44 Erlestoke and its Manor Lords. 



pays £8 6.s. M. for a money fine of the wife of Herbert, while there 

 is no evidence that our family was at any time connected with 

 Beilford shire or Northumberland, nor with Warwickshire at this 

 period.^ It seems possible therefore that in the entry quoted 

 above from the Eed Book of the Excliequer the word " elder " as 

 applied to the first Herbert was used to distinguish him from 

 Herbert his cotemporary chamberlain, and in regard to the witness 

 of this name and office in two royal charters confirming gifts to 

 the Cathedral Priory of Norwich in 1101, his identity has to be 

 left an open question.- 



The son William to whom his father and brother granted the 

 advowsons of so many churclies was a priest, and in the reign of 

 Stephen was a royal chaplain and Treasurer of the Chapter of 

 York. In 1140, when the Archbishopric of York fell vacant by 

 the death of Thurstan, Henry of Winchester, the brother of the 

 King, appointed William Fitz-Herbert to the see as one who would 

 strengthen the power of his party in the Churcli. The appointment 

 aroused strong opposition from the party of reform under the 

 the leadership of Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, because 

 William, although of blameless character, had been brought up 

 in luxury and idleness, and could not be considered spiritually 

 fit for such a post. He thus became a suliject of much interest 

 to the chroniclers whose efforts to trace his genealogy are 

 extremely interesting though quite unconvincing; thus John 

 Bromton says he was descended from the family of King Stephen, 

 " for he was the son of that very potent man Count Herbert " ;^ and 

 Thomas Stubbs, giving further particulars, says he was " the son 

 of the very strenuous Count Herljert, born of Emma, the sister of 

 Stephen King of the English,* and even if Emma, the sister of 

 King Stephen, is an invention of the chroniclers made for the 

 purpose of glorifying their subject (for there is no mention of her 

 elsewhere), we have the evidence of William of Newburgh, an 



• cf. T. de N., p. 91. 

 - Dug. Mvn., iv., 15, 16, Nos. III., V. 



3 In Twysden, p. 1028. 

 ^ Actus Pontiff Ehor., Ih., p. 1721. 



