Simon of Stavely 1216-1272

Location: Idridgehay, England
Surnames/tags: Mellor Staveley

The goal of this project is to ... discover Simon of Stavely's (b1216) parents and missing great grandson

Simon seems to appear out of nowhere. As such I suspect he was just "Simon" from a village called Staveley, maybe even Simon de Staveley given the penchant for making names sound French.

Right now this project just has one member, me. I am Anthony Mellor, possibly (one of) his great x "a very large number" grandsons.

Here are some of the tasks that I think need to be done. I'll be working on them, and could use your help.

There appear to be zero direct records of our Simon. So we are limited to historical references to him and his descendants who are

Simon of Stavely 1216-1272 Born and died in Mellor, Derbyshire England

Son: Robert Mellor 1230-1274 Born and died in Mellor, Derbyshire England

His son: Richard Mellor 1255-1318 Born and died in Mellor, Derbyshire England

and his son: Roger Mellor 1280-1354 Born and died in Thornsett, Derbyshire England

AND HIS BROTHER, the missing great grandson of Simon

of whom there is mention but no trace, except a whole possible line of Mellors to the present day, the "Ideridgehay line".

Idridgehay spelling changes, like everything does in those days.

Note: Roger's side of the Mellor line stops with him because he had "only" three daughters.

Simon's parents may go back to Godsperic (or similar) from the Domesday book where the village of Mellor is Ludworth because in those days Mellor was a mere part of that place.

Given that in those days the junior/cadet line would join the military I have seen a Mellor in the army, but have to refind those records as I was not looking for him at that time.

These seem to have been turbulent times what with 1066 and all that and then the first plague both of which did not seem to do much for record keeping; and name changes I suspect may have been related, so to speak.

There are extensive researches but later than Simon, on the name Staveley, which is of course a village since in these times and before the use of only one name was common and as we started to move about our home village was added to our name so as to distinguish us, which would be why Simon of Stavely's children became "of Mellor" or simply "Mellor". The younger "junior" moved to Ideridgehay and many generations lived out their lives there, however we remained Mellors and not "Ideridgehays".

I can find extensive records in books back to Robert Mellor b1348 back up to the present day, but between 1248 to say 1348 for our missing generations, practically nothing aside from the occasional hint about the junior line. So it is "only" 100 years but in those times that could be 4 generations where the 4th were parents to Robert in 1348. Also, they insisted even more than in modern times upon reusing the same names, so Richard and Robert are favourites, being in both the earlier and the later sides of the 100 year gap. What never seems to repeat is Simon.

When I get the chance I will go and explore the area, but I no longer live only a few minutes away and we are in lock-down so no one is going anywhere just yet. EDIT Nov 2020 I was able to visit Idridgehey and enjoy lunch in the pub near the church, in August. The church is far too modern and the area is hilly and tree covered, indeed harks back to the times of the Royal Forests. I visited a nearby village will a much older church but nothing in the cemetery there. If I recall correctly the oldest headstone in England is 1600 and something, at St Anthonys in Cornwall, baby twins. So while it would be interesting to find graves, they will never go back far enough for Simon of Stavely. The lanes there are very narrow and reminiscent of those bygone times.

Care to join me? Please post a comment here on this page, in G2G using the project tag, or send me a private message. Thanks!

so mention of Simon https://www.staveley-genealogy.com/the_first_staveleys.htm "In the Cottonian roll Dolfin is given three sons Torfin, Uctred and Swain. Certainly Uctred son of Dolfin was the father of Simon the ancestor of the Hebden family."

So, that is my first (re) found reference to any Simon in the Staveley context part from Lyson, whose source I cannot find given.. and this text is basically a version in English of the latin descriptions I have seen, partly translated

Was he first Simon of Hebden? [https://www.staveley-genealogy.com/PDF/earlystaveleyspdf.pdf ]. because grandfather is Swain de Staveley so why could he not be Simon de Staveley? Simon does appear as witness with all the others on various occasions. Trouble is, he is about 100 years before our Simon of Staveley, or perhaps his forbear.