Christian name, and calls this Earl of Ferrers Robert 

 instead of William. Mr. LI. Jewitt has made the same error in his introduc- 

 tion to the Domesday Book of Derbyshire, making it Robert instead of William 

 who sacked Nottingham. 



