Shirley · ◉ direct ancestor
♂Sasuualo Shirley
Dates not yet known.
Sasuualo Shirley lived in the late eleventh century. He was the twenty-seventh great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) by two separate lines of descent, both through his son Fulcher Shirley (died before 1166).
He is said to appear in the Domesday BookW of 1086 as a tenant of Henry de FerrersW, holding seventeen hidesW at Ettington, then written Etendone, with a mill. The family’s historian also gives him lands at Tichmarsh, Witney in Lincolnshire, Hoon, Hatton and Etwall. He is said to have founded the church at Ettington.
His name appears in the records of his sons as Sewali, Sewaldi and Sauuali. He is said to have had three sons: Henry, the eldest, who died without children; Fulcher, through whom the line continues; and Hugh, who became a chaplain. His wife is not known, and his parents are not known.
Lines of descent
Nancy Jane Blanchard descends from him by two separate lines of descent, both through Fulcher and both on her father Kenneth Blanchard’s side. They meet again in Sarah Dudley (1795–1839), whose parents Nathaniel Dudley (1763–1844) and Anna Smith (1764–1825) each descend from him.
Notes
Source and grade
Every fact above comes from Evelyn Philip Shirley’s Stemmata Shirleiana, or the Annals of the Shirley Family (1873): the Domesday holdings at Appendix i and p. 6, the church at pp. 5-7, and the sons at Appendices ix, xi, xxvii and xxxiv. The grade is compiled: the Domesday entry is a primary record, but it is known here only as the Stemmata quotes it. The Domesday tenant is written “Sasuualo” in the entry and called Saswalo or Sewallis elsewhere; this page keeps Sasuualo.
First recorded ancestor
The Stemmata calls him the first recorded ancestor of the family and rejects the older story that the Shirleys descended from the royal dukes of Saxony as an invention (p. 6). A WikiTree profile gives him a father, Fulcher, with no source, so no parents are given here. His sons’ father is named in their own records as “Sewali”, “Sewaldi” and “Sewalonis” (Appendices xi, xxvii, xxxiv).
Family time line
Parents not yet found. This line is still being traced.
Recorded events
| Event | When | Where | Evidence ?on record - the record itself, its image, or a transcript or printed copy of it has been read from a compiled source - an index, a printed genealogy or a memorial page says so not yet documented - in the family record, no source attached yet |
|---|---|---|---|
| Property Domesday: held 17 hides in Ettington (Etendone), Warwickshire, of Henry de Ferrers, with a mill (Stemmata App. i); also Tichmarsh, Witney (Lincs), Hoon, Hatton and Etwall (Stemmata p.6) |
1086 | from a compiled source | |
| Living at '"of him did one Saswalo hold it, at which time there was a church and a mill; to whose posterity in the male line it hath continued even to this day; ... and till the reign of King Henry the Third it was their principal seat...' (Shirley, E. P., Stemmata Shirleiana, 2nd ed. (1873), p.5 (quoting Dugdale, Antiquities of Warwickshire)...) - compiled, no record seen |
1086 | Lower Ettington, Warwickshire, England | from a compiled source |
Sources
- Shirley, Evelyn Philip. Stemmata Shirleiana, or the Annals of the Shirley Family, 2nd ed. (London, 1873) — Property, Living at, about this person
Borders as they stood about 1500, from the historical-basemaps project, the Newberry Library's Atlas of Historical County Boundaries (states and territories, 1783 on) and Natural Earth; the colonies and provinces are drawn along today's lines.