94 ON A CHARTER OF DARLEY ABBEY. 



me and gave to the same canons" . . . " as in the charter of 

 the said Hubert, which the said Canons in that behalf have, is 

 contained." (Duchy of Lancaster Charters, A 199.) 



Wigwall is now known as Wigwell Grange, the word Grange 

 indicating that it was formerly in ecclesiastical hands. At Wig- 

 wall there belonged to Darley Abbey one messuage and eighty 

 acres of land. (Glover's Derbyshire, ii., 349.) 



The modern form " Wigwell ?' instead of Wigwall, is an example 

 of the perverted spelling of place-names, whereby a misleading 

 idea is often given as to their true etymology or signification. 

 Thus, instead of this place-name referring to a well, it points, most 

 probably, to a vallum (Saxonice wall) or camp, of either early 

 British or Roman origin. 



The first of the three grantors named in the deed before us is 

 Henry, son of Ranulph de Crumforde. A Henry de Crumforde 

 is named as a witness in charter No. 2 of the Fitz- Herbert and 

 other charters published in the 4th vol. of this journal, p. .3 ; and 

 which is dated 1st Nov., 1287. 



Adam, son of Robert Fitz Gilbert, the second grantor, may be 

 the son of the Robert Fitz Gilbert who was the grantor in the 

 fourth of the Wigwell deeds above referred to, who was probably 

 identical with the Robert Fitz Gilbert mentioned in No. 1 of the 

 Fitz-Herbert and other charters (vol. 4 of this journal, p. 2), both 

 of which deeds are without date. One Gilbert held Kedleston 

 under Henry de Ferrariis, and Weston Underwood under Ralph 

 de Buron, at the date of the Domesday survey. Lysons says that 

 the family of Gilbert, alias Kniveton, settled at Youlgreave about 

 a.d. 1300, and continued there for nine or ten generations. 



The name of the then late occupier of the land granted was 

 Robert le Wine or Lewine, the latter form (Lewin) is now a 

 well-known surname. "To be held of us and our heirs." This 

 clause appears to settle the date of the deed to be earlier than 

 18 Edward I. (1290), in which year the famous statute Quia 

 emptores terrarum was passed, which put an end to the sub- 

 infeudation of land, and enacted that a grantee should hold, 

 not of the grantor, but of the chief lord of the fee. 



