William Fitz Alan was a Norman nobleman who lived in
Oswestry and
Clun near
Shrewsbury, along the medieval
Welsh Marches. William was the son of
William Fitz Allan, controlling the castles of
Clun and
Oswestry and later became the
High Sheriff of Shropshire
This is a list of sheriffs and high sheriffs of Shropshire
The sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the high sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of the responsibil ...
. William married a daughter of Hugh de Lacy, of which no first name is mentioned in any record known. When William came to inherit his lands in 1210,
King John demanded a fee of 10,000 marks; unable to pay, William was unable to inherit. He only outlived his father by a few years, dying around Easter 1215. The estates were eventually reclaimed by his younger brother
John Fitzalan.
[Eyton, p.45.]
Bibliography
* Burke, John. (1831) ''A General and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerages of England, Ireland, and Scotland.'' London: Colburn and Bentley.
* Eyton, William. (1862) "The Castles of Shropshire and its Border." in ''Collectanea Archæologica: communications made to the British Archaeological Association'' Vol. 1. London: Longman.
* Mackenzie, James D. (1896) ''The Castles of England: Their Story and Structure, Vol II.'' New York: Macmillan.
* Antiquities of Shropshire, vol. 3, By Robert W. Eyton (1856). p. 11
* Antiquities of Shropshire, vol. 5, By Robert W. Eyton (1857). p. 86
* Antiquities of Shropshire, vol. 7, By Robert W. Eyton (1858). p. 242
* Antiquities of Shropshire, vol. 10, By Robert W. Eyton (1860). p. 126
* Complete Peerage XII (2) p. 168 fn. g
References
{{reflist, 3
Anglo-Normans
12th-century births
High Sheriffs of Shropshire
1215 deaths
People from Oswestry