Savage Families in the County of Derbyshire I

The first known Savage family of Derbyshire occurred in about 1140, when Geoffrey le Sauvage held the manor of Tissington. However, the main part of this family moved to Newton Regis in Warwickshire by 1170, where they remained until they died out in 1258. The next known Savage family of Derbyshire were the Mainline Savage (le Sauvage) family of England, who resided at the manor of Broadwater, in Sussex, and had come over from Normandy in France, during the reign of William the Conqueror. In 1199, Robert VI le Sauvage, Knight (d.1218/19), of Broadwater, Sussex, married Hawise, the daughter and heiress of William FitzWalkelin. Hawise was granted the manor of Stainsby, in Derbyshire, and the Mainline Savage itself moved to Stainsby in c.1253, and remained there for about 100 years, before they moved their seat to the manor of Clifton, in Cheshire, through the marriage to the heiress, Margaret Danyers. While they were in Derbyshire, several Cadet lines descended from the Mainline, who resided in the surrounding villages of Scarcliffe, Owlcotes in Sutton in the Dale, Shirebrook, Staveley, and Heath. In the 15th century, a Cadet line of the Mainline of Cheshire was established in North Wingfield, the adjacent village of Stainsby. Furthermore, in 1485, Sir John V Savage, K.G. (d.1492), the heir of the Mainline of Cheshire, was a commander for Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, at the Battle of Bosworth, and as a result of being on the winning side, he was granted many offices and lands by King Henry VII, which included the Stewardship of the High Peak, in Derbyshire. Through these grants, several further Cadet lines of the Mainline Savage family of Clifton, in Cheshire, established themselves in Derbyshire, in such places as Castleton, Edale and Chapel en le Frith, in the High Peak, and Eckington. With the advent of Parish Registers in c.1540, much more information about the Savage families in Derby-shire became available after this date. Between about 1500 and 1700, five relatively complete Savage families occurred in the villages of Castleton, Eckington, Norton, Bakewell, and Doveridge. From 1700 to the 1900s, the most extensive families occurred in Barlborough and Baslow. In addition to these seven families, a substantial number of other smaller Savage families have also been found, most of which contain only a small number of generations, and they are given in this book. Between c.1500 and c.1950, Savage families in over 45 towns and villages within Derbyshire have been found to occur. Some of these families were indigenous to the county, while others moved into the county from other places : either from adjacent counties or from ones much further away. Conversely, members of individual Savage families moved out of the county to places closeby such as Sheffield and Nottingham, and also to places much further away in countries around the world.