Person:William Fitz Nigell (1)

Kuerden conjectured that Widnes might have been acquired by marriage to an heiress, but there is no evidence for this.

A charter of Walter de Gant calls him "nepos meus". This probably means cousin here; it certainly implies a blood relationship. The charter also gives him a sister Agnes de Gant. Most likely his mother was a Gant.

There is nothing to suggest that his wife was a Gant.

He was survived by a son and heir, William fitz William, who was dead without issue by 1149. William fitz William's coheirs were his two sisters

• Agnes, who got the baronies of Halton and Widnes and the constableship. She married (1st) Eustace fitz John (as his 2nd wife), (2nd) Robert fitz Count, evidently an illegitimate son of an earl of Chester. Both husbands served in turn as Constables of Chester, jure uxoris.
• Maud, who married Albert Grelley, son of Robert Grelley.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Harland, John. Mamescestre: being chapters from the early recorded history of the barony; the lordship or manor; the vill, borough, or town, of Manchester. (Bishops Stortford, England: Chadwyck-Healey, 1974)
   1:36.
2.   Farrer, William, and John Brownbill. The Victoria history of the county of Lancaster. (London: A. Constable, 1906-1914)
   Volume 1 page 297.