" William le Butler,
who sold old Ralph Red to his own son, the young Ralph, was himself
sprung from a family who had held the Manor of Rougham for about a
century. His father was Sir Richard le Butler, who died about 1280,
leaving behind him one son, our friend William, and three daughters.
Unfortunately, William le Butler survived his father only a very
short time, and he left no child to succeed him. The result was that
the inheritance of the old knight was divided among his daughters,
and what had been hitherto a single lordship became three lordships,
each of the parceners looking very jealously after his own interest,
and striving to make the most of his powers _and rights_.
Though each of the husbands of Sir Richard le Butler's daughters was
a man of substance and influence--yet, when the manor was divided, no
one of them was anything like so great a person as the old Sir
Richard. In those days, as in our own, there were much richer men in
the country than the country gentlemen, and in Rougham at this time
there were two very prosperous men who were competing with one
another as to which should buy up most land in the parish, and be the
great man of the place. The one of these was a gentleman called Peter
the Roman, and the other was called Thomas the Lucky. They were both
the sons of Rougham people, and it will be necessary to pursue the
history of each of them to make you understand how things went in
those "good old times.
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