Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ferrers, Henry de
FERRERS, HENRY de (fl. 1086), Domesday commissioner, was the son of Walkelin, lord of Ferrières St.-Hilaire in Normandy, who was slain during the minority of William the Conqueror. Wace makes him, as ‘Henri le Sire de Ferriers,’ present at the battle of Hastings. He is found in ‘Domesday’ (1086) in possession of estates in fourteen counties, his chief possessions being in Derbyshire, where he held a hundred and fourteen manors. His principal seat was Tutbury Castle, Staffordshire, which had been previously held by Hugh d'Avranches, earl of Chester (Ord. Vit. ii. 222). He also had a grant of the lands of Godric, sheriff of Berkshire (Domesday Book). He is found acting in Worcestershire as one of the Domesday commissioners (Heming, fol. 135). Shortly afterwards he founded, in conjunction with his wife Bertha, Tutbury Priory (Mon. Angl. iii. 391).
[Domesday Book (Record Commission); Heming's Cartulary of Worcester, ed. Hearne; Ordericus Vitalis (Société de l'Histoire de France); Monasticon Anglicanum, new ed.; Freeman's Norman Conquest, vol. iv.]