1. Nigel de Gresley (Nigel de Torp), tenant of Henry de Ferrers in 1086. He was possibly Nigellus Camerarius, the chamberlain of earl Roger de Poictou,
1.1. William FitzNigel. Greisley juxta pontem de Burton, in the deanery of Repindon, was a small priory of canons of St. Austin, founded by William, son of Nigel de Geresley, temp. Hen. I. dedicated to St. Mary and St. George, and valued, 26 Hen. VIII. at 31/. 6s. per ann. according to Dugdale; William FitzNigel also founded Norton priory, near Runcorn, in Cheshire. W’mus fil. Nigel, fundator monast. de Gresley m. Elena. In a book of church notes in the British Museum, is the following account of this family: “The church of Gresley is situated two miles from the Trent, among the woods, where William, the son of Nigel de Gresley, founded a priorie in the honore of St. George, the ruins wherof remain; of which priorie the Gresleys were patrons, and had a necessarie voyce in the election of the pryore. It doth appeare to me by manie circumstances, that the Gresleys had the full complement of our ancient barrons; as fyrst, the hundred of Gresley, co. Derby, being one of the divisions of the county, to be held by the Gresleys in barinagio; then, a priorie of their foundation; then their castle of their own surname, seated within a mile of the pryorie, toward the Trent.
1.1.1. Robertus de Gresley, miles, fil. Wil’m and Basilia. An abbey for Cistertian monks, at Swineshead, co. Lincoln, was founded, in 1134, by Robert Greslei, and valued, at the dissolution, according to Dugdale, at 167/ 15s. 3d. per ann. Robert Greseley, however, had ” Mortun ” only by exchange with a younger brother Engenolf, to whom he gave in lieu Swart (Swarthincote, a small lordship in Greseley parish, Derbyshire), with two bovates in Kingesleya,” and two in ” Bredleia,” both in Staffordshire. Test. Domina Basilia uxor. Rob. de Gresel; and, among others, four more Greseleys, Nigel, Henry, William, Ralph, all younger brothers of Robert.
1.1.1.1. W’mus de Gresley, miles, fil. et haer. Rob. Temp. king John, William de Ferrers, sixth earl of Derby and Nottingham, had a grant from that king,in 1206, of William de Gresley and his heirs, for his lands at Drakelow, to hold in capite by the service of a bow without a string, a quiver, made at Tutbury, and thirteen arrows, twelve fledged or feathered, and one unfeathered. The later Gressleys assumed arms nearly similar to those of the family of Ferrers, viz. Vaire, ermine and gules.
1.1.2. Ralph de Gresley. “Rad’us de Gresley et Agnes uxor ejus”, probably Agnes de Heriz. Ralph de Seile held the manor of Netherseale, co. Leicester, t. Hen. I. In the time of Hen. 11. with the consent of William, earl Ferrers, sold his mill at Seile, with four virgates of his demesne land, to Ralph, son of William de Greseley, for 13 marks of silver. Among the many witnesses to this deed, are, Willielmo de G’sel, et Robt. filio suo, et Henrico, et Willielmo, Waltero de Somervilla, Rob’ de Ferr.’ et Rogero Capellano, et Willielmo Decano de Tatenhull, Johanne de Lisvis, &c. A large thick seal; the earl on horseback: sigillum Willielmi comitis de Ferrariis. Radulph de Gresele gives one carucate in Seile to Mirevall. Seile mill was in the hands of the canous of Greseley, not long after the purchase made of it by Rad. de Greseley. Robert de Arraby gave two bovates of land at Eaton, co. Leicester, cum corpore suo, to Croxton abbey, with the appurtenances of the fee of Griseley; which appears to have been subordinate to that of Ferrars. Agnes de Heriz was the grandda. of Robert de Heriz, who in 1086 held of William Peverel in Stapleford 2 carucates, and da. of Galfr. de Heriz, Lord of Stapleford. When William Peverel I. founded the Priory of Lenton, in the first decade of the twelfth-century, donators to it were his feudatories in Avranches; “les hommes de Guillaume Peverel sont du diocèse d’Avranches”, being “Le premier était Avenel, Raoul Malherbe, Norman de Saint Patrice, Geoffroy de Heriz, Adelelme ou Adelée, Robert de Mortain (Société d’archéologie et d’histoire de la Manche, p. 56, 1992). It is also possible that Nigel de Torp was of one of these families.
1.1.2.1. Agnes, m. Hugh FitzRalph, who assumed the name of Gressley.
1.1.2.1.1. In 1211, Ralph de Gresele held three knight’s fees of the honour of Peverell, of which two were in Claydon; and married Isabel, daughter of Robert de Muschamp, with whom, on payment of a fine in 1219, he was admitted to the lands of Robert de Muschamp her brother
1.1.2.1.1.1. Hugh fil Rad de Gresley. From the Pipe Rolls: Eccleston: Galf de Eccleston 1 fee of Richard de Stapelford (Heriz), Hugh fil Rad de Gresley 3 fees.
1.1.2.2. Galfr. (Geoffrey) de Eccleston (Heriz), who held Stapleford, and with the consent of his mother, Alice, gifted to Lenton. Galfridus de Eccleston’ debet x li. pro habenda saisina de terra quam Avicia que fuit uxor Ricardi de Camera. (Pipe Roll, 1224).
1.1.2.2.1. Richard de Heriz (de Stapleford), held that manor in 1250, his son, Hugh, being aged 25 years.
1.1.2.2.1.1. Hugh de Heriz, died seized of this fee in 1297.
1.1.2.2.1.1.1. Richard de Heriz, born 1282, d. bef. 1316.
1.1.2.2.1.1.1.1. Richard de Heriz, b. November 7, 1307.
1.1.3. Nigel de Gresley.
1.2. A daughter, m. Albert … who assumed the name Gresley. There are various connotations that can be chosen from when attempting to construct pedigrees from tenurial relationships. In this instance, I have conjectured that a daughter of Nigel de Torp married Albert, with him being an in-law of the Gresleys, rather than their progenitor. The suppositions of old also strain chronologies, with there perhaps being a missing generation in the early Gresley/Heriz lineage. Thus, Robert who held of the Peverells at Domesday was probably followed by another Robert, father of Geoffroy de Heriz.

‘Of the land of Roger de Poitou were two manors in Hainton, one held by Albert, ancestor of the family of Grelle or Gresley, with soke in Sixhill, Barkwith, and Southry, which is thus entered. “Second manor. In Haintone Clac and Sendi had one carucate and half a bovate subject to Danegeld. Land to two ploughs. There Albert, the vassal of Roger, has one plough and three villains ploughing with three oxen, and fifty-four acres of meadow. About 1100, Eccleston was divided between Albert de Greslye and Roger de Busli. (Francis Gastrell, Notitia Cestiensis: Or Historical Notices of the Diocese of Chester). “In the Domesday Survey, the south of Lancashire is included in Cheshire, the hundred of Amounderness in Yorkshire, and that of Lonsdale is comprised under Westmorland, Cumberland, and Yorkshire. The dale or vale of the Lune is formed into one word in this record, where it occurs as a manor, surveyed under Craven in the West Riding of Yorkshire. “Two manors. In Lanesdale and Cocreham, Ulf and Machall had two carucates to be taxed. Here Lanesdale seems to denote Thurnham, but the latter occurs as Tiernum in earl Tosti’s manor of Haltune. In a charter of the 2d of king John, by which the lands formerly belonging to Nigellus Camerarius, probably the chamberlain of the great earl Roger de Poictou, were granted to Henry Fitz Hervey and his heirs (c. 1200), land towards or opposite the valley of Loon is mentioned”. (Edward Baines, History of the County Palatine and Duchy of Lancaster, vol. 4, 1868).

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