73 



^.i^c Ci)itvdj of lltjvtiurg/ 



By Rev. J. Charles Cox, LL.D., F.S.A. 



JHE Derbyshire manor of Norbury formed part of the 

 great estates of Henry de Ferrers when the Domesday 

 Survey was compiled. At that time (1086-7) mention 

 is made of a church and a priest. A few years earlier, Henry 

 de Ferrers, when founding the priory of Tutbury (i 080-1), had 

 given this church and its tithes to the monks of that Cluniac 

 house. His grandson, Robert de Ferrers, confirmed to them 

 the town of Norbury, which his father had given to the priory, 

 together with the towns of Edlaston and Broughton, in exchange 

 for the town of Stamford. 



But in the year i 1^5, the prior of Tutbury gave Norbury in 

 fee-farm to William Fitzherbert, on a yearly rental of 100s. 

 It was further agreed that William Fitzherbert should pay five 

 shillings a year to the priory in lieu of the tithe of the lordship 

 and of two oxgangs of land pertaining to the church. 



From that date, the Fitzherberts held the manor and a 

 portion of the tithes of the priory up to the year 1422, when 

 Nicholas Fitzherbert and Ralph, his son and heir, gave to 



* It is more than twenty-five years at;o since I first wrote about Norbury 

 church {C/iuri/ids of Derbyshire, iii., 229-247) ; it ha.s always had a special 

 fascination for me, and I could not but comply with the somewhat urgent 

 request of the Hon. Editor that I should write about it again for i\vi Jottritat. 

 There is not much to be added to what has already Ijecn written ; but this 

 account is amplified in some places, and curtailed and corrected in others, 

 as the result of three subsequent visits and of further study. The fourth 

 volume of theyiwrz/rt/ had an article by Mr. Hope on "Anthony Fitzherbeit's 

 brass" ; the fourth and fifth volumes, illustrations of the " Manor House tUass," 

 by Mr. Bailey ; the seventh, a long article by myself on the " Manor House 

 and the Troubles of the Fitzherlx.-rts " ; and the nineteenth and twentieth 

 Volumes " Fitzherbert Wills relative to the Church," liy Kev. Reginald II. C. 

 Fitzherljert. 



