(Vol. iii., pp. 87. 189.)
The inquiry of P., in p. 87., seems to indicate an impression that all the
witnesses to the charter of Hugh Lupus to Chester Abbey were barons of the
Palatinate, but only a few of them were such, the rest being of England
generally.
The original barons of the Palatinate were clearly distinguishable by
possession of privileges confirmed to them by a well-known charter of Earl
Ranulph III.; and all the Norman founders of their baronies will be found,
under Cestrescire, in Domesday, as tenants in capite, from the Earl
Palatine, of lordships within the lyme of his county.
_Bigod de Loges_ (one of the subjects of P.'s inquiry) will not bear this
test, unless he was identical with Bigot, Norman lord of the manors
afterwards comprised in Aldford Fee, which is not known to have been the
case. For this last-named Bigot, whose lands descended through the Alfords
to Arderne, reference may be made to the _History of Cheshire_, I. xxix.,
II. 411.
_William Malbanc_, the other subject of inquiry, who has eluded M. J. T.'s
searches, is easily identified. He was the Norman baron of Nantwich, the
Willelmus Malbedeng of the _Domesday Survey_ (vol. i. p. 265. col. 2.), and
the name is also written thus in the copy of H. Lupus's charter referred
to, which was ratified under inspection by Guncelyn de Badlesmere,
Justiciary of Chester in 8 Edw. I.
The charter, with Badlesmere's attestation prefixed, will be found in
Leycester's _Cheshire Antiquities_, p. 109., and in Ormerod's _Hist. of
Cheshire_, vol. i. p. 12. In the latter work, in vol. iii., the inquirer
will also find an account of William Malbedeng or Malbanc, his estates, his
descendant coheirs, and their several subdivisions, extending from p. 217.
to p. 222., under the proper head of Nantwich or _Wich Malbanc_, a still
existing Palatine barony.