having undergone the action of intense heats, it is likely that on these were kindled the great fires with which the earliest inhabitants. . . were accustomed periodically to worship their god Belus, or Baal." This is partly based on the assumption of the stones resting in their original position, but even were this the case the principal one cannot be said to face the west, and the action of fire on the others is not perceptible at the present date. Pilkington favours this theory, in asserting the stones of the circumference "seem to diverge from one common centre"; adding the suggestion, that they were "used as seats or supports for those who attended the celebration of the rites of worship." But, as Glover pointed out in 1829 (and so continues at the present time), their direction is extremely varied. The author of a series of papers on Arbor Low contained in The Reliquary, vols. xvii-xx, advocates the sun-worship theory.

Whatever the form of religious observance, Dr. Pegge believed one of the slabs in the centre to have been employed for sacrifices." While adopting this suggestion, Pilkington added his opinion that the barrow adjoining the vallum was "employed as a repository for the bones of the victims which were used in the celebration of religious rites!" Isaacson also was a believer in "the altar of sacrifice."

A due consideration of the foregoing facts, especially after a comparison has been made with those relating to other structures of a similar character, generally recognised as temples belonging to a pre-historic period, does not militate against the possibility of the site having in the onset been employed for burial purposes. Any extended remarks on this subject would be alien to the immediate purpose of this paper: suffice it to say that the practice of interment, connected as it apparently was with the primary idea of religion and of religious observances, most probably commenced with Neolithic man. The site of the burial-place of one who when living was felt to be above his fellows, a leader of men, and who after his death would be regarded as a hero, would, by a kind of hero-worship, have the place of his

interment regarded as a sacred one. The small circle of stones surrounding the central dolmen would be replaced by one of much greater size and marked by more massive blocks or slabs; then would follow an encircling vallum with an inner fosse, and two entrances into the central area where any religious rites would take place. All this may be conjectural, but yet may have been the sequence in the development of the structure whose ruins are in evidence at the present day.

ON THE FAMILY AND RECORD HISTORY

OF HADDON.

BY W. A. CARRINGTON, ESQ.

(Read at the Buxton Congress, July 18th, 1899.)

HE early history of Haddon and its possessors is somewhat involved, and, although many attempts have been made to elucidate it, yet it will be found that no two agree in the result of their investigations. One of the chief difficulties in regard to the Vernon genealogy arises from the prevalence of Richards, which renders it difficult in some instances to distinguish one from another -seven Richards occurring from the latter half of the twelfth century until the year 1450. The marriages, also, of the Richards have been a source of much confusion, the father and son being assigned to the same wife.

The manor of Haddon is situated in the parish of Bakewell, and it was anciently within that lordship, as appears from the Domesday Survey:

King Edward had in the manor of Bakewell 18 carucates, with 8 vills or hamlets. The King (William) has now, in demesne, 7 carucates, with 33 villans, or villagers, and 9 bordars. Henry de Ferrers is assessed at 1 carucate in Hadune."

The manor of Bakewell, with many other extensive domaius, was bestowed by the Conqueror upon his natural son, William Peverel, by Maud, daughter of Ingelric, who afterwards married Ranulph, son of Payne Peverel (standard bearer to Robert, Duke of Normandy, father of the Conqueror), after whom, not only this William, but other issue he had by her, assumed the name of Peverel, William Peverel possessed sixteen manors in Derbyshire, besides Peak and Nottingham

Castles. He is said to have founded the Priory of St. James, near Northampton; and Lenton, near Nottingham, in 1102; and to have died in 1113, but it seems more probable that it was not the son of the Conqueror, but his grandson, a second William, who founded these priories. William Peverel the fourth, grandson of the last-named William, was deprived of his great possessions by Henry II, for poisoning Ranulph, Earl of Chester, in 1153. Most of these lands and honours were given by Henry to his son John, Earl of Moreton, afterwards king. Several Peverels are met with in this neighbourhood in the Belvoir Charters at a considerably later date. A Henry Peverel is a witness to a lease of Alport mill in the reign of John, or early Henry III; and they were evidently located, and held lands at Hassop, a village about a mile and a half north-east of Bakewell, in the reigns of Henry III and Edward I, where they are described as Cecilia, the widow of Nicholas Peverel, Nicholas, son and heir of Peter; Roger, son of Nicholas, etc. It is not improbable that these Peverels were descendants of the Peverels of Haddon. While, doubtless, the whole of the estates of William Peverel, which he possessed at the time of his outlawry, were confiscated to the Crown, it may be presumed that those lands and manors which either he, or his predecessors, had bestowed upon their dependents by tenure of knights' service, escaped the general confiscation. It appears that some of these possessions came to the family of Ferrers, Earls of Derby, by the marriage of Robert de Ferrers with Margaret Peverel, eldest daughter and co-heiress of the third William Peverel; and on the forfeiture of William Peverel, these lands were held direct from the Crown. Haddon and other possessions in Derbyshire had been granted by one of the Peverels, apparently the second William, to one Avenellus, one of his knights, who was one of the witnesses to the foundation charter of Lenton Priory, in 1102.

The records of the Avenels of Haddon are somewhat scanty, but they appear in local charters until the reign of Edward I, more particularly in the records of Middleton and Youlgreave, in which they occur as residents, and

owners of lands in those places. In the reign of Henry III, William Avenel granted Meadow Place and Conkesbury, with land in Over Haddon, to the Abbey of Leicester.

The Avenels were one of the great Norman families, and hereditary Seneschals of the Counts of Mortaine. William, the Seneschal, was one of the Conqueror's companions, and fought at Hastings, but he does not appear to have been very amply rewarded for his services, though afterwards this family became possessors of considerable property in various parts of the kingdom. They are found at an early date in the counties of Beds., Gloucester, Cambridge, Leicester, Devon, etc., as well as in Scotland. The earliest record relating to Haddon in the possession of the Duke of Rutland, and very probably the earliest existing at the present time, is a charter in the form of a fine, or agreement, between William Avenel of Haddon, the younger, and his two sons-in-law, Richard de Vernon, and Simon Basset: who had married his two daughters and co-heirs, Avice and Elizabeth.

This deed measures 63 ins. by 5 ins., but it has unfortunately suffered from time and exposure, in consequence of which it is somewhat difficult to decipher. As this is a most interesting and important document, a translation of it is given as follows:

"Be it known unto all, as well present as to come, that I, William Avenel, have entered into an agreement with Richard de Vernon, and Simon Basset, who have my two daughters, and heirs, of all my land and inheritance, and to them, as my heirs, I have granted and enfeoffed all my land and inheritance after my decease, which they shall divide, sharing equally everywhere, and in all things, as my heirs, and so that Simon Basset, and his heirs, shall do to Richard de Vernon, and his heirs, what the younger shall owe to the elder. Moreover, in my manor, namely Haddon, I have granted to the aforesaid Richard, my capital mansion, which is at the east, where my father William Avenell dwelt, and where the Chapel of St. Nicholas is founded, with the orchard on the same side; and to Simon Basset, my other mansion, which is at the west, with the orchard on the west side. In Adestoca (co. Bucks.) I have granted to the said Richard de Vernon, my capital mansion, with two orchards, one on each side of the mansion. Also to Simon Basset, in the same vill, a certain mansion. equal in size