Ferrers, the name of a great Norman-English feudal house, derived from Ferrières-St.-Hilaire, to the south of Bernay, in Normandie. Its ancestor Walkelin was slain in a feud during the Conqueror's minority, leaving a son Henry, who took part in the Conquest and held a great fief in the midlands. [Encyclopædia Britannica, 1961 ed., Vol. 9, p. 184, Ferrers]