1154.
It is common in every class of life, for the inferior to imitate the
superior: If the real lady claims a head-dress sixteen inches high, that
of the imaginary lady will immediately begin to thrive. The family, or
surname, entered with William the First, and was soon the reigning taste
of the day: A person was thought of no consequence without a surname,
and even the depressed English, crept into the fashion, in imitation of
their masters. I have already mentioned the Earl of Warwick, father of a
numerous race now in Birmingham; whose name before the conquest was
simply Turchill, but after, Turchill de Arden, (Matter of the Woods)
from his own estate.
Thus the family of whom I speak, chose to dignify themselves with the
name of _de Birmingham_.
Peter wisely consulted his own interest, kept fair with Paganall his
Lord, and obtained from him, in 1166, nine Knight's-fees, which he held
by military service.
A Knight's-fee, though uncommon now, was a word well understood 600
years ago. It did not mean, as some have imagined, fifteen pounds per
annum, nor any determinate sum; but as much land as would support a
gentleman. This Peter was fewer to Paganall, (waited at his table)
though a man of great property.
The splendor in which the great Barons of that age lived, was little
inferior to royalty.
The party distinctions also of Saxon and Norman, in the twelfth century,
began to die away, as the people became united by interest or marriage,
like that of Whig and Tory, in the eighteenth. And perhaps there is not
at present a native that does not carry in his veins the blood of the
four nations that were grafted upon the Britons.
Peter himself lived in affluence at his castle, then near Birmingham,
now the Moat, of which in the next section. He also obtained from Henry
the Second, as well as from Paganall the Lord paramount, several
valuable privileges for his favourite inheritance of Birmingham. He bore
for his arms, _azure, a bend lozenge_, of five points, _or_; the coat of
his ancestors.