THE ORIGIN OF THE SHIRLEYS AND OF THE GRESLEYS. I J 7 



Here is Mr. Yeatman's other example : — 



Mr. Round writes, with a view " to settle the matter by the inexorable 

 evidence of the Pipe Rolls," that — " Certain lands belonging to the 

 honour of Lancaster had been granted out to William Fitz Walkelin and 

 Nigel de Gresley. It is certain that these lands were at Stainsby and 

 Drakelow respectively." A statement which, if true, has no bearing upon 

 the question, even when supplemented by the unwarrantable addition 

 made by Mr. Round. Neither Stainsby nor Drakelow are even mentioned, 

 and it is not certain, nor even probable, that the co-granter (sic) was 

 William Fitz Walkelin, of Stainsby.* 



We have only to turn to the Pipe Roll of 1 1 75 (21 Henry II. | ) 

 to find, under the three years' account for the Honour of 

 Lancaster"]: no fewer than three entries (pp. 7, 8, 9) of lands 

 granted " Will[elm]o filio Walkelini ... in Steinbia "§ 

 and " Nigell[o] de Gresel[ega] ... in Drakelawa." So 

 much for Mr. Yeatman's statement that " neither Stainsby nor 

 Drakelowe " are even mentioned, but are an " unwarrantable 

 addition " of my own. It may strike " the learned reader " as 

 curiously foolish on his part to charge me with " tampering 

 with the records " when his charge can be instantly disproved 

 by referring to the text of the records, which are printed and 

 accessible to all the world. But that is Mr. Yeatman's business, 

 not mine. 



The charge has at least enabled me to make a contribution 

 to the history of these two Derbyshire manors. || 



I am disposed to agree with Mr. Yeatman when he writes 

 of " those puzzling facts of county history which have produced, 

 for Derbyshire readers, so much unhappy guesswork and too 

 frequently such deplorable blundering."1l But I am not sure 

 that we should look for them in the works of his predecessors. 



* Sec. vii., p. 122. Mr. Yeatman adds that "A William Fitz Walkelin 

 did receive a grant at Stainsby in the reign of King John." As a matter 

 of fact he received it, as the Pipe Rolls show, about the middle of the 

 reign of Henry II. 



f Published by the Pipe Roll Society in 1897. 

 t " Lancastra de tribus annis." 

 § " Steinebi " on the Chancellor's Roll. 

 The original charter of Henry II., granting " Steynesbi " to William 

 Fitz Walkelin is preserved at Hardwick Hall (3rd Report on Historical 

 MSS., p. 44), and is transcribed in Carta Antiquce, N. 33. 

 If Preface to Feudal History of Derbyshire. 

 12 



