♂Elfin Brailsford

Elfin Brailsford was a Derbyshire landholder of the late eleventh century, the tenant of Brailsford in the Domesday Book^W survey of 1086 and the father of Nicholas Brailsford (died before 1166). He was the twenty-sixth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) by two separate lines of descent, both through his son Nicholas.

Life

Domesday Book records that Elfin held Brailsford, together with Osmaston and Lower Thurvaston and a share of Bupton, from Henry de Ferrers, who had succeeded Earl Waltheof as lord of Brailsford. The Brailsford entry carried with it a small holding of three bovates in Hollington and Shirley. His name is English, not Norman, and he was still holding land twenty years after the Conquest, a time when most English landholders had lost their estates.

He later gave Osmaston to Tutbury Priory^W, with the consent of his lord, Robert de Ferrers, and of his son Nicholas, who is named in the gift. The Tutbury charters call him “Alfinus de Breleford”. His wife’s name is not known, and he probably died early in the twelfth century. Nicholas held Brailsford after him.

Lines of descent

Both lines run through Nicholas, and from him through his son Robert Brailsford (died before 1199) and the Brailsfords of the following centuries. One comes down to Nathaniel Dudley (1763–1844), and the other to Nathaniel’s wife, Anna Smith (1764–1825). The two lines meet again in their daughter Sarah Dudley (1795–1839).

Notes

Sources for his life

The Domesday entries are printed in The Victoria History of the County of Derby, vol. 1 (1905), pp. 301 and 340, which gives the Brailsford entry as “Elfin holds it”. S. P. H. Statham, “The Brailsfords”, Journal of the Derbyshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, vol. 59 (1938), gives his descendants and places his death early in the twelfth century; that date is Statham’s estimate, not a dated record. The gift of Osmaston is known from the younger earl Robert’s confirmation in Dugdale’s Monasticon Anglicanum, vol. 3, p. 392. A later Tutbury grant by his grandson Robert names him as Robert’s grandfather.

His name

Domesday Book writes “Elfin”. Statham takes it to stand for Aelfwine; the Victoria County History takes it as Aelfwine or, “more probably”, Aelfsige. The Tutbury charters write Alfinus.