De Birmingham Family - Link Between Ausculph and The de Birminghams

Link Between Ausculph and The De Birminghams

Some sources claim that the de Birminghams are descended from William Fitz Ausculph and some sources refute this.

The flow of large parts of the Fitz-Ausculph estate to the Paganells lends itself to the theory that William Fitz Ausculph died with no surviving male heirs and so gave his lands to his daughter and her Paganell heirs.

According to a poem a later William de Birmingham was descended from the Ausculphs via a marriage to the Paganells. According to William Hutton's "An History of Birmingham" another William de Birmingham claimed in 1309 to have had ancestors who had the right to have a market in Birmingham before the Norman Conquest which would indicate that they were an old Anglo-Saxon family and not Norman.

Some sources claim the right to hold a market in Birmingham was granted to a Peter Fitz William, Steward of Dudley, and not to Peter de Birmingham who was known as Steward of Gervais Paganell. At this time people could be known by more than one name so it is probable that Peter de Birmingham and Peter Fitz William were one and the same person.

Fulk Paganell has been tenuously claimed to have had several children, one of whom is said to have been called William. It is feasible that William would have been given a small part of the Paganell lands, e.g., Birmingham, while his older brother Ralph received the rest. This could have led to William Paganell becoming known as William de Birmingham.