Richard Belgrave, Esq.

https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/leics/vol4/pp420-428

BELGRAVE

The name Belgrave seems to have been a new one under William I; [fn. 1] the first syllable is probably of Norman origin and the name should therefore be translated as 'fine wood'. [fn. 2] The older name of Merdegrave means 'marten grove'.

Belgrave lies a mile and a half north-east of the centre of Leicester. The ancient parish of Belgrave lay in East Goscote hundred and contained the chapelries of Birstall and South Thurmaston as well as the township of Belgrave itself.

On two occasions it was stated that members of the Ferrers family held land at Belgrave from the Earl or Duke of Lancaster. [fn. 20] These statements may be due to a confusion of the Lancaster holding at Belgrave with the manor belonging to the honour of Winchester. [fn. 21]

Some of the land in question seems to have been held by a family bearing the surname of Belgrave. A William de Belgrave was among the vassals of the earldom of Leicester whose lands were allotted to Simon de Montfort after 1204. [fn. 22]

References to lands held by this family throughout the 14th and 15th centuries are numerous and the family seem to have remained vassals of the Duchy of Lancaster throughout the period. There is, however, no evidence that their holding in Belgrave formed a manor in the Middle Ages.

... In 1512 John Belgrave died possessed of a manor in Belgrave [fn. 23] and his family continued to hold it until the beginning of the 17th century.

Footnotes

[1] Dugd. Mon. vi. 1078.
[2] W. G. Hoskins, 'Anglian and Scandinavian Settlement of Leics.', T.L.A.S. xviii. 138.

[20] Cal. Inq. p.m. iii, p. 319; Cal. Close, 1360-4, 206.
[21] See below, Pultney's manor, p. 422.
[22] Hist. MSS. Com. Hastings, i. 340.
[23] Farnham, Leics. Notes, vi. 87.