At the making of the Domesday Survey, the manor of Egginton was held by Geoffrey Alselin, and had a priest and a church. The Alselins’ estates passed, through an heiress, into the family of Bardulfs. Under them the manor was held by Ralph Fitz-Germund, whose son William Fitz-Ralph, Seneschall of Normandy, and founder of Dale-Abbey, gave it to William de Grendon, his nephew. In exchange for Stanley, near Dale-Abbey, William’s wife gave it, as a marriage portion of her daughter, Margaret, to Robert Fitz-Walkelin, one of whose daughters married Sir John Chandos. At the death of his descendant, another Sir John Chandos, one moiety of the manor passed to his niece Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Lawton, and wife of Sir Peter de la Pole, one of the Knights of the Shire in 1400, from whom it descended to the Chandos-Poles of Radbourne. Another daughter of Robert Walkelin, Ermentrude, married Sir William de Stafford, whose son, Robert, left it to five co-heiresses, and so their moiety became divided into many shares, which were re-united, by purchase, by the family of Lathbury. A co-heiress of Lathbury brought her moiety to Robert Leigh, of Whitfield, Cheshire. In the reign of James I., the estate passed to Anne, daughter of Sir Henry Leigh of Egginton, who married Simon Every, Esq., of Chard, Somersetshire, created 1st Baronet in 1641, ancestor of the present owner, a minor, the 11th Baronet.
Plate 19.
Eggington Church. ([Page 109.])
Willington Church.
As the manor of Egginton was divided into two moieties, so was the rectory. Dr. Charles Cox thus writes, “Early in the reign of Henry III., the two moieties of the rectory were respectively conveyed to the newly-founded abbey of Dale by Amalric de Gasci and Geoffrey de Musters.” In consequence of this division there were two rectors. The abbots of Dale-Abbey continued to present till the year 1344, meanwhile the lords of the manor laid claim to it, and, from that time down to 1712, a series of law-suits were carried on, the result of which is that at the present time the patronage is in five parts; two turns belonging to the Everys, two to the Poles, and one to the Leighs. An account of the various claimants, &c., and a list of the rectors, will be found in Cox’s Derbyshire Churches, Vol. IV. The church, dedicated to St. Wilfred, consists of chancel, nave, aisles, and low west tower. At various times the church has been added to, but it chiefly belongs to the Decorated period, the tower is Perpendicular, as are some of the windows. In the south wall of the south aisle are two recesses, one contains an effigy of a lady, holding a heart in her hand, supposed to be Elizabeth, co-heiress of Stafford, wife of William Tymmore. On the walls, and floor of the chancel are memorial stones, and monuments of the Everys, and several rectors.
There are three bells, bearing the following inscriptions:
I. “I was recast again to sing
By friends to country, church, and king.
Thomas Hedderley, founder, Nottingham, 1778.”