General Notes

Lord of Buckenham, Master Butler to Henry I

Note: William de Albini, surnamed Pincerna, son of Roger de Albini and elder brother of Nigel de Albini, whose posterity assumed and attained such eminence under the name of Mowbray, accompanied 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 holden 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 and gave to the monks of Rochester the tithes of the 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. He m. Maude, dau. of Roger Bigot, with whom he obtained ten knights' fees in Norfolk, and had issue, William, Nigel, Oliver, and Oliva, who m. Ralph de Haye. 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 manger wherein he was laid at his birth; and 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 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 baron is not ascertained, 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 s. by his eldest son, William de Albini. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, England, 1883, p. 2, Albini, Earls of Arundel]