83 



^roceetrtngs tafecu m ffiSHmstcv (JEljurdj 

 rcsavtrins ti)t Consangumttg of tijc 

 parties to tf)t Utarrtage of tUjo of tf^t 

 Staffoi:tr3 of iggam. mtti tiatctJ 1308. 



Contributed by Chari.es E. B. Bowles. 



I HE Staffords were influential landowners in Eyam a 

 a very early period (see Rdiguarx, Vol. II., p. 222, 

 for their pedigree). Among the " Wooley Charters " 

 in the British Museum is a Grant, undated, but about 

 A.D. 1200, from Eustace de Morteyne, Lord of Eyam, to' Richard 

 de Stafford, of land situated in Eyam, " tO' be held by him and 

 his heirs of me and my heirs by hereditary right for the Free 

 Service of finding one Lamp burning before the Altar of St. 

 Helen in the Church at Eyam throughout the year, during 

 Divine Service " (vij 38). Humphry Stafford, the last of the 

 family, died about 1550, leaving his immense possessions 

 between his four daughters, one of whom married, in 1555, 

 Francis, son and heir of Godfry Bradshaw, of Bradshaw, when 

 a lad of ten. Through him has been transmitted to the writer 

 of this article, among many other Stafford MSS., an interesting 

 document in Latin, of which the following, slightly abridged, 

 is a translation : — 



The Production of Evidence on behalf of Richard de 

 Stafford de Eyam touching the consanguinity which is said to 

 exist between Richard, his son, and Isabella, his wife, taken in 



