The Battle Abbey Roll. Vol. III.
by
The Duchess of Cleveland.

Prepared by Michael A. Linton
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Sirewast : for Sifrewast, or, according to the French orthography, Chiffrevast. "The Norman castle of Tamerville appears to have been held by the family of Siffrevast, so well known among our baronage. They quartered Percy and Anneville."—Sir Francis Palgrave. This must refer to the year 1412, when Robin, Sire d'Anneville de Montaigu, acquired the seigneurie of Chiffrevast through the daughter of Robert de Percy, whose wife had been the heiress of Jean de Chiffrevast. "This marriage gave the name of Anneville de Chiffrevast to a branch of the house of Anneville, who possessed Chiffrevast down to the first twelve years of the present century, when it was sold to Le Brun, afterwards Due de Plaisance."—Recherches sur le Domesday. From this it seems clear that the French line terminated with Jean de Chiffrevast, who died in the latter part of the fourteenth century. In England the family continued for about two hundred years more, and was extremely numerous. The first of whom I find mention is Robert de Sifrewast, whose grants to Leicester Abbey were confirmed by Henry II.—Nichol's Leicestershire. They were seated in Dorsetshire at an early date, having, according to the county historian, Hutchins, been "more anciently seated in Oxfordshire," where Nicholas Sifrewast occurs about 1272. (Rot. Hundred.) Coker calls them "men of great antiquity and good note;" and John Cifrewast and Robert Cifrewast several times appear as knights of the shire during the reign of Edward II. At that time they were divided into two distinct branches; one seated at Hook and Crowell, and ending with John Cifrewast, who died a minor in 1360, leaving his inheritance to his sister, married to Maltravers; and another at More-Crichel, which survived till 1581. The tomb of the last heir male bears this inscription:

"Lord of More-Crichell was he by descent,
Three hundred years possess'd in lyne and name."

His daughter Dorothy conveyed the estate to the Napiers, from whom it passed to the Sturts, its present possessors.

In Wiltshire, Richard de Scifrewast is found in the Hundred Rolls of Edward I. "Roger Sifrewast or Cyfrewas was a principal tenant of Chitterne under the Earl of Sarum, and also held some lands in capite. From him the property descended to his son Sir Richard, whose daughter and heir married John de Tichborne, Sheriff of Wilts 14 Ed. II.—Hoare's Wilts. "Robert de Sifflewast, in the thirteenth century, held two knights' fees of the Bishop of Winchester, and was succeeded by his son William. In 1255 Bartholomew Peche gave 600 marks for the custody of the lands in Berks, Hants, and Essex, and heirs (with the right of giving them in marriage) of William de Sifrewast, deceased."—Woodward's Hampshire. Hampsted Cifrewast was one of the Berkshire manors.

Again, in Herefordshire, Syferwast, an estate in the parish of Cowarne Magna, "now called Cowarne Court, was anciently held by a family of that name. Sir John Syferwast died about the close of the fifteenth century, leaving a daughter and heiress married to * * * Berrington."—Duncumb's Herefordshire.

Their coat is preserved in the "Sixth Nobility Roll of Arms," now in the British Museum. "Le Sr Cifrewast" bears Azure, three bars gemelles, a chief Or.