284 A TOPOGRAPHICAL 



that St. Bertelline went to, tho' histories are silent, yet I have 

 some grounds to think that it might be about Throwley, Ham, and 

 Dovedale ; and that this was the St. Bertram who has a well, an 

 as&,and a tomb, at Ham : for if, as Cassgrave says, the town of Ber- 

 tamly, in Cheshire, took its name from a miracle that St. Bertel- 

 line did there, I know not why the people about Ham, Throwley, 

 &c. might not corrupt his name as much as they in Cheshire, and 

 call him St. Bertram, instead of St. Bertelline."* About the year 

 1386 " there was a wonderful! miracle wrought at his altar, in 

 Stafford, if we may believe Cassgrave." 



At the time of the Conquest, Stafford was undoubtedly a place 

 of some importance, for in Domesday Book it is termed a city, in 

 which the King had eighteen burgesses belonging to him, and 

 there were twenty mansions of the honour of the Earl of Mercia. 

 It then paid for all customs o9 in deniers,f and was governed 

 by two bailiffs. But the earliest record of its immunities as a Cor- 

 poration, is the Charter of King John, which is rather an exem- 

 plification and confirmation of former privileges, than a new grant. 



When William of Normandy conquered England, he built seve- 

 ral castles, over which he appointed his confidential followers as 

 governors, with troops to keep his English subjects in awe. Robert 

 de Tonei was appointed by him the governor of Stafford Castle, 

 from hence he took his name, De Stafford. 



The Barony of Stafford, from the Conquest to the reign of 

 Richard III. was very extensive, including sixty knights'-fees, of 

 which nine were in demesne, and fifty-one in services. Eighty 

 villages held of this barony; but by the attainder of Humphrey de 

 Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, who was beheaded at Salisbury for 

 rebelling against King Richard, the barony was dissolved. J 



Edward, the son and heir of this unfortunate Duke, was restored 

 to his honour and great part of his estates, but he also soon after- 

 wards fell a sacrifice to the false accusation of Knevet, his steward, 

 whom he had discharged for unjust exactions on his tenants. The 

 castle and manor of Stafford was restored to the family in the 23d 

 year of the reign of Henry VIII. ; but issue male failing, in the 



* Stafford was formerly called Betheney, and was built by Ethelfleda, the 

 heroic widow of Ethelred, Earl of Mercia, in the year 918, and was a chief 

 town in this county during the succession of the Mercian kings. Ethelfleda 

 also built a castle in the town, for the protection of the inhabitants against the 

 predatory incursions of the Danes from the northern part of England.--Ca?- 

 den's Britannia. 



+ Magna Britannia, No. 62, page 66. * Ibid, p. 67. 



