General Notes

Nigel d'Albini, died 1129, evidently came to England in the time of
William Rufus, backing the winning side (Rufus and Henry I against their elder brother, Robert Curthose, for the Conqueror's inheritance in England and ultimately in Normandy as well. Obtained both the wife and Norman lands of Robert de Mowbray. . He also obtained the lands in northern England of Robert de Stuteville some time after Stuteville's fall in 1106.
Roll: Nigel, his son took the name of Mowbray on inheriting the estates of
that family. Nigel became one of the greatest landowners in England and is the only member of the family recorded in Domesday, having received grants of several lordships in Buckingham, Leicester, Bedford and Warwick, as he succeeded to the estates of his father and grandfather. He is reputed to have possessed 120 manors in Normandy and as many in England, including the great domain of the earl of Mowbray, which came to him through his wife, confiscated from his cousin, Robert de Mowbray, earl of Northumberland, given by Henry I, on condition that their eldest son would take the name of Mowbray. He lived to a very great age and died in 1138.
The Mowbrays, Dukes of Norfolk, were from an ancient period a great baronial family and made a succession of fortunate alliances. The family was founded by Nigel de Albini, brother of William de Albini, from whom the ancient Earls of Arundel descended. The Albinis, who were maternally from the house of Mowbray, came into England with the Conqueror and obtained large possessions after the victory of Hastings. Nigel's grants lay in the cos. of Bucks, Bedford, Warwick, and Leicester, and comprised several extensive lordships. In the reign of Rufus, he was bow-bearer to the king; and, being girt with the sword of knighthood by King Henry I, had, of that monarch's gifts, the manor of Egmanton with divers parks in the forest of Sherwood, which lordship, however, he transferred to his particular friend, Robert Davil. But when King Henry had further experience of his great valour and military skill, he augmented his royal bounty and conferred upon him the vavasories of Camville and Wyville, which gracious mark of favour so attached Albini to the interests of his sovereign, that he espoused with the most devoted zeal the cause of Henry against his brother, Robert Curthose, and, taking a conspicuous part at the battles of Tenerchebray, he there slew the horse of Curthose and brought the prince himself to the king, for which eminent service Henry conferred upon him the lands of Robert, Baron of Frontebeof, named Stuteville, in England, which Frontebeof had forfeited in behalf of Curthose. After which, King Henry besieging a castle in Normandy, this gallant Sir Nigil first entered the breech, sword in hand, and delivered up the fortress to the king, which achievement was remunerated by a royal grant of the forfeited lands of his maternal uncle, Robert de Mowbray, Earl of Northumberland, both in Normandy and England; as also his castles, with the castle of Bayeux and its appurtenances, so that he had no less than 120 knights' fees in Normandy and as many in England, thus becoming one of the most powerful persons of the period in which he lived. Sir Nigil de Albini m. 1st, Maud, dau. of Richard de Aquila, by permission of Pope Paschall, her husband, Robert de Mowbray, Earl of Northumberland, before-mentioned, being then alive and in prison for rebellion against William Rufus; from this lady he was, however, divorced, on account of consanguinity, and by her he had no issue. He m. 2ndly, in 1118, Gundred, dau. of Gerald de Gorney, by the special advice of King Henry I, and had two son, Roger, his successor, and Henry, who had the lordship and barony of Camho, and was ancestor of the Albinis, feudal lords of that place. This great feudal baron d. at an advanced age and was buried with his ancestor in the abbey of Bec, in Normandy. He was s. by his elder son, Roger de Mowbray. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, A