 Nigel's date of birth is uncertain, but it is likely to have been some time around 1100.Historians occasionally refer to him as Nigel Poor or Nigel of Ely, but before his elevation to the episcopate he was commonly known as Nigel, the bishop's nephew, or Nigel, the treasurer.He was probably a Norman by ancestry although he was brought up in England, which in 1066 had been conquered by the Duke of Normandy, William the Conqueror.