Catesby History
The Saxons were a Germanic people who invaded the island of Britain about 1500 years ago, after the Romans left about 400 A.D. The Egyptian geographer, Ptolemy, first mentioned the Saxons in his book written about 100 A.D. He described the Saxons as living in what is now southern Denmark. The Angles, another Germanic people, arrived in Britain about the same time. The tribal groups mixed and established the English kingdom. The Anglo-Saxons came in long narrow boats, propelled by oars rather than sails and raided the land more than a century before conquering it for settlement.
These warriors came in small groups with their wives and children, soon adopting the Latin of the conquered and became Christians. Sasfrid was one of the principal feudatory tenants of William Peverel, with holdings in Catesby village N52 13.300/W00 53.603 in Northamptonshire, Ashby Magna in Leiscestershire, Empingham in Rutland, and Basford in Nottinghamshire. Robert Catesby of London totals Sasfrid's holdings of four manors containing 2940 acres of plough land, 18 acres of meadows, 15 of woodland, cultivated with 21 ploughs, and four and a half water mills, valued at today's price of some 4,400,000 pounds or over six million dollars. Peverel was reputed to be the son of William the Conqueror by a Saxon princess, Gitda (Sytha?), daughter and heiress of Ingerie. Later she married Ranulph Peverel who was a family connection, and they had further offspring. It is reasonable to suggest that her romance saved her extensive holdings from being taken over and given to the Normans, unlike the fate of many members of Saxon nobility. Sasfrid was lucky. As his holdings were some distance apart, he must have spent much time traveling. Surnames were not used until long after the Conquest, and a landowner was identified by adding the name of his holding to his Christian name. Thus Sasfrid's descendants were variously described as de Catesby, de Esseby (Ashby), or de Basford. Saxons gentry dropped their traditional names in the eleventh century using Norman ones, hoping to integrate with the new powerful landowners.
There is not a great deal of information about Sasfrid beyond that provided by William the Conqueror's Domesday Book, which listed property owners like Sasfrid.