Pipe rolls now in the Cotton Library at the British Museum. Exactly when the Pipe rolls began to be produced is debated amongst historians. Some hold that they date from Henry I's reign, whether early or late in the reign, but others feel that they were introduced by King William I (reigned 1066–1087). The precursors of the records probably date to the Anglo-Saxon period, as the historian Pauline Stafford argues that financial records must have been kept in some form during the reigns of Cnut (reigned 1016–1035), Æthelred II (reigned 978–1016), and Edgar the Peaceable (reigned 959–975). There is a reference to
Thomas of Brotherton, 1st Earl of Norfolk after that. They were overseen by wet nurses until they were six years old. Like their parents, they learned to play chess and to ride horses. They were visited by nobles and their half-sister Mary of Woodstock, who was a nun. Their mother often accompanied their father on his campaigns to Scotland, but kept herself well-informed on their well-being. Thomas's father died when he was 7 years old. Thomas's half-brother Edward, became king of England, as "King Edward II", and Thomas was heir presumptive until his nephew, the future King Edward III, was born in 1312. The Earldom of Cornwall