FERRERS

Henry de Ferrers

Henry de Ferrers, who accompanied Duke William to England, was son of Walchelin, a Norman knight, and assumed the surname he bore from Ferriers, a small town of Gastinois, celebrated for its iron mines. Hence, too, originated the "six horse shoes," the armorial ensigns of the House of Ferrers, allusive to the seigneurie's staple commodity, so essential to the soldier and cavalier in those rude times when war was esteemed the chief business of life, and the adroit management of the steed, even amongst the nobility, the first of accomplishments. The name of Henry de Ferrers occurs in Domesday Book, and from that record he appears to have had vast possessions, the greater part of which was parcelled out amongst his retainers; the Fitzherberts of Norbury and Swinnerton still hold the lands their ancestor thus obtained. Henry de Ferrers' chief seat was Tutbury Castle, in Staffordshire, but his most extensive territorial grants were in the adjoining county of Derby, whence his son Robert, the gallant commander of the Derbyshire men at the battle of the Standard, took the title of his Earldom. Of the illustrious race which sprung from this renowned soldier, we have space but to enumerate the different branches, and to add a passing word on their ultimate fate; the senior line lost the earldom of Derby, through the rebellion of Robert, the eighth earl, who was one of the most active of the discontented nobles arrayed against Henry III.: his son, John de Ferrers, inherited, however, the Castle of Chartley, in Staffordshire, and was summoned to parliament as a Baron. His representative, and the present inheritor of the Barony of Ferrers of Chartley, is George, Marquess Townshend. The Barony of Ferrers of Groby, conferred on William, grandson of William 7th Earl of Derby, merged in the higher honours of the Greys, Marquesses of Dorset and that of Ferrers of Wemme, acquired by Sir Robert Ferrers, younger son of the second Lord Ferrers, of Chartley, fell into abeyance in 1410, between Elizabeth Lady Greystock, and Mary, wife of Ralph Nevil, daughters and coheirs of the last Baron. Of the Ferrers', Lords of Egginton and Radbourne, the co-representatives are Richard Walmesley Lloyd, Esq,, (deriving his right through the Talbots of Bashall) and Edward Sacheverall Chandos-Pole, Esq., the lineal descendant of Sir John Chandos, by Margery Ferrers, his wife. The only male branch of the family still extant is that of Baddesley Clinton, co. Warwick, derived from Sir Henry Ferrers, second son of the Hon. Thomas Ferrers of Tamworth Castle, son of the fifth Baron of Groby. Its present representative is Marmion Edward Ferrers, Esq., of Baddesley Clinton, son and heir of the late Edward Ferrers, Esq., of that place, by the Lady Harriet, his wife, daughter of George, Marquis Townshend. --(This name appears on the Battle Abbey Roll).