Fulcher ^{1 2}

   Another name for Fulcher was Fulcher de Eatington.

  General Notes:

Fulcher fitz Sewallis (2nd son of 5 sons, eldest son Henry became a monk), of Ettington, Shirley, etc; living 1141.

[Burke's Peerage]

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It seems that this Henry died without issue, "for plain it is," says Dugdale, "that Henry, son to his brother Fulcher, succeeded him in the inheritance." This Fulcher received from the Prior and Convent of Tutbury, with the consent of Robert Earl Ferrers, a grant of four oxgangs of land in Sirlai, since called Shirley, and a mill at Derby, at a rent of ten shillings and eight pence, to be paid at St. John Baptist's day, and at the feast of All Saints. This is the first notice that I find of the ancestors of the Shirleys possessing property in the village from whence they afterwards assumed their name. (App. XI.)

We now come to the third generation of the house of Shirley, the sons of the above mentioned Fulcher, who had issue Henry, Sewallis, Fulcher, and Jordan.

[Stemmata Shirleiana] ²

  Events

• Manorial Estate, 1105, Lower Ettington Manor, Ettington, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, CV35, GB. ⁴ The overlordship of the manor of LOWER ETTINGTON was held in 1086 by Henry de Ferrers. This manor was rated at 17 hides, its annual value being £20. The former owner is not recorded in Domesday Book. The Earls of Derby, descendants of Henry de Ferrers, subsequently held the overlordship, until that earldom was absorbed in the earldom of Lancaster, Ettington constituting 2/3 of a knight's fee in 1235 and a whole fee in 1242. In 1279 it is said to be held of Edmund of Langley, Earl of Lancaster, in 1403, 1466, and 1520 of the Duchy of Lancaster.

At the time of the Domesday Survey 'Saswalo' held the manor of Henry de Ferrers. He died about the time of the Survey, and was succeeded by his only son Fulcher, who died c. 1105. Fulcher's second son, another Sewallis, succeeded to the manor of Ettington; he later moved to Shirley, Derbyshire, whence he assumed the surname of Shirley. He died c. 1129, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Henry, who died c. 1165, when his son, a third Sewallis, inherited the manor. In 1242 this third Sewallis held one knight's fee here of Lord Ferrers. In 1247 he settled the manor of Shirley on his son James, on his marriage with Agnes de Wauton, and undertook not to sell any part of that of Ettington. James had a grant of free warren in his demesnes here in 1255. He seems to have got into financial difficulties in 1276, and made over this manor to his son Ralph, who, instead of regranting it to him for life, as he had arranged, kept it and sold the stock and movables found there. Sir James probably died in 1278, as in 1279 Ralph de Shirley was lord of Ettington, which he held of Edmund of Langley as 2 knight's fees, having there 2 ploughlands in demesne and 12 serfs. In 1316 the manor was settled on Ralph for life with remainder to Ralph son of James de Shirley and Margaret daughter of Walter Waldeshef and their issue. Two years later lands in Oxhill, Fullready, and Tysoe were settled on Ralph and Isabel de Etindon, with similar remainder. It seems probable that Isabel was Ralph's intended second wife and that the second Ralph was his grandson, son of an otherwise unrecorded James who had most likely died before attaining his majority. The elder Sir Ralph died in 1326 and the younger in 1342, when he was succeeded by his son, Sir Thomas, who died in 1362. His son Hugh was killed at the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403. Hugh's son Ralph, then aged 12, married Joan Basset and had a son Ralph, who held the manor until his death on 26 December 1466. His son John succeeded at the age of 40, and died on 18 May 1485.

Fulcher married.