via a female line, becoming forfeit in 1554. Ferrers of Oakham, Rutland The Norman lands of English founder Henry de Ferrers passed to one of his two elder sons, William or Engenulf, and thence to a younger Henry de Ferrers, a son of one of these two. He also held lands in England, at Lechlade, Gloucestershire, and Oakham, Rutland. His son, Walchelin de Ferriers, inherited both Henry's English and Norman lands, but the loss of Normandy to the King of France led to a division of the estate, with the Norman properties continuing through his son Henry to a line of lords of Ferriers and Chambrais that only went extinct in 1504, while Lechlade and Oakham passed via his daughter Isabel to the Mortimers of Wigmore. Heraldry Due to the etymology of their surname, sources say that the early heraldic device of the de Ferrers family was a horse-shoe, or six black ones on a white background, blazoned: Argent, six horseshoes sable. However Fox-Davies in his Complete Guide to Heraldry (1909) suggests that these were in fact the arms of the Marshal family, the ancient military office of marshal being responsible for the care (and thus shoeing) of war-horses - the first wife of William de Ferrers, 5th Earl of Derby, by whom he had only daughters, was Sibyl Marshal, a daughter of William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke. In reality the arms adopted by the de Ferrers family at the start of the age of heraldry (c.1200-1215) were: Vairy, or and gules. However William de Ferrers, 5th Earl of Derby (c.1193-1254) added to his paternal arms A bordure azure (or sable) charged with eight horseshoes argent, perhaps as a mark of difference. At Oakham Castle in Rutland, built in 1180/90, ceremonial horseshoes are still presented today by prominent visitors in honour of the de Ferrers family, described in James Wright's 1684 History and Antiquities of the County of Rutland: The Lord of the castle and manor of Okeham for the time being claims by prescription a Franchise or Royalty very rare and of singular note, viz. : That the first time any Peer of this Kingdom shall happen to pass through the precincts of this Lordship, he shall forfeit as a Homage a Shoe from the Horse on which he rideth unless he redeem it with money. The true Original of which custome I have not been able on