It was King William who established the feudal system. The Earl of Warwick, the de Brays and the de Grendons were all Norman French descendants of men who had come with William the Conqueror in 1066. Under this system, all the land in England belonged to the King. The de Brays did not own the manor but held it from the Earl of Warwick, who held it from the King, under the feudal system in practice in England at that time. The de Bray family had held this manor since 1127. Sir Robert inherited the rights to the manor from her. The house and land were part of her marriage settlement known as a dower. Sir Robert's mother was Avicia, daughter and heir of William de Bray. About 1204 Bartholomew de Gresebrok of Yorkshire was granted a manor house in Shenston from Sir Robert de Grendon. Margaret Grazebrooke's ancestors lived in the Shenston area of Staffordshire since around the year 1200. So, here is what I think I know about the Grazebrooke family. But, maybe I can flesh out the story a tiny bit with some history. Since this family is so well researched, I can't possibly add any more to the story from a genealogical viewpoint. These documents would have been written in Latin, so Dr. Howard got his information about the family from Calendar Rolls, Administrative and Fine Rolls and charters. (This book is available for free from Google play books). To my knowledge this research has not been duplicated, so we put our trust in you Dr. Joseph Jackson Howard, who included it in a book called Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica, Vol 3. This research was done in the early 20th century by Dr. The Grazebrook family has been traced far back into 12th century medieval England. The poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was a descendant of Ann Sewell Longfellow and Jurist Samuel Sewell was her brother. We are also lucky that several descendant of Margaret and Henry Sewell were famous, not only in their time but still well known by scholars in our own.

Because births were not always recorded, or if they were the records are now lost, often times all we know about these people are the dates they wrote their wills or were buried. Happily for us they both came from well to do families who held/owned land and paid taxes and best of all, left wills. Margaret and Henry were Ann Sewell Longfellow's great grandparents. At some time before September 1575, Margaret Grazebrooke of Middleton married Henry Sewell of Coventry.

Ann sewell