164 THE ORIGIN OF THE SHIRLEYS AND OF THE GRESLEYS. 



and on one alone. He claims — and he rightly claims — to 

 have shown that Catton in Croxall, Derbyshire, was held of the 

 Ferrers family by the Albinis of Cainhoe (Beds.), and descended 

 with a share of their barony to their co-heirs, the St. Amands.* 

 Therefore, he would have us admit, because the Nigel who 

 held Catton of Ferrers in Domesday was Nigel " de Albini," 

 every other Nigel who held a manor of Ferrers was also 

 Nigel " de Albini." But, if so, why is he quite unable to 

 connect any other Derbyshire manor with the Albinis or their 

 heirs, although he can easily do so in the case of Catton? 

 The answer is obvious : it is that these other manors were 

 held, not by Nigel " de Albini," but by Nigel " de Stafford," 

 the Domesday tenant-in-chief of Drakelowe and the lineal 

 ancestor in the male line, as I and other genealogists are 

 satisfied, of the present Gresleys of Drakelowe. f 



We may turn Mr. Yeatman's words against himself, and 

 say of his view with perfect truth : " It is simply guessing on 

 the name NigeV'jt On that name he has an obsession, 

 insisting that it was " a well-known name, one of the few 

 surnames (sic) of the period" (p. 125), and that "Nigel was 

 a well-established surname (sic) with the Albinis, and each 

 son would be entitled to use it" (pp. 131-2). Now, Nigel, 

 J need hardly say, was not a surname at all, and as a Christian 

 name it was not distinctive of any one family. Thus, among 

 the tenants-in-chief of Domesday we have Nigel de Stafford, 

 Nigel de Bereville (whose fief in Bucks, follows immediately 

 on that of Nigel de Albini), Nigel Fossard, and Nigel the 



* See, for instance, p. 123, and compare Feudal Aids, i. 248, for the 

 St. Amand tenure. But even this is no new discovery of his own. Lysons, 

 whose work he has used (see vol. 1., pp. 86, 89, etc.), observed so far 

 back as 1817 that Catton "passed in marriage with Amicia de Ferrars to 

 Nigel de Albini, and it continued in that family in the reign of Hen. III. 

 Aylmer, Baron St. Amand, descended from one of the co-heiresses, died 

 seised of it in 1403" (p. 93). 



t The descent is accepted by General Wrottesley in his writings and in 

 British Museum Charters, etc. 



+ We read on p. 125 that "Mr. Round's mistake in confounding the 

 Toesni's (sic) with the Albini's (sic) is curious, but there is no ground 

 lor it. It is simply guessing on the name Nigel." As a matter of fact, 

 I have never, we shall see, confused the Toesnis with the Albinis. 



