Corbet family

Corbet is supposed to have been first recorded in Pays de Caux, Normandy, as the name of a Norman baron named "Corbet le Normand" (Corbet the Northman) who was born in the early 11th century. The name Corbet derives from the Anglo-Norman French word corb, meaning "crow." It is a diminutive form, hence meaning "little crow". The modern French word corbeau is generally translated as "crow". Variants of the name include: Corbet, Corbett, Corbitt, Corbit, Corbetts, Corbete, Corben and possibly the variant of Corbin. It has cognates in other languages: the Spanish name Cuervo, for example, which generally means a raven or rook. The underlying derivation is from the Latin word corvus, crow. Generally it is thought to be a jocular reference to a person who was thought to resemble a crow: in hair colour, tone of voice or shape of nose. However, the Scandinavians believed that a raven on the battlefield was a beneficial omen and ensures victory.

In the Domesday Book of 1086, Roger FitzCorbet and his brother Robert were listed as some of the most important tenants-in-chief of the king and also of the powerful Marcher Lord Roger, Earl of Shrewsbury Roger is generally believed to have been the first feudal baron of Caus in Shropshire, which was a barony within the marcher lordship of Roger de Montgomerie (died 1094). He was succeeded after 1121 by his son Robert FitzCorbet (d. pre-1155). He was succeeded by Roger FitzCorbet, who himself was succeeded by Robert (died 1222), who left a son Thomas who died in 1274. There followed his son and heir Peter Corbet (died 1300) who left a son Peter Corbet (died 1322), who died childless. The barony then passed to his half-brother John. Although the family soon died out in the senior line, when the barony was lost, cadet branches spread out and thrived.

From the eclipse of the senior line at Caus, the most important Shropshire branch of the Corbets was that of Moreton Toret, later called Moreton Corbet, where they had a castle. Members of this branch regularly represented Shropshire, and sometimes other constituencies, in the House of Commons of England over several centuries. They were the among the most powerful and richest of landed gentry families in the county, especially in the 16th century, when there was no resident . Together with its offshoots at Stoke upon Tern and Stanwardine, the Moreton Corbet family played a major part in the county's passage through the English Reformation and the English Civil War. Some of the Corbet politicians are featured in the family tree below. The Corbets long retained part of their former vast estates in Shropshire. The Return of Owners of Land, 1873 showed that, of the 13 landowners who owned more than 8,000 acres in the county, two were Corbets: Sir V.R. Corbet owned 9,489 acres and I. D. Corbet owned 8,118 acres.

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