A HISTORY OF DERBYSHIRE 



which, with the exception of some ten carucates variously distributed, 

 belonged to him. Compact blocks of territory of this kind are so rare in 

 Domesday that one is tempted to suggest that this was the reason for the 

 pointed entry in the introduction to the county survey, to the effect that 

 the financial rights of the king and the earl in Appletree wapentake made 

 part of the sheriff's farm. 1 Henry's possessions in Appletree wapentake 

 were separated from his land in the north of the county by the royal 

 manors of Ashbourne, Parwich, and Wirksworth, and he and the king 

 between them absolutely dominated the western half of the shire. 



It will be clear that a territory of this kind must have been divided 

 before the Conquest among many holders of land and Domesday gives us 

 the names of these, to most of which it is impossible to attach any more 

 definite meaning. Some of them possessed typically Norse names, such as 

 Ketel, Swegen, Gamel, Hacon, Turgis, and Uctebrand. All of them seem 

 to have been totally dispossessed ; in only one case does a former English 

 landowner appear to have continued to hold his estate under Henry de 

 Ferrers. 2 Nevertheless, English undertenants do appear, among them 

 being the Ketel who held at Mugginton, the Godric at Shottle, the Alsi 

 (./Elfsige) at Yeaveley, and the ^Ifric (Alric) at (Potter) Somersall. It is 

 quite possible that this last undertenant may be the same as the ' Elric ' 

 who had held the same manor before the Conquest. An Orm appears as 

 holding of Henry de Ferrers at Wyaston and at Little Ireton, and there is 

 no doubt that in the latter we have the ' Ormus ' who gave two-thirds of 

 his demesne tithes to Tutbury priory ; 3 but there is no evidence to show 

 whether or not he was identical with the Wyaston Orm. Very possibly 

 the ' Cola ' who held at Yeldersley and at Winster under Henry de 

 Ferrers was an Englishman, as a ' Cole ' appears before the Conquest 

 at ' Salham ' (in Hartington) and a ' Colle ' appears at Youlgreave. With 

 the exception of Earls Edwin and Waltheof one only of Henry de Ferrers' 

 English predecessors can be recognised outside Domesday. This is the 

 Siward who appears several times as a pre-Conquest owner on Henry's 

 fief, and he may be identified with the Siward Barn who in 1071 joined 

 Hereward and his fellow insurgents in the Isle of Ely, His general 

 position in Domesday has been discussed in the Victoria History of 

 Warwickshire? where it is shown that his estates in that and in several 

 other counties had been granted to Henry de Ferrers. In Derbyshire our 

 difficulty is that the Siward who had preceded Henry appears without 

 any distinctive suffix, so that we cannot be certain that in all cases we are 

 dealing with the right man. There cannot, however, be much danger of 

 our confusing him with Earl Siward of Northumbria, as we have seen 

 that the latter's manor of Markeaton had passed to Earl Hugh of Chester ; 

 moreover earls in Domesday are usually though by no means invariably 

 distinguished by an interlineation expressing their rank. Accordingly we 



l Fol. 280. 



z The Suain who had held two bovates at Cowley before the Conquest was very probably the same 

 person as the ' Suan ' who held the whole manor under Henry de Ferrers. 

 s Dugdale, Men. iii. 392. * V. C. H. Warto. \. 282. 



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