shire’ on the model of Lambarde's ‘Perambulation of Kent,’ but did not carry the design into effect. Camden says that he was ‘a man both for parentage and for knowledge of antiquity, very commendable and my special friend; who … hath at all times courteously shewed me the right way when I was out, and from his candle, as it were, hath lighted mine’ (Britannia, ed. Gough, ii. 331). Dugdale, who in writing the ‘Antiquities of Warwickshire’ made extensive use of Ferrers's manuscript collections, describes him as an eminent antiquary and ‘a man of distinguished worth, reflecting lustre on the ancient and noble family to which he belonged.’ Guillim writes that Ferrers was ‘a man very judicious in matters of honour.’ Some of his manuscripts are preserved at the College of Arms, others in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, and the British Museum (Lansd. MS. 860 a and b; cf. Colvile, Worthies of Warwickshire, p. 282). ‘He had also in his younger days,’ says Wood, ‘a good faculty in poetry, some of which I have seen scattered in divers books printed in the reign of qu. Elizabeth’ (Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, ii. 572; see Ferrers, George). Ferrers was apparently the M.P. for Callington in 1597. He was an adherent of the Roman catholic church (Dodd, Church Hist. iii. 74). He died on 10 Oct. 1633, and was buried in the church of Baddesley Clinton. He married, in October 1582, Jane, daughter and coheiress of Henry White, esq., of South Warnborough, Hampshire, son of Sir Thomas White, knight, and by her (who died 7 Sept. 1586, aged 23) he had a son Edward and a daughter Mary.
The writer of the introduction to the ‘Archæologia’ conjectured that Ferrers was the author of ‘A Motion for erecting an Academy Royal, or Colledge of King James,’ manuscript written in 1617, but the real author was Edmund Bolton [q. v.]
[Dugdale's Warwickshire, p. 710; Dugdale's Life and Diary (Hamper), p. 265; Burke's Landed Gentry, 1868, p. 470; Shirley's Noble and Gentle Men of England, p. 261; Harl. MSS. 374, art. 17, 539, art. 3, 2161, p. 228; Gillow's Bibl. Dict.; Hannett's Forest of Arden, pp. 144, 145, 204, 209, 212; Ashmol. MSS. 789 f. 113 b, 799 f. 32, 1107 f. 219; Macray's Cat. of the Rawlinson MSS. ii. 698; Camden's Visitation of Warwickshire in 1619 (Harl. Soc.), p. 5; Hunter's MS. Chorus Vatum v., in Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 23491, p. 421.]
FERRERS, JOSEPH (1725–1797), Carmelite friar, born in 1725, was probably descended from a younger branch of the family of that name seated at Baddesley Clinton in Warwickshire. He was professed in one of the foreign convents in 1745, and ordained priest in 1749, after which he came on the English mission. He became provincial of the English Carmelites, and died in London 29 Aug. 1797, aged 72. He published ‘A Discourse pronounced … in the Chapel of his Excellency the Neapolitan Ambassador, in the Solemn Service celebrated 9 Feb. 1793 for Louis XVI, late King of France. In French and English,’ 8vo, London, 1793.
[Gillow's Bibl. Dict. of the English Catholics, ii. 252–3.]
FERRERS, RICHARD (fl. 1590). [See Ferris.]
FERRERS, ROBERT de (d. 1139), warrior, was the son and heir of Henry de Ferrers [q. v.], the founder of the family. He succeeded his father under Henry I, and is first mentioned in the record of a suit between the abbot of Burton and himself (Burton Cartulary, pp. 19, 49, &c.). In 1130 he is found leasing the lead mines at Wirksworth (Rot. Pip. 31 Hen. I). He was one of the witnesses to Stephen's charter in 1136 (Select Charters, p. 115), and two years later was a leader of the English at the battle of the Standard (Ric. Hexham, p. 162). In this same year (1138) he was created an earl by Stephen (ib. p. 165; Ord. Vit. xiii. 37), on whose behalf he addressed himself to his son-in-law, Walkelin Maminot, and induced him to return to his allegiance (ib.) The earl died in 1139 (Ric. Hexham, p. 178).
[Pipe Roll 31 Hen. I (Record Commission); Burton Cartulary (Historical Collections, Staffordshire, v. 1); Ordericus Vitalis; Richard of Hexham (Rolls Ser.); Stubbs's Select Charters.]
FERRERS, ROBERT, Earl of Derby or Ferrers (1240?–1279?), son of William Ferrers, earl of Derby, and of his wife Margaret, daughter and one of the coheiresses of Roger de Quincy, earl of Winchester, was born about 1240. When quite a child his father arranged with Henry III for his marriage with Isabella, one of the daughters of the eldest of the king's half-brothers, Hugh XI of Lusignan, count of La Marche (Vincent, Discoverie of Errours in Brooke's Catalogue of Nobility, p. 208, from Close Rolls of 33 H. III, i.e. 1248–9). On her early death her sister Mary, a girl of seven years of age, was married at Westminster to the bridegroom of nine during 1249 (Ann. de Burton. p. 285). This marriage was part of Henry's policy for providing for his needy Poitevin relatives. On 24 or 28 March (ib. p. 317; Matt. Paris, Hist. Major, v. 431) Robert's father died, and he became the king's ward. Henry granted the custody of his estates to a William de Wynton
