DOMESDAY SURVEY 



may recognise our thegn in the Siward who held before the 

 Conquest the adjacent vills of Catton and Croxall, near the junction 

 of the Trent and the Tame, and who had an important estate 

 on the Derwent north of Derby comprising Duffield with its appen- 

 dages, Breadsall, and Morley. There is no reason to doubt that it was 

 the same man who held Norbury with Roston and Great Cubley in 

 the west of the shire, Brassington near Wirksworth, and Wormhill in 

 Miller's Dale. 



In one case, however, we are able to ascertain definitely that an 

 Englishman not only held land at the time of the Survey under Henry de 

 Ferrers but was the ancestor of a family which continued for centuries to 

 hold of his successors. This was the ' Elfin ' who held Brailsford, 

 Osmaston, Lower Thurvaston, and part of Bupton (Longford), in the first 

 of which places he had succeeded no less a person than Earl Waltheof, 

 at Thurvaston and Bupton his predecessor being a certain ' Ulchil ' 

 or ' Uchel.' The Domesday form ' Elfin ' is very difficult to explain ; it 

 may be a mistake for either ^EHwine or ^Elfsige, the latter seeming the 

 more probable ; but in either case the name represented would be old 

 English, and it is therefore of great interest to see the descendants of this 

 man continuing to hold land in these vills. We are enabled to do this 

 through the Chartulary of Tutbury Priory, which shows us Alfinus de 

 Breleford granting Osmaston to that house with the consent of his son 

 Nicholas. 1 In the Red Book of the Exchequer* Earl William de Ferrers 

 states that his grandfather had enfeoffed Nicholaus de Breileford in one 

 knight's fee which his son Henry was then holding, and members of the 

 family of de Brailesford are frequently met with in later mediaeval records. 

 Here then we have a clear instance of an important Derbyshire county 

 family being of English descent. 



But the same chartulary affords us other information about the 

 undertenants of Henry de Ferrers. It includes a charter of Earl Robert 

 de Ferrers the younger in which he confirms all the grants which 

 had been made to Tutbury Priory by his grandfather (the Henry de 

 Ferrers of Domesday) and father and their respective ' men,' and in 

 the list of grantees which follows we can identify many names which 

 occur in Domesday. A list of these may be convenient for purposes 

 of reference : 



Vill. Domesday undertenant. In Earl Robert's charter. 



Osmaston .... Elfin Alfinus de Breleford 



Catton Nigellus Nigellus de Albiniaco 



Hoon Saswalo Sewallus 



Osleston .... Johannes Johannes 



Ash Rotbertus Robert fitz Sarle 



Sedenefeld . . William William de Rolleston 



Dalbury . 

 Trusley . 

 Little Ireton 

 Egginton 

 Upper Thurvaston 



un 



Robert Robert de D 



Hugh Hugh le Arbalaster 



Orm ....... Orm 



'Aselin' Anscelin de Heginton 



Robert Robert de St. Quintin 



1 Dugdale, Men. iii. 392. Red Book of the Exch. (Rolls Ser.), i. 338. 



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