General Notes

The Honourable William Ferrers, 2nd son of William, 7th Earl ofDerby, otained, by gift of Margaret, his mother, one of thedaus. and co-heirs of Reoger de Quinci, Earl of Winchester, themanor of
Groby, co. Leicester, whereupon he assumed; the arms ofthe family of De Quinci.  He m. 1st, Joane, daug. of Hugh leDespencer; and 2ndly Eleanor,l dau. of Matthew Lovain, ad by theformer had
issue.=========Subject: Re: Higham FerrarsFrom:  Capon <Richard@RICHARDC.FTECH.CO.UK>Date:  Tue, 4 Mar 1997 19:24:25 GMT>RICHARD>>One stray comment leads to another.  I happen to have a bookopen on
my desk>to the family of Richard Throckmorton of Higham Ferrars.  He isan ancestor,>so I have an interest in that locale also.  Might we connect?>>Tom (aikenroots@aol.com)>>>TOMCertainly.I hope the
rest of the list members will allow me a little timea bit offthe immediate topic  to fill in the background to some mediaevalgenealogy.If anyone objects to this correspondence being in this list
thenemail medirect and I will only mail directly rather than through thelist. If youapprove of this slight deviation from the normal fare of thelist; thenequally, let either of us know. I neither
case will offence betaken I am sure.I am interested in mediaeval genealogy of towns because of theinteractionof the classes of individuals. We may not know the names of theserfs,burgesses and the
like, but the interaction of  serfs and theirleige lordscan put skin on the bones of what can get rather dry if onebecomes totallyinvolved with who begat who.I may not be able to help with the
genealogy much for HighamFerrers, but Iwas brought up in the town and know its history reasonably well.You mayknow that the modern town started life as a stronghold ofWilliam Peverelwho was reputed
to be one of William the Conqueror's bestgenerals.Previously there had been a Saxon burgh on the site calledHecham. It wasthe moot of the Hecham Hundred.In time Hecham became Higham and the Ferrers
family succeeded tothe town.Its earliest Charter of Liberties was in 1251 when William deFerrers, Earlof Derby named 91 of his serfs and their families. They werenamed as freeburgesses and the
borough was born.The castle built to keep Hereward the Wake under control, becamethe huntinglodge of John of Gaunt and the Lancastrian Kings two hundredyears later,but it soon fell into disrepair
after that until the stones wereused tobuild Kimbolton Castle fifteen or so miles away.The Archbishop of Canturbury, Henry Chichele established one ofthe oldestgrammar schools in the country there
and there was ChicheleCollege  whichwas arguably a university of that period on a par with Oxfordand Cambridge.A bedeshouse was built and a magnificent church. Over thecenturies fairsand markets
fluorished and the burgesses continued to fill thetown'soffices with Mayors, town clerks, constables, bailiffs,aletasters andleather searchers. In 1556 a new charter was granted by Philipand Mary as
areward to the town for its loyalty during the Lady Jane Greyrebellion andthe right was granted to send one Member to Parliament.What else are you interested in Tom?Richard.
DATE 13 MAR 1999