castle there before the Conquest or no I am not sure, but surely I
think no rather than ye. Toteneius was the first inhabiter after the
Conquest. Then it came to Albeneius, and from Albeney to Ros."

The Belvoir estate came into the Manners family, by the marriage of
Eleanor with Robert de Manners of Ethale, Northumberland. Eleanor was
the eldest sister of Edmund, Lord Ros, who resided at the manor-house
of Elsinges, in Enfield, Middlesex, where he died without issue in the
year 1508. His sisters became heiresses to the estates, and Belvoir
being part of the moiety of Eleanor, became the property of the
Manners family, who have continued to possess it to the present time.

As the possessors of this castle and lordship have been chiefly
persons of considerable eminence, and many of them numbered among the
great men of history, it may be as well to interweave a few notices
of them with a brief chronological account of the noble structure.
Robert, the first Norman lord, died in 1088, and was buried in the
chapter-house of the Priory, where Dr. Stukely discovered the stone
already named, to his memory. "By a general survey taken at the
death of Robert, it appears that he was in possession of fourscore
lordships: many of which, by uninterrupted succession, continue still
to be the property of the Duke of Rutland. In Lincolnshire his domains
were still more numerous. In Northamptonshire he had nine lordships;
one of which, Stoke, acquired the additional name of Albini, when it
came into the possession of his son." William de Albini, son of the
above, succeeded to these lordships; and, like his father, was a
celebrated warrior: according to Matthew Paris, he valourously
distinguished himself at the battle of Tinchebrai, in Normandy,
September 27, 1106; where Henry I. encountered Robert Curthose, his
brother. This lord obtained from Henry the grant of an annual fair at