General Notes

Alias:<ALIA> William /d'Aubigny/ II
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William de Albini (d'Aubigny) II, surnamed Pincerna, whose posterity
assumed, and attained such eminence under the name of Mowbray,
accompanied William the Conqueror into England, and acquired extensive
territorial possessions by royal grants in Norfolk and other counties. Of
these grants was the lordship of Bokenham, to be held by the service of
being Butler to the Kings of England on the day of their coronation, and
in consequence we find this William styled in divers charters "Pincerna
Henrici Regis Anglorum." William de Albini founded the Abbey of Wymondham
in Norfolk.
William de Albini also gave to the monks of Rochester the tithes of his
manor of Elham; as also one carucate of land in Achestede, with a wood
called Acholte. He likewise bestowed upon the Abbey of St. Etienne at
Caen, in Normandy, all his lands lying in Stavell, which grant he made in
the presence of King Henry and his barons.
At the obsequies of Maud, William de Albini gave to the monks of
Wymondham, the manor of Hapesburg, in pure alms, and made livery thereof
to the said monks by a cross of silver in which (says Dugdale) was placed
certain venerable reliques, viz., "part of the wood of the cross whereon
our Lord was crucified; part of the sepulchre of the blessed Virgin; as
also a gold ring, and a silver chalice, for retaining the holy Eucharist,
admirably wrought in the form of a sphere; unto which pious donation his
three sons were witnesses, with several other persons." The exact time of
the decease of this great feudal lord is not certain (Crispin and Macary
state that he died in 1139), but it is known that he was buried before
the high altar in the Abbey of Wymondham, and that the monks were in the
constant habit of praying for his soul, by the name of "William de
Albini, the king's butler." He was succeeded by his eldest son, William.