THE ORIGIN OF THE SHIRLEYS AND OF THE GRESLEYS. 1 57 



The above example of Mr. Yeatman's treatment of the 

 records with which he has to deal raises what he would call 

 " a very grave question,"* namely, how far we can venture 

 to accept the version he gives us. We have seen what he 

 made of the opening words of the great Ferrers carta: let 

 us see what he makes of the closing portion of this most 

 important document. Again I take the Latin text from the 

 official version : — 



OFFICIAL TEXT. MR. YEATMAN. 



Baggarugget est de meis lx. Baggarugge is mine. For sixty 



militibus ; ego inde servitium vobis knights should I do service to you 

 facio. Et MeinfeniniusJ tenet and Memstrums (Memtenin in the 

 illam contra me tantum quantum Black Book), Main holds against 

 vobis placuerit (p. 340). § me. So much may it please you 



(P- 3 IO >- 



" To you and Memstrums " ! Such, according to Mr. 

 Yeatman's punctuation, is the monstrous phrase. What he 

 supposes it all to mean I have not the faintest idea. Turning 

 in despair to his Index, I learn that " Memstrums " is a place. 

 Six references follow the name, but five of them, unfortunately, 

 prove to refer, not to " Memstrums," but to Melbourne. This, 

 however, is relatively a trifle. For what Mr. Yeatman has 

 read as "Memstrums," and taken for a weird place-name, 

 is simply the Breton Christian name " Meinfelin " or " Mein- 

 fenin,"i| familiar to us as that of one of the Breton lords of 

 Wolverton (Bucks.). We have only to turn to the Pipe Roll 

 of the year (1167)11 following that of the above return to find 

 a Buckinghamshire manor obtaining thus the name of 

 "Huuinga Mainfelini ?'** (or " Meinfenin "f t). 



Having thus converted a Christian name into that of a 

 place unknown to topography, Mr. Yeatman converts the word 

 which follows it into a Christian name by reading " illam " 



*Feud. Hist. Derb., vii., 124. 



fAn Oxfordshire manor of the house of Ferrers. 

 % " Meinfeninus " in Black Book. 

 § This is almost the last clause in the carta. 



|| The Liber Niger reading is clearly " Meinfeninus." In the Red Book 

 it seems to me to be " Meinfinini[us]." 

 If Ed. Pipe Roll Society, p. no. 

 ** Treasurer's Roll. tt Chancellor s Roll. 



