172 THE ORIGIN OF THE SHIRLEYS AND OF THE GRESLEYS. 



Greslets (sic), who were . certainly distant cousins " — which, to 

 recur to my own illustration, is like assuming that Lord 

 Middleton and Lord Midleton must be " certainly distant 

 cousins." Yet, lower down on the same page, we read that — 

 Whether these de Gresleys (sic) were any relation of the Derbyshire 

 or Lincolnshire families is not known. It is curious that they are only 

 found in Derbyshire (sic) as tenants of Peverils, and it would not appear 

 that the Muscamp family ever held of that honour. 



Again a needless puzzle ! These Peverel fees, as I have 

 said, were not in Derbyshire, and there is nothing " curious " 

 in the fact of their tenure by the Greasleys of Greasley, who 

 had nothing in the world to do with the Gresleys of Drakelowe 

 and Gresley.* 



Having disposed of the Gresleys' tenure of three Peverel 

 fees, we must now do the same for three Stafford fees. 

 According to my critic — 



The Liber Niger shows that Robert de Gresley held three fees in 

 Staffordshire of Robert de Stafford, which at Domesday were held 

 by Nigel, t 



Sheer imagination on Mr. Yeatman's part ! Not a single fee 

 is entered in the " Liber Niger " as held of Robert de Stafford 

 by Robert de Gresley ;{ and as Mr. Madan observes of Nigel: 

 " Of Robert de Stafford," in Domesday, " he is in no case 

 a tenant." 



If my readers will now refer to p. 163 they will find that 

 I there claim that Mr. Yeatman's attempt to instal the Albinis 

 barons of Cainhoe, as Gresleys at Gresley, " is inconsistent, on 

 his own showing, with their pedigree." And, in spite of his 

 loud assertions, we shall find that he is conscious of the 

 flaw. 



* Mr. Yeatman might have been saved from his error by my own article 

 in The Ancestor (No. 1), which stirred him to so much wrath. For I 

 wrote of Mr. Madan's book, that — " the snares that beset the path of the 

 unwary genealogist are admirably illustrated by the next Appendix, which 

 introduces us to two families who seem to have existed for the express 

 purpose of being confused with the Gresleys. One of these is Greasley 

 of Greasley." 



t Sec. ii., p. 28S. 



JSee General Wrottesley's paper on The Liber Niger Scaccarii, and his 

 analysis of The Barony of Robert de Stafford," therein. (Salt Society, i., 

 159-188.) 



