THE ORIGIN OF THE SHIRLEYS AND OF THE GRESLEYS. 1 79 



. . But actual proof exists in numerous charters of the Abney family, 

 that their name and the name of the manor ( ! ) was Albini, a family who 

 had but little connection with the county at this early period,* and whose 

 name has no affinity with Habenai. f 



Nor has it any affinity with Abney. As Mr. Yeatman tells 

 us that this pedigree is " one of the greatest in the county,"} 

 the point should be of some interest to Derbyshire antiquaries. 

 " De Albini," of course, as is well known, is only a conven- 

 tional form of the real name, which is d'Aubigny; and this 

 name, on English lips, became Daubeney not Abney. For 

 proof thereof we have the lords Daubeney, who existed from 

 the thirteenth to the sixteenth century,§ and the fact that Stoke 

 (Northants.), which was held by " Albini " of Belvoir, is known 

 therefrom as Stoke Dawbeney. Domesday shows us no other 

 representative of Abney in Hope but "Habenai," and in the 

 early Wolley charters Abney is found as " Abbenay " and 

 " Abbeney,"|| but not, I need scarcely say, as "Albini." There 

 is, consequently, no ground whatever for charging Derbyshire 

 historians with error in identifying " Habenai " as Abney, nor 

 is Mr. Yeatman able to offer us any other identification. II 



Nevertheless, in dealing with the entry in the Ferrers carta 

 which relates to the Gresley fees, Mr. Yeatman recurs to his 

 Albini theory : — 



The Abneys of Willersley [sic) now undoubtedly represent the Derby- 

 shire branch of this great family, who are of the male blood of the family 

 of the ducal house of Normandy,** etc., etc. 



But the Abneys of Willesl'ey ceased to be even of " the male 



blood" of Abney so far back as 1790, when an heiress carried 



Willesley to a Hastings, while the line of Abney-Hastings 



itself became actually extinct in 1844, when Willesley passed 



* Quite so ! 

 tSec. i., p. 87. 

 + Sec. ii., p. 308. 



§ The surname is still to be met with. 



|! Index to Charters and Rolls in the British Museum, p. 2. 

 IT Sec. i., p. 82. 

 **Ibid., p. 281. 



