Robert Fitz Aelen

  General Notes:

From the Swynnerton Ancestors of the Parshall Family, p.59 ⁷³²

  Noted events in his life were:

• Background Information. ¹⁴¹
Robert Fitz Aelen, was either the son or grandson of Aelen as well as his heir. He witnessed charter of Nicholas de Stafford to Kenilworth Priory between 1122-1125 and again in 1132.

~Cokayne's Complete Peerage, 2nd Edition,(Swynnerton), Vol. XIIA, p. 583

• Background Information. ⁷³²
Robert is referred to as Lord of Swynnerton in a certificate of Helias, Archdeacon of Stafford, concerning the concession of the Church of Swynnerton to the Priory of Stone in 1158. [Staff. Hist. Coll., vol. vii, Old Series pt. ii., p. 185]

~The Parshall Family, A.D. 870-1913, pp. 57

• Background Information. ⁷⁵⁴
Robert fitz Eelen (possibly the same but more probably the son of the former) is styled Lord of Swynnerton in a certificate of Helias, Archdeacon of Stafford, concerning the concession of the Church of Swynnerton to the Priory of Stone (or Stanes), which passed between 1155 and 1159. It is more probable from the dates that the last Robert fitz Eelen was the grandson than the son of the Domesday tenant. Nothing, says Mr. Eyton, has been a more fruitful source of genealogical paradox than the mistaken idea which some writers seem to have entertained with regard to the personal nomenclature of the twelfth century. The term "filius " or " fitz " as generally used in the twelfth century, mean "descendant of" not " son of," though in some exceptional cases a strictly patronymic nomenclature, like that of the Welsh, seems to have obtained among the Normans. [Antiquities of Shropshire, Vol. II, p. 305, footnote]

Whether the said Robert were the son or grandson of Aslen, he will probably have been the same person who, as Robert fitz Aelem, is recorded as holding 1£ f.m. of the Baron of Stafford in 1166 [Liber Niger, "Staffordshire Historical Collections," Vo. I, p.174]. General Wrottesley supposes this fee to have included a portion of North Rauceby in Lincolnshire, which was also held by the Swynnertons of the Baron of Stafford. The Lincolnshire Domesday names Roscebi among Robert de Stafford's lands, which was then held by Edelo (doubtless the same with Aslen or Eelen); and the Lincolnshire Hundred Roll of 3 Edw. I. (1274-5) states that the Hospitallers of Maltby held half a Knight's fee in Rouceby, of the gift of Robert de Silvereston (Swynnerton) one hundred years before [Liber Niger, "Staffordshire Historical Collections," Vo. I, p.174]. This would take us back to about the year 1175. Swynnerton was variously written in early times as Sulvertone, Swilveston, Silveston and Swinerton.
The extensive tenure in different counties of the Swynnertons under the Barons of Stafford, and their frequent occurrence as witnesses of their deeds, would seem to point to some relationship between the families.

"Family of Swynnerton," Collections for a History of Staffordshire, Vol. VII, pp. 2-3