General Notes

Shrewsbury, Earldom of: In early December 1074 Roger de Montgomery was created Earl of Shropshire or Shrewsbury.  As with other medieval earldoms, little distinction was then made between the county town and county proper when designating a specific name for a title, chiefly because an earl, who was then more or less and official, albeit often hereditary, was inconceivable except as earl of a county.

Roger was son of another Roger de Montgomery, seigneur of the Norman places (St Germain-de-Montgomery and Ste-Foy-de-Montgomery) of that name in the Calvados region.  He was a prominent member of the nobles grouped around William (later William I of England, The Conqueror) of Normandy well before the 1066 invasion of England but stayed behind in Normandy during the actual enterprise.  The year after Hastings he went to England and received land grants in Sussex.  He is thought to have constructed the Castle of Montgomery (now in Powys, but formerly named Mongomeryshire after his family), doing so shortly before the Domesday Survey.  [Burke's Peerage, p. 2604]