THE NOBLE AND GENTLE MEN OF ENGLAND.
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THE

NOBLE AND GENTLE

MEN OF ENGLAND.

THE

NOBLE AND GENTLE

MEN OF ENGLAND;

OR, NOTES TOUCHING

THE ARMS AND DESCENTS

OF THE

ANCIENT KNIGHTLY AND GENTLE HOUSES OF ENGLAND,

ARRANGED IN THEIR RESPECTIVE COUNTIES.

ATTEMPTED BY

EVELYN PHILIP SHIRLEY, ESQ. M.A. F.S.A.

LATE ONE OF THE KNIGHTS OF THE SHIRE FOR THE COUNTY OF WARWICK.

WESTMINSTER:

JOHN BOWER NICHOLS AND SONS. Third Edition, Corrected 1866.

PREFACE.

THE following imperfect attempt to bring together a few notes relating to the ancient aristocracy of England, is confined in the first place to the families now existing, and regularly established either as knightly or gentle houses before the commencement of the sixteenth century; secondly, no notice is taken of those families who may have assumed the name and arms of their ancestors in the female line: for the truth is, as it has been well observed,* "that, unless we take the male line as the general standard of genealogical rank, we shall find ourselves in a hopeless state of confusion;" thirdly, illegitimate descent is of course excluded; and, fourthly, where families have sold their original estates, they will be noticed in those counties where they are at present seated; if however they still possess the ancient estate of their family, though they may reside in another county, they will be mentioned for the most part under that county from whence they originally sprung.

In those cases where the whole landed estate of the family has been dissipated, although the male line still remains, all notice is omitted, such families having no longer any claim to be classed in any county. For, "ancient dignity was territorial rather than personal, the whole system was rooted in the land, and, even in the present day, though the land may have changed hands often, it has carried along with it some of that sentiment of regard attached to the lordship of it, as surely as its earth has the fresh smell which it gives when upturned by the husbandman."**

This list also, it must be remembered, does not profess to give an account of all those families whose descent may possibly be traced beyond the year 1500, but merely of those who were in the position of what we now call county families before that period. The line of demarcation indeed between the families who rose upon the ruins of the monastic system, and the more ancient aristocracy of England, is often very difficult to be traced, depending as it does on documentary evidence often inaccessible, and obscured by the fanciful and too favourable deductions of the heralds of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

With regard to the sources from whence the following memoranda have been taken, I have endeavoured as much as possible to rely upon the best county histories and MS. collections of authority, and carefully to eschew those modern accounts of family history, which, by ascribing the most absurd pretensions of ancient lineage to families who bore no real claim to that distinction, have done much to bring genealogy itself into contempt among that numerous class of readers who are but slightly acquainted with the subject.

I cannot conclude without recording my obligations to several gentlemen who have in the most liberal manner placed their genealogical collections at my service, and by so doing rendered less imperfect these notices of the noble and gentle houses of England: among that number I wish particularly to mention the names of the late Mr. Joseph Morris of Shrewsbury and Mr. Joseph Hunter, one of the Assistant Keepers of the Records, the learned and accurate historian of South Yorkshire.

E.P.S.

Lower Eatington, July 1, 1860.

* Quarterly Review, Jan. 1858, p. 37.

** Quarterly Review, Jan. 1858, p. 31.

PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION.

ANOTHER edition of this little work having been called for, I have carefully revised and corrected what has been already written; I have also made some additions, the result of further investigation, and the information of many friends and correspondents, whose courtesy and kindness I here beg most gratefully to acknowledge.

Since the book was published in the year 1859, the male lines of three families, whose names were originally comprehended in it, have become extinct, viz.: Cotton of Landwade, in the county of Cambridge, Hornyold of Blackmore Park, and Hanford of Wollashill, both in Worcestershire. On the other hand, notices of eight "new peers?" will be found in the present volume, four of which also occurred in the second edition. I allude to Lovett of Liscombe, in the county of Buckingham, and Basset of Tehidy, in the county of Cornwall—very ancient families, whose landed property being until lately in female hands, could not, in accordance with the rules which I had laid down, be comprehended in the first edition; I have also added Huyshe of Sand, in Devonshire, Patten of Bank Hall, in Lincolnshire, Bertie of Uffington, Anderson of Brocklesby, and Massingberd of Wrangle, all in Lincolnshire, and, lastly, Upton of Ashton Court, in the county of Somerset. And here I must again beg to remind the reader, that the intention of this work is not to give an account of every family whose pedigree may be continued in the male line beyond the time which I have mentioned (the beginning of the sixteenth century), but of those only who were established as county families, "inheriting arms from their ancestors," at that period. It is no doubt in many cases very difficult to distinguish accurately the pretensions of many families who may possibly have a fair claim to this distinction, though, from the reasons to which I have formerly alluded, it is not easy to establish them. I can only say that as far as my information extends I have endeavoured fairly and honestly to draw the correct line, but whether I have succeeded must be left to the judgment of others.

E. P. S.

Lower Eatington, January 22, 1866.

Noble and Gentle Men of England

BEDFORDSHIRE.

Knightly.

St.John of Melchbourne, Lord St.John of Bletshoe 1558-9.

THIS great and ancient Family, though not connected with this county before the reign of Henry VIII., yet, having been for a considerable time seated at Melchbourne, may with propriety be included among the Bedfordshire families, and indeed stands alone as the only one of knightly rank.* Descended in the direct male line from Hugh de Port mentioned in Domesday, in the twelfth century William son of Adam de Port took the name of St.John from the heiress of that great Norman family. Basing in Hampshire, Stanton St.John in Oxfordshire, Bletshoe in the county of Northampton, and Lydiard Tregoze in Wiltshire, both derived from the heiress of Beauchamp in the reign of Henry VI.—have successively been seats of the St.Johns, who have made themselves sufficiently remarkable both for their loyalty and disloyalty in the reign of Charles I., not to mention the ambition and ill-directed abilities of the great Lord Bolingbroke in that of Anne.

Younger Branch. St.John of Lydiard Tregoze, Viscount Bolingbroke 1712. Baronet 1611. Descended from Oliver, second son of Sir Oliver St.John and the heiress of Beauchamp.

See Leland's Itinerary, edition 1769, vol. vi. folio 27, p. 26. Brydges's Collins, vi. 42 and 741. For an account of Bletshoe, and the monuments there, see Gent. Mag. 1799, p. 745. For Lydiard Tregoze, and other monuments of the St.Johns, whose pedigree, by Sir R. St.George, is painted on folding-doors on the north side of the chancel, see the Topographer, i. 508.

Arms.—Argent, on a chief gules two mullets pierced or. William de St.John in the thirteenth century bore in his arms the addition of a bend gules, which was continued by his descendants till the reign of Elizabeth. (Gent. Mag. 1787, 681.) The present coat was borne by Sir John de St.John in the reign of Edward II.; at the same time other members of the family varied the field and charges thus: Sir Roger bore, Ermine, on a chief gules two mullets or; Sir Eymis, Argent, crusilly sable, on a chief gules two mullets or; Sir John de Layneham, Argent, on a chief gules two mullets or, a border indented sable. John, heir of John de St.John, differenced his arms with a label azure, according to the roll of Carlaverock. The roll of arms of the reign of Richard II. gives the mullets of six points pierced azure. Edward St.John at this period bore, Argent, on a chief dancetté gules two mullets of six points or, pierced vert. Rolls of the dates.

Present Representative, St.Andrew Beauchamp St.John, 14th Baron St.John.

* "Hungry Time hath made a glutton's meal on this Catalogue of Gentry (the List of Gentry of the reign of Henry VI,) and hath left but a very little morsel for manners remaining." Fuller, Worthies of Bedfordshire.

Gentle.

Polhill of Howbury, in the parish of Renhold.

This family is of ancient Kentish extraction, and is a branch of the Polhills or Polleys of Preston, in Shoreham, in that county, descended from John Polhill, eldest son of John Polhill and Alice de Buckland, the heiress of Preston, in the reign of Henry VI. The Rev. Richard Polwhele, the Historian of Cornwall, was of opinion that the Polhills of Kent were a branch of the Cornish Polwheles, which emigrated from the western into the eastern counties at a very early period; they were certainly seated at Detling in Hollingbourne, in Kent, at or previous to the reign of Edward III. In the time of Elizabeth, the Polhills were of Frenches, in the parish of Burwash, in Sussex. The immediate ancestor of the present family was Nathaniel Polhill, of Burwash and Howbury, an eminent merchant, who died in 1782.

See a very minute account of all the branches of this ancient family in the Topographer and Genealogist, i. pp. 180 and 577. See also Hasted's History of Kent, vol. i, p. 365, and vol. iii. p. 4.

Arms.—Or, on a bend gules three cross-crosslets of the first. It appears by the Roll of Arms of the reign of Richard II., that Monsr. Rauff Poley bore a coat nearly similar, viz, Argent, on a bend gules three crosses patée or.

Present Representative, Frederick Polhill, Esq.

BERKSHIRE.

Gentle.

Eyston of East Hendred.

It has been observed by old Fuller, "The Lands of Berkshire are very skittish, and are apt to cast their owners;" and again, "Of names which were in days of yore—few remain here of a great store." The ancient family of Eyston, and the succeeding one of Clarke, are indeed the only exceptions at the present day to this rule. The Eystons have been seated at East Hendred since the reign of Henry VI.; John Eiston, their ancestor, having at that period married "Isabel, daughter and heir of John Stow, of Burford, co. Oxford, whose wife was Maud, daughter and heir of Rawlin Arches, of East Henreth, whose great-grandmother was Amy, daughter and heir of Richard Turbervill, of East Henreth, Esq."

See the Visitation of Berks, 1566. Harl. MS. 1822, 26 b, and Harl. 1532, 19 b. See also Lysons's Berkshire, pp. 186, 292, and Clarke's Hundred of Wanting, 4to. 1824, p. 130.

Arms.—(Confirmed in 1566.) Sable, three lions rampant or.

Present Representative, Charles John Eyston, Esq.

Clarke of Ardington.

The pedigree begins with John Clarke, of Basledon, in this county, living there the latter part of the fifteenth century. The family afterwards removed to Ardington, where they were established, according to Lysons, in the reign of Henry VII. The Visitations of 1566 and 1623 record five generations of the Clarkes before the year 1600.

See the Visitation of Berks, 1566. Harl. MS. 5822, 22 b, and Harl. 1532. See also Lysons's Berkshire, pp. 180, 186, and Clarke's Hundred of Wanting, p. 56.

Arms.—(Confirmed Oct. 22, 1600.) Argent, on a fess sable three plates between three crosses patée of the second. Sometimes the fess is placed between six crosses patée.

Present Representative, William Nelson Clarke, Esq.

BUCKINGHAMSHIRE.

Knightly.

Chetwode of Chetwode, Baronet 1700.

This very ancient family is lineally descended from Robert de Thain, who held Chetwode under the Bishop of Baieux in the time of William the Conqueror, as appears by Domesday Book.

John de Chetwode having during the reign of Edward III. married the heiress of Oakeley, of Oakeley in Staffordshire, the family have mostly resided there, as well as at Ansley Hall in Warwickshire, derived from the heiress of Ludford in 1821.

Willis, writing in 1755, says—"This manor of Chetwode, as appears to me, has been in the possession and inheritance of the Chetwodes longer than any estate or manor in this county of Buckingham has continued the property of any other family now there existing."

See Willis's Buckingham, p. 172; Erdeswicke's Staffordshire, ed. 1844, p. 119; Wotton's Baronetage, iv. p. 82; and Lysons's Buckinghamshire, p. 172.

Arms.—Quarterly argent and gules, four crosses patée counterchanged.

Present Representative, Sir John Newdigate-Ludford-Chetwode, 5th Baronet.

Dayrell of Lillingstone Dayrell.

A very ancient and honourable family of Norman descent, who came over with the Conqueror, and seated themselves at Lillingstone before the year 1200, Richard son of Elias Dayrell being seised of a message and half a knight's fee there in King Richard the First's time, or the beginning of King John's reign. Before 1306 the Dayrell became possessed of the fee of the manor, which has ever since continued in the family.

The Dayrell of Shudy Camps, in the county of Cambridge, are a younger branch of this family, sprung from Francis, second son of Paul Dayrell of Lillingstone, sheriff of Buckinghamshire 1579.*

See Willis's Buckingham, p. 213; Lysons, p. 595.

Arms.—Azure, a lion rampant or, crowned argent.

Present Representative, Edmund Francis Dayrell, Esq.

Grenville of Wotton under Barnwood, Duke of Buckingham 1822, Marquess of Buckingham 1782, Earl Temple 1749, Viscount and Baron Cobham 1718.

There is good reason to believe that this family, seated at Wotton from the reign of Henry I., is a collateral branch of the Grenvilles of the West. The manor of Wotton, among many others, was given by William I. to Walter Giffard, Earl of Buckingham. Isabel, daughter and coheir of Walter the second Earl, is said to have brought it in marriage, about the year 1097, to Richard de Grenville.

The consequence of this family in modern times is owing to matches with the heiresses of the great houses of Temple, Nugent, and Chandos.

See Brydges's Collins's Peerage, ii. p. 390, and Lysons, p. 673. See also Moule's Bibliotheca Herald, p. 563, for an account of the MS., formerly at Stowe, viz. The original Evidences of the Grenville Family, collected by Richard Grenville, of Wotton, Esq. during the civil wars of the seventeenth century.

Arms.—Vert, on a cross argent five torteauxes.

Present Representative, Richard Plantagenet Campbell Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, 3rd Duke of Buckingham.

Harcourt of Ankerwycke.

On the decease of the last Earl Harcourt, in 1830, the representation in the male line of the illustrious House of Harcourt devolved on this family, descended from a younger brother of Simon, first Viscount Harcourt, and the heiress of Lee. Stanton Harcourt, in the county of Oxford, was possessed by the ancestors of this great House in 1166, and continued in the family till the extinction of the elder line in 1830. The pedigree is traced to Robert de Harcourt, who married Joan, daughter of Robert Beaumont, Earl of Mellent, and who was grandson of Robert who attended William the Conqueror in his expedition to England in 1066.

See Brydges's Collins's Peerage, iv. p. 428; and Nichols's Leicestershire, iv. pt. 2. p. 519.*

Arms.—Gules, two bars or. This coat was borne by Sir John de Harcourt in the reign of Edward II. Thomas Harecourt, the reverse, in the reign of Richard II. Rolls of the period.

Present Representative, George Simon Harcourt, Esq.

Gentle.

Lovett of Liscombe.

Vitalis Lovett of Rushton, in the county of Northampton, who lived in the reign of Henry II., appears to be the first proved ancestor of this venerable family, said to be of Norman origin. William Lovett of Rushton, the son of Vitalis, held certain lands in Henwick, also in Northamptonshire, of Richard Engaine and his heirs by the service of finding two horsemen to follow the said Richard to hunt the wolf in any part of England. This service was remitted to John Lovet, son or grandson of William, in the reign of Edward I., and in lieu thereof an annual rent-charge of ten shillings was imposed. Soon after this period, viz: in 1304, (33 Edw. I.) Liscombe in the parish of Soulbury came into the family, being in the possession of Robert Lovett and Sarah his wife, daughter and heir of Sir Roger Turvile, from the second marriage of their son Thomas, descended the Lovetts of Astwell in Northamptonshire, since the reign of Elizabeth represented in the female line by the Shirleys Earls Ferrers. Liscombe has from the beginning of the fourteenth century remained the inheritance of the elder branch of the Lovetts, though the direct descent has been often interrupted. In 1781, Jonathan Lovett, the representative of the family, was created a baronet by King George III. His Majesty's remark on this occasion is preserved in Betham's Baronetage. "In the summer of 1781, the Earl of Chesterfield having been some time absent from court, was asked by the King where he had been so long? 'On a visit to Mr. Lovett of Buckinghamshire,' said the Earl. 'Ah,' said the King, 'is that Lovett of Liscombe? They are of the genuine old Norman breed, how happens it that they are not baronets? would they accept the title? Go tell him,' continued the King, 'is that the title is much at his service; they have ever stuck to the Crown at a pinch.'" The same work also gives a very curious, and to an antiquary very tantalizing, account of the ancient armour and documents once preserved at Liscombe, and describes their melancholy fate. Sir Jonathan Lovett having died without surviving male issue in 1812, the title of Baronet became extinct and the property descended to his daughters; on the decease of the survivor, Miss Eliza Lovett, in 1861, the ancient seat of this venerable family reverted by her will to the next male heir, the present representative of the family, descended from a younger brother of Sir Jonathan Lovett, baronet.

See Baker's Northamptonshire, i. p. 732; Lipscombe's Buckinghamshire, iii. p. 457; Stemmata Shirleiana, pr. pr., 1841, p. 58; Collectanea Topog. et Genealog. vi. p. 300, and Betham's Baronetage.

Arms.—Evidently allusive to the name, and to the service of hunting the wolf, Argent, three wolves passant in pale sable, armed and langued gules.

Present Representative, Jonathan Vaughan Lovett, Esq.

CAMBRIDGESHIRE.

Gentle.

Bendyshe of Barrington.

The name is local, from Bendish, in the parish of Radwinter, in Essex, where Peter Westley was seated at a very early period. His grandson was called Ralf of Westley, alias Bendishe, and from him this ancient family, one branch of which was long settled at Steeple Bumstead, in Essex, is descended. A manor in Barrington came from the heiress of Bradfield early in the fifteenth century, and had acquired the name of "The Manor of Bendyshe" so far back as the year 1493; it has ever since remained the inheritance of this the eldest line of the Bendyshe family, of whom a younger branch was of Topfield Hall, in Hadley, co. Suffolk, whose heiress married Doyley of Overbury, also of Steeple Bumstead before mentioned, created Baronet in 1611, extinct in 1717; and other branches again were of Hadley and Turvey in Bedfordshire.

See Lysons's Cambridgeshire, p. 86, and the Visitation of Essex 1612, Harl. MS. 6095, fol. 16, where is a good pedigree of Bendyshe, brought down to William Bendyshe, Esq. tenth in descent from Peter Westley.

Arms.—Argent, a chevron sable between three ram's heads erased azure.

Present Representative, John Bendyshe, Esq.

CHESHIRE.

Knightly.

Davenport of Woodford.

The Davenports claim precedence among the knightly families of Cheshire,—that "seed-plot of gentry," "the mother and the nurse of the gentility of England," and are traced directly to the Conquest. The elder line, which Leland terms "the best and first house of the Davenports at Devonport; a great old house covered with leade on the Ripe of Daven, three miles above Congleton," became extinct in 1674. The coheiresses married Davies and Davenport of Woodford. Ormus de Daumporte, living in the time of William I., is the first recorded ancestor of this family. To his son, Richard de Dauneporte, Hugh Earl of Chester gave the chief foresterships of the forests of Leek and Macclesfield about 1166, a feudal office still held by this house.

The present family are sprung from Nicholas, third son of Sir John or Jenkin Davenport, of Wheltrough and Henbury, who was himself a younger son of Thomas, second son of Sir Thomas Davenport of Davenport, the 13th of Edward II. Woodford was granted by John Stafford and Isabella his wife, about the time of Edward III., to John, third son of Thomas Davenport of Wheltrough, (an elder line not traced beyond 1677,) while the Davenports of Henbury were extinct before 1664. Davenport of Calveley, founded by Arthur, sixth son of Sir John Davenport of Davenport, killed at Shrewsbury in 1403, became extinct in 1771. The coheiresses married Bromley and Davenport of Woodford. Davenport of Bramhall, founded by the second son of Thomas Davenport of Wheltrough and the heiress of Bramhall, in the time of Edward III., survived till 1838. The Davenports of Davenport House, in the parish of Worfield, in Shropshire, are the only younger branch now remaining; they spring from the Davenports of Chorley and the heiress of Bromley of Hallon or Hawn, in the parish of Worfield. See Blakeway's Sheriffs of Salop, pp. 85, 143, 228.

For Davenport of Davenport and Woodford, see Ormerod's Cheshire, iii. 39, 346, 357; for those of Calveley, ib. ii. 153; Henbury, iii. 352; Bramhall, iii. 401; Chorley, iii. 312. See also Leland's Itin., vii. fol. 42, and Harl. MSS. 2119, for a good pedigree of the family drawn from original evidences.

Arms.—Argent, a chevron between three cross-crosslets fitchée sable. The crest of this family, a felon's head, souped proper, haltered or, alludes to the power of life and death within the Forests of Leek and Macclesfield, granted by Hugh Earl of Chester.

Present Representative, Arthur Henry Davenport, Esq.

Grosvenor of Eaton, Marquess of Westminster 1831, Earl Grosvenor 1784, Baron Grosvenor 1761, Baronet 1662.

Descended from Gilbert le Grosvenor, nephew of Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester; the pedigree of this ancient family is, thanks to the famous controversy with the Scropes, well ascertained. The principal line of the Grosvenors was seated at Hulme, in this county, in the hundred of Northwich, and was extinct in the 22nd year of Henry VI. The Grosvenors of Eaton descend from Ralph second son of Sir Thomas Grosvenor of Hulme, who married Joan, sole daughter and heir of John Eaton, of Eton or Eaton, Esq. early in the fifteenth century. The match of Sir Thomas Grosvenor, Bart. in 1676, with Mary, sole daughter and heir of Alexander Davies, of Ebury, in the county of Middlesex, Esq. laid the foundation of the great wealth and consequent honours of this family.

Younger branches: the Earl of Wilton 1801; the Baron Ebury 1857.

See Ormerod, ii. 454, and iii. 87; Brydges's Collins, v. 239; and the Scrope and Grosvenor Roll passim.

Arms.—Azure, a garb or, used since the sentence of the Court in the cause of Sir Richard le Scrope and Sir Robert le Grosvenor in 1389, instead of Azure, a bend or, and allusive to his descent from the ancient Earls of Chester.

Present Representative, Richard Grosvenor, 2nd Marquess of Westminster, K.G.

Egerton of Oulton, Baronet 1617.

This is the principal male branch of the great House of Egerton, formerly Earls and Dukes of Bridgewater and Earl of Wilton. The pedigree begins with Philip Goch, second son of David de Malpas, surnamed le Clerk, which David was lord of a moiety of the Barony of Malpas. The present family is descended from Sir Philip Egerton, third son of Sir Rowland Egerton, of Egerton and Oulton, Baronet, who died in 1698. The Baronetcy devolved on Sir John Egerton, uncle of the present Baronet, on the death of the Earl of Wilton, and extinction of the elder line, in 1814. Oulton came from the heiress of Hugh Done, anno 1498. It is thus mentioned in Leland's Itinerary: "The auncientest of the Egertons dwellith now at Oldeton, and Egerton buildith ther now." (Itin. vii. fol. 42.) Younger branch, Egerton-Warburton, of Warburton and Arley, in this county.

See Wotton's Baronetage, i. 271; Brydges's Collins, iii. 170, v. 528; Ormerod, ii. 118, 350; and for many curious particulars of the Bridgewater Egertons, see the Topographer, ii. 136, &c.

Arms.—Argent, a lion rampant gules between three pheons sable. The pheons were the ancient arms of Malpas; the lion was added by Uryan Egerton, about the middle of the fourteenth century; according to tradition, an augmentation granted as a reward for his services in the Scotch wars.

Present Representative, Sir Philip de Malpas Grey-Egerton, 10th Baronet, M. P. for S. Cheshire.

Cholmondeley of Cholmondeley, Marquess of Cholmondeley 1815, Earl of Cholmondeley 1706, Baron 1689.

Descended with the Egertons from the Barons of Malpas, and immediately from Robert de Cholmondelegh, second son of William Belward, lord of a moiety of the Barony of Malpas, and younger brother of David the ancestor of the Egertons; which Robert was seated at Cholmondeley in the reign of King John.

Younger branches. Cholmeley of Whitby, in Yorkshire, Baronet 1641, extinct 1688; descended from Robert, younger son of Hugh Cholmondeley, temp. Edw. III. See the Memoirs of Sir Hugh Cholmeley, Knight and Baronet, a curious book privately printed in 1787.—Cholmeley of Brandsby, since the extinction of the Whitby family the only representative of the Cholmondeleys of Yorkshire.—Cholmeley of Easton, co. Lincoln, Baronet 1806, descended from Sir Henry Cholmeley, of Burton Coggles, co. Lincoln, who died in 1620.

Cholmondeley of Vale Royal in this county, Baron Delamere 1821, descended from Thomas, younger son of Sir Hugh Cholmondeley of Cholmondeley, who died in 1501.

See Ormerod, ii. 356, and for Cholmondeley of Vale Royal, ii. 78. Brydges's Collins, iv. 16.

Arms.—Gules, two helmets in chief argent, garnished or, and in base a garb of the third.

Present Representative, George Horatio Cholmondeley, 2nd Marquess of Cholmondeley.

Tatton, called Egerton of Tatton, Baron Egerton of Tatton 1859.

Robert Tatton of Kenworthy, in Northenden, who married the heiress of William de Withenshaw, alias Massey, about the latter end of the reign of Edward III., is the first proved ancestor of this family, but there is reason to believe that he was descended from the much more ancient house of the name who were seated at Tatton in the twelfth century. Withenshaw, now the seat of the younger branch of this family, remained from the period above mentioned the inheritance and residence of the Tattons, until the decease of Samuel Egerton, Esq. in 1780, when the estate of Tatton, which is supposed to have given name to the family, devolved by his will on William Tatton of Withenshaw, Esq., who had married Hester, sister of Mr. Egerton. Tatton had passed to the Egertons through the families of Tatton, Massey, Stanley, and Brereton.

Younger branch, Tatton of Withenshaw, in this county. See Ormerod, iii. 315, and Gentleman's Magazine 1798, 930.

Arms.—Quarterly argent and gules, four crescents counterchanged. The arms are perhaps founded on the coat of Massey.

Present Representative, William Tatton Egerton, Baron Egerton of Tatton.

Bunbury of Stanney, Baronet 1681.

A family of great antiquity, descended from Henry de Boneberi, in the time of Stephen, a younger brother of the House of St. Pierre in Normandy. William de Boneberi, son of Henry, was Lord of Boneberi in the reign of Richard I. But the direct ancestor was David brother of Henry, whose great-grandson Alexander de Bunbury was living in the fifteenth of Henry III. Stanney, still the inheritance, but not the residence, of the Bunburys, came from the heiress of the same name in the seventeenth of Edward III.

See Ormerod, ii. 216, and Wotton's Baronetage, iii. 687.

Arms.—Argent, on a bend sable three chessrooks of the field.

Present Representative, Sir Charles James Fox Bunbury, 8th Baronet.

Leycester of Toft.

Descended from Sir Nicholas Leycester, who acquired the manor of Nether-Tabley in marriage, and died in 1295. The male line of the eldest branch of this family, established at Nether-Tabley, became extinct in 1742. The present and younger branch springs from Ralph, younger brother of John Leycester of Tabley, who married Joan, daughter and heir of Robert Toft of Toft: she was a widow in 1390. The antiquary Sir Peter was of the Tabley line.

Younger branch, Leycester of Whiteplace, co. Berks.

See Ormerod, i. 385, 456; iii. 190.

Arms.—Azure, a fess or, fretty gules, between two fleurs-de-lis of the second. Another coat was granted by Dethick to Sir Ralph Leycester of Toft, the second year of Edward VI., viz. Sable, on a fess engrailed between three falcons volant argent, beaked and membered or, a lion's head caboshed azure between two covered cups gules. But this very unnecessary and overloaded coat does not appear to have been used.

Present Representative, Ralph Oswald Leycester, Esq.

Massie of Coddington.

The pedigree in Ormerod begins with Hugh Massie, who married Agnes, daughter and heir of Nicholas Bold, of Coddington. Their son William purchased the manor of Coddington in the eighteenth of Henry VI. The parentage of Hugh Massie is a matter of dispute, but he was probably a younger son of Sir John Massie of Tatton, who died in the eighth of Henry. He is also by others supposed to have been descended from the Massies of Podington, a younger branch of the Barons of Dunham Massey. This family is perhaps the only remnant in the direct male line of the posterity of any of the Cheshire Barons. General Massie, a younger son of this house, was a distinguished officer in the Civil Wars, both in the service of the Commonwealth and in that of Charles II.

Younger branches: Massey of Pool-Hall, in this county, descended from the second son of Massie of Coddington, who was born in 1604. From Edward the third son descended the Massies of Rosthorne, also in Cheshire, now extinct. For the extinct branches of Broxton and Podington, see Ormerod, ii. 372 and 308; for Massie of Coddington, ii. 399; for Massie of Pool-Hall, iii. 188.

Arms.—Quarterly gules and or, in the first and fourth three fleurs-de-lis argent, a canton of the third. There was a dispute about the arms of Massey between the Houses of Tatton and Podington (for which see "The Scrope and Grosvenor Roll," vol. ii. p. 262), which was decided in 1378 by the arbitration of Sir Hugh Calveley and others. The present coat, except that the first and second quarters were or, and the canton omitted, was awarded to Massey of Podington. Massey of Tatton bore the same arms with three escallops argent in lieu of the fleurs-de-lis. The elder line of Dunham bore Quarterly or and gules, in the second quarter a lion passant argent.

Present Representative, Richard Massie, Esq.

Wilbraham of Delamere.

This family represents the eldest branch of the Wilbrahams of Cheshire, descended from Richard de Wilburgkam, sheriff of this county in the forty-third year of Henry III. In the third of Edward IV. the Wilbrahams were seated at Woodhay, in Cheshire, by a match with the heiress of Golborne: this, the elder line, created Baronet in 1620-1, was extinct in 1692. The present family are descended from the second son of Thomas Wilbraham of Woodhay, and were seated at Townsend in Nantwich in the reign of Elizabeth; they removed to Delamere the latter part of the eighteenth century.

Younger branches: Wilbraham Baron Skelmersdale 1828; and Wilbraham of Rode, in this county, both descended from Randle, younger brother of Roger Wilbraham, of Nantwich, who died in 1754. Wilbraham of Dorfold, sold in 1754, but existing at Falmouth in 1818, was sprung from the youngest son of Richard Wilbraham, of Nantwich, who died in 1612. See Ormerod, ii. 65; iii. 31, 184, 199.

Arms.—Argent, three bends wavy azure. The Dorfold branch bore for distinction a canton gules. Additional coat, granted by Flower, temp. Eliz.; Azure, two bars argent, on a canton of the first a wolf's head erased of the second.

Present Representative, George Fortescue Wilbraham, Esq.

Legh of East Hall, in High Legh.

Efward de Lega, who appears from his name to have been of Saxon origin, and who lived at or near the period of the Conquest, was the patriarch of this ancient family, of which the principal male line failed in the time of Edward IV. Thomas Legh, of Northwood, in the same parish of High-Legh, the ancestor of the present family, succeeded after a long litigation as the next heir male in the reign of Henry VIII. See Ormerod, i. 358.

Arms.—Allowed 1566. Argent, a lion rampant gules, armed and langued azure.

Present Representative, George Cornwall Legh, Esq. M.P. for North Cheshire.

Leigh of West Hall, in High Legh.

Descended from Richard de Lymme, younger son of Hugh de Lymme, which Richard in the latter part of the thirteenth century married Agnes, daughter and sole heir of Richard de Legh, great-grandson of Hamon de Legh, the first mentioned in the pedigree. Richard de Lymme had issue Thomas de Legh, of West Hall, living in 1305.

Younger branches: Leigh (called Trafford), of Oughtrington, in this county, descended from John second son of Richard Leigh, of West Hall, who died in 1486; for whom see Ormerod, i. 439.

Leigh of Leatherlake House in Surrey, descended from Thomas second son of the Rev. Peter Leigh of West Hall, who died in 1719; and Leigh of South Carolina, Baronet 1773, descended from Peter third son of the same Rev. Peter Leigh. See Ormerod, i. 350.

Arms.—Allowed 1563. Or, a lion rampant gules, armed and langued azure. For four descents after the match with Agnes de Legh, her descendants used the coat of Lymme, Gules, a pale fusillé argent, conclusive evidence of the descent of this family from Richard de Lymme, and not from William de Venables, another husband of Agnes de Legh. Indeed, in the Visitation of 1566, this coat of Lymme was allowed to Leigh of West Hall; but in 1584 both the East and West Hall families claimed the lion rampant gules. In 1663 the arms were settled as at present.

Present Representative, Egerton Leigh, Esq.

Aldersey of Aldersey, in the parish of Coddington.

The pedigree is traced to Hugh de Aldersey, in the reign of Henry III., soon after which time the family divided into two branches; the estate and manor of Aldersey being also held in separate moieties by the representatives of the two families: one moiety eventually passed by an heir-general to Hatton of Hatton, and has since been united into one estate, by purchase from Dutton of Hatton. A younger branch of this family was seated at Chester, of which was William Aldersey the antiquary, mayor of that city in 1614.

See Ormerod, ii. 404.

Arms.—Gules, on a bend engrailed argent, between two cinquefoils or, three leopard's faces vert. The more ancient coat, given in King's Vale Royal, appears to have been, Sable, three chargers or dishes argent.

Present Representative, Thomas Aldersey, Esq.

Baskervyle, (called Glegg,) of Old Withington.

Ormerod traces this family to Sir John Baskervyle, grantee of a moiety of Old Withington from Robert de Camvyle in 1266, and that estate has ever since remained in the family. In 1758 John Baskervyle, Esq., the representative of the house of Old Withington, having married the heiress of Glegg of Gayton, in this county, assumed that name in lieu of his own.

See Ormerod, iii. 355; and for Glegg, ib. ii. 285.

Arms.—Argent, a chevron gules between three hurts. This coat, the chevron charged with three fleurs-de-lis or, was borne by "Monsire de Baskervile;" see Sir Harris Nicolas's Roll of Arms temp. E. III.

Present Representative, John Baskervyle Glegg, Esq.

Brooke of Norton, Baronet 1662.

Adam Lord of Leighton, in the reign of Henry III., is the first recorded ancestor of this family, who continued at Leighton, the seat of the principal branch of the Brookes, until the extinction of the elder male line, in or about the year 1632. Richard Brooke, younger son of Thomas Brooke of Leighton, purchased Norton from King Henry VIII. in the year 1545, which has remained the residence of his heirs male.

Younger branches: Broke of Nacton in the county of Suffolk, Baronet 1813; descended from Sir Richard Brooke, Knight, Chief Baron of the Exchequer, in the reign of Henry VIII., youngest son of Thomas Brooke of Leighton, the ancestor of the Norton family. There was a former baronetcy in this family, created 1661, extinct 1693. Brooke of Mere in this county, sprung from Sir Peter Brooke, third son of Thomas Brooke of Norton, established at Mere by purchase in 1632.

See Ormerod, i. 360, 500; and iii. 241; Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica, i. 22; and Wotton's Baronetage, iii. 392.

Arms.—Or, a cross engrailed party per pale gules and sable.

Present Representative, Sir Richard Brooke, 7th Baronet.

Gentle.

Clutton of Chorlton, in the parish of Malpas.

Ormerod gives no detailed pedigree, but states that the Cluttons had been settled at Clutton, in the parish of Farndon, in this county, as early as the 21st of Edward I, and that the manor of the same place was held by this family in the time of Henry VI. In the reign of Henry VIII., Roger, third son of Owen Clutton of Courthyn, having married an heiress of Aldersey of Chorlton, became seated there, and was the ancestor of the present family. From Henry, elder brother of this Roger, were descended the Clutton Brocks late of Pensax in Worcestershire, who were there established in the seventeenth century.

See Ormerod, ii. 366, 410, and a pedigree of this family in Harleian MS. 2119.

Arms.—Argent, a chevron ermine, cotised sable, between three annulets gules.

Present Representative, Thomas Charlton Clutton, Esq.

Leche of Carden.

The pedigree commences in the reign of Henry IV. with John Leche, (said to be a younger brother of the house of Leche of Chatsworth, in Derbyshire,) who married the heiress of Cawarthyn, or Carden, and settled there about the year 1475. Some pedigrees, however, seat the Leches at Carden as early as the twentieth of Edward III.; and there is also a tradition that the family is descended from the leche, or chirurgeon, of that monarch himself. It is remarkable that Nolan has been the family christian name, with one exception, during thirteen generations.

Younger branch, extinct in 1694, Leche of Mollington, in this county.

See Harl. MS. 2119, 50, quoted by Ormerod, ii. 385.

Arms.—Ermine, on a chief indented gules three crowns or.

Present Representative, John Hurleston Leche, Esq.

Barnston of Churton, in the parish of Farndon.

The descent of this family is not proved beyond Robert Barnston, of Churton, in the third year of Richard II. But Hugh de Barnston was lord of a moiety of Barnston in the twenty-first of Edward I. The pedigree was confirmed in the Visitations of 1613 and 1663-4.

See Ormerod, ii. 408.

Arms.—Azure, a fess indented ermine between six cross-crosslets fitchée or. Thomas de Bernaston bore this coat, except that the crosses were argent. See the Roll of Arms of the Reign of Edward III.

Present Representative, Roger Barnston, Esq.

Antrobus of Antrobus, Baronet 1815.

This is an instance of an ancient family, which, having gone down in the world, has recovered itself by means of commercial pursuits, after centuries of comparative obscurity. Antrobus was sold by Henry Antrobus in the reign of Henry IV., and repurchased by Edmund Antrobus in 1808; he having proved himself a descendant of Henry, youngest son of Henry Antrobus above mentioned. Antrobus of Eaton Hall, in this county, is again a younger branch of this family.

See Ormerod, i. 487; Lysons's Cheshire, p. 532; Debrett's Baronetage, ed. 1836, p. 383.

Arms.—Lozengy or and azure, on a pale gules three estoiles of the first.

Present Representative, Sir Edmund William Romer Antrobus, 2nd Baronet.

Lawton of Lawton.

It is not improbable that this family is descended from Robert, a younger son of Vivian de Davenport, who settled at Lawton in the 50th of Henry III. and assumed the local name: this assertion is borne out by the arms, which are evidently founded on those of Davenport. The pedigree is not however traced beyond Hugh Lawton, who married Isabella, daughter of John Madoc, in the reign of Henry VI. The manor of Lawton was purchased by William Lawton, Esq. from King Henry VIII. It had been formerly held by the Abbey of Chester, to which the Lawtons appear to have been tenants from a very early period. Younger branch, Lawton of Lake Marsh, in the county of Cork.

See Ormerod, iii. 11, and Lysons's Cheshire, p. 673.

Arms.—Argent, on a fess between three cross-crosslets fitchée sable a cinquefoil of the first.

Present Representative, John Lawton, Esq.

Cotton of Combermere, Viscount Combermere 1826, Baronet 1677.

There are several places called Cotton, and antiquaries have doubted from which of them the present family is called. The house usually assigned is that of Cotton, near Wem, in Shropshire, where Sir Hugh Cotton was seated in the reign of Edward I., and whose descendant, Roger Cotton, acquired the estate of Alkington, in the same county, by marriage of the heiress, in the reign of Richard II. He was the ancestor of Sir George Cotton, grantee of Combermere after the Dissolution in 1540, from whom the present family directly descend. Younger branch, extinct in the male line, but represented in the female line by R. H. Cotton of Etwall, co. Derby, Esq.

MSS. of the late Mr. Joseph Morris of Shrewsbury. See a different account of this family in Ormerod, iii. 212; Blakeway's Sheriffs of Shropshire, p. 104; and Wotton's Baronetage, iii. 611.

Arms.—Azure, a chevron between three hawk's lures, or cotton-hanks, argent.

Present Representative, Wellington Henry Cotton, 2nd Viscount Combermere.

CORNWALL.

Knightly.

Trelawnyy of Trelawny, Baronet 1628.

"The most Cornish gentlemen can better vaunt of their pedigree than their livelyhood," wrote Richard Carew, of Antonie, Esq. in 1602,—"for that they derive from great antiquitie; and I make question whether any shire in England, of but equal quantitie, can muster a like number of faire coat-armours:" and again,

There are two manors called Trelawny in Cornwall, one in the parish of Alternon, the other in that of Pelynt; the former was the original seat of the Trelawnys, probably before the Conquest, and here they remained till the extinction of the cider branch in the reign of Henry VI. The latter was purchased from Queen Elizabeth by "Sir Jonathan Trelawny, a knight well spoken, stayed in his cariage, and of thrifty providence," the head of a younger line of this family, in the year 1600; and it has ever since remained the seat of this venerable house. Hamelin, who held Treloen, i.e. Trelawny, under the Earl of Moreton, at the period of the Domesday Survey, is the first recorded ancestor.

See Leland's Itin., iii. fol. 20; Carew's Survey of Cornwall, ed. 1602, p. 63 b; Gilbert's Survey of Cornwall, i. 546; Lysons's Cornwall, pp. 14 and 257; Wotton's Baronetage, ii. 87.

Arms.—Argent, a chevron sable. In the reign of Henry V. an augmentation was added, viz. three oak-leaves vert, borne by Sir John Trelawny with the ancient coat, in consequence of his having greatly distinguished himself in the French wars with that monarch.

Present Representative, Sir John Salusbury-Trelawny, 9th Baronet, late M. P. for Tavistock.

Prideaux of Place, in the parish of Padstow.

This is the eldest remaining branch of the ancient family of Prideaux, who trace their descend from Paganus, lord of Prideaux Castle, in Luxulion, in this county, in the time of William I.; where the family continued till the latter part of the fourteenth century, when Prideaux passed by an heiress to the Herles of West Herle, in Northumberland. The present family, which was seated at "Place" in the sixteenth century, is sprung from the Prideauxes of Solden, in Holsworthy, in Devonshire, a branch of Prideaux of Thuborough in Sutcombe, in the same county, who were themselves descended from Prideaux of Orcherton in Modbury, also in Devonshire, where the family was established by marriage with the heiress of Orcherton in the reign of Henry III.

Younger branch, Prideaux of Netherton, co. Devon, Baronet 1622, founded by Edmund Prideaux, an eminent lawyer, second son of Roger Prideaux of Solden.

See Carew, 143 b; Gilbert's Survey of Cornwall, i. 542; Lysons, 252, cxii.; Wotton's Baronetage, i. 515; Westcote's Devonshire Pedigrees, p. 470; Prince's Worthies of Devon, ed. 1, p. 307.

Arms.—Argent, a chevron sable, a label of three points gules. This was the coat of Orcherton.

Present Representative, Charles Prideaux-Brune, Esq.

Basset of Tehidy.

The immediate ancestor of the Cornish Bassets was William Basset, who married in 1150 Cecilia, daughter and coheiress of Alan de Dunstanville, and the daughter of Reginald Fitzhenry, Earl of Cornwall, natural son of Henry I., who thus acquired the manor of Tehidy, which has ever since continued the residence of his descendants of the house of Basset. In the early part of the sixteenth century, John Basset appears to have been the chief of this ancient family: he married Frances daughter and coheir of Arthur Plantagenet, Viscount Lisle, natural son of King Edward IV. From Arthur, his eldest son, descended the Bassets of Heanton Court in Devonshire, extinct in the early part of the present century; and from George, the second son, the house of Tehidy, the elder branch of which were created Barons de Dunstanville in 1797. Extinct 1855.

Leland mentions "the right goodly lordship of Tehidy, and the castelet or pile of Bassets on Carnbray Hill."

See Gilbert's Survey of Cornwall, i. 486.

Arms.—Or, three bars wavy gules.

Present Representative, John Francis Basset, Esq.

Vyvyan of Trelowarren, in the parish of Mawgan, Baronet 1644. originally of Trevidern in the parish of St. Burian.

The first recorded ancestor is Sir Vyel Vyvyan, Knight, who lived in the thirteenth century, and whose descendant John, having married an heiress of Ferrers, succeeded to the lordship of Trelowarren in the reign of Edward IV., which has since continued the seat and residence of this family. The Baronetcy was conferred by King Charles I. on Sir Richard Vyvyan, as a reward for his services in the civil wars of that period.

See Leland's Itin. iii. fol. 3; Gilbert's Survey, i. 557; Lysons, pp. xc. and 218; Polwhele's Cornwall, 1803, vol. i. p. 42; Wotton's Baronetage, ii. 411.

Arms.—Argent, a lion rampant gules, armed sable.

Present Representative, Sir Richard Rawlinson Vyvyan, 8th Baronet, late M.P. for Helstone.

Molesworth of Pencarrow, in the parish of Egloshayle, Baronet 1689.

This is a younger branch of the Molesworths of Ireland, Viscount Molesworth of Swords, in the county of Dublin, 1716. They can be traced to the reign of Edward I. as a knightly family, but never remained very long in any one county: they have been seated in Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Northamptonshire. Sir Walter de Molesworth, the first recorded ancestor, is said to have attended Edward I. in his expedition to the Holy Land. The family estate is believed to have been greatly impoverished by the profuse entertainment of Queen Elizabeth at Fotheringay, by Antony, elder brother of John Molesworth, who settled at Pencarrow in the reign of the same Queen.

See Gilbert's Cornwall, i. 571; Lysons, xcii. 82; Wotton's Baronetage, iv. 25; Archdall's Lodge, v. 127.

Arms.—Vaire, a border gules charged with cross-crosslets or.

This coat, except that the crosses were argent, was borne by Sir Walter de Molesworth of co. Huntingdon, as appears by the Roll of Arms of the reign of Edward II. Sir Gilbert Lyndesey (?) of the same county bore the present coat.

Present Representative, the Rev. Sir Paul William Molesworth, 10th Baronet.

Gentle.

Polwhele of Polwhele, in the parish of St. Clement.

This venerable family, supposed to be of Saxon origin, traces its descent to one Drogo or Drew, Chamberlain to the Empress Maude, and Grantee of the Manor of Polwhele in the year 1140. The family are said to have been seated there even before the Conquest; there appears however no proof that Drogo was the descendant of Winus de Polhill, the owner of this place in the time of Edward the Confessor. The Rev. Richard Polwhele, the historian of this county, was the representative of the family.

See Polwhele's Cornwall, i. 42; Gilbert's Survey, ii. 239; and Lysons, pp. cxi. 60.

Arms.—Sable, a saltier engrailed ermine.

Present Representative, T. R. Polwhele, Esq.

Trefusis of Trefusis, in the parish of Milor, Baron Clinton 1299.

From time immemorial this ancient family have been seated at Trefusis, from whence the name is derived. The pedigree is traced four generations before the year 1292. The ancient Barony of Clinton devolved upon this family, (through the Bolles,) on the death of George third Earl of Orford, in 1791.

See Carew, 150 b; Leland's Itin. iii. 26; Polwhele's Cornwall, i. 42; Gilbert's Cornwall, i. 468.

Arms.—Argent, a chevron between three wharrow spindles sable, which Randle Holmes, in his Academy, p. 288, explains, as a "sort of Spindle used by women at a distaff put under their girdle, so as they oftentimes spin therewith going."

Present Representative, Charles Rodolph Trefusis, 18th Baron Clinton.

Boscawen of Boscawen-Rose, in the parish of St. Burian, Viscount Falmouth 1720.

Descended from Henry who lived in the reign of King John, and who took the name of Boscawen from the lordship of Boscawen-Rose, still the property of the family. In the reign of Edward III. the Boscawens removed to Tregothnan, their present seat, in consequence of the marriage of John de Boscawen with Joan, daughter and heir of John de Tregothnan of that place, in the parish of St. Michael-Penkevil.

See Gilbert's Survey, i. 452; Lysons, pp. lxxiv. 50; Brydges's Collins, vi. 62.

Arms.—Ermine, a rose gules barbed and seeded proper. The ancient arms of the family were, according to Lysons, Vert, a bull-dog argent, with a chief containing the arms now used.

Present Representative, Evelyn Boscawen, 6th Viscount Falmouth.

Tremayne of Helligan, in the parish of St. Ewe.

Tremayne is in the parish of St. Martin, and here the ancestor of the family, Perys, lived in the reign of Edward III. and assumed the local name. This estate passed with the heiress of the elder branch of the family to the Trethurfes, and from them to the Reskymers, to whom it belonged in Leland's time. A grandson of the first Tremayne, having married the heiress of Trenchard, of Collacomb, in Devonshire, removed hither, where his descendants existed till the extinction of that line in 1808. The founder of the present family was Richard Tremayne, whose son purchased Helligan in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and who is thus noticed by Carew in his Survey of this county. "At the adjoining St. Ive, dwelleth master Richard Tremayne, descended from a younger brother of Colocome House in Devon, who, being learned in the laws, is yet to learne, or at least to practise, how he may make other profit thereby, then by hoarding up treasure of gratitude in the mindful breasts of poor and rich, on whom he gratis bestoweth the fruits of his pains and knowledge."

See Leland's Itin. iii. 25, fol. 9; Carew, 104 b; Gilbert's Survey, ii. 292; Lysons, pp. cxv. 96, 214; Prince's Worthies of Devon, 1st ed. 569.

Arms.—Gules, three dexter arms conjoined at the shoulders and flexed in triangle or, fists proper.

Present Representative, John Tremayne, Esq.

Kendall of Pelyn, in the parish of Lanlivery.

A younger branch of an ancient Cornish family of which the principal line became extinct in the early part of the seventeenth century. They were formerly seated at Treworgy in Duloe, and are traced to Richard Kendall of Treworgy, Burgess for Launceston in the forty-third of Edward III. Pelyn has been for many generations the seat of this family, descended from Walter, third son of John Kendall of Treworgy, who married a daughter and coheir of Robert Holland, an illegitimate son of a Duke of Exeter. It has been remarked of this family, that they have perhaps sent more members to the British Senate than any other in the United Kingdom.

See Carew, 132 c.; Gilbert's Survey, ii. 176; Lysons, pp. cviii. 178.

Arms.—Argent, a chevron between three dolphins naiant embowed sable.

Present Representative, Nicholas Kendall, Esq. M.P. for East Cornwall.

Wrey of Trebigh, in the parish of St. Ive, Baronet.

An old Devonshire family, descended from Robert le Wrey, who lived in the second of Stephen (1136-7), and whose son was seated at Wrey, in the parish of Moreton-Hamstead, in that county. A match with the heiress of Killigrew removed the Wreys into Cornwall, and Trebigh became their principal house, until, by the marriage of Sir Chichester Wrey, the second Baronet, with one of the co-heiresses of Edward Bourchier, fourth Earl of Bath, they became possessed of the noble seat of Tawstock, in Devonshire, the present usual residence of the family.

See Carew, 117 a; Gilbert's Survey, i. 555; Lysons, lxxxix. 146; Wotton's Baronetage, ii. 84; Westcote's Devonshire Pedigrees, 567.

Arms.—Sable, a fess between three pole-axes argent, helved gules.

Present Representative, Sir Bourchier Palk Wrey, 8th Baronet.

Rashleigh of Menabilly.

Rashleigh in the parish of Wemworthy, in Devonshire, gave name this ancient family, the elder line of which became extinct in the reign of Henry VII.

John Rashleigh, a merchant of Fowey, was the first who settled in Cornwall, and was in fact the founder of the present family. He is thus mentioned by Carew, writing in 1602, "I may not passe in silence the commendable deserts of Master Rashleigh the elder, descended from a younger brother of an ancient house in Devon, for his industrious judgement and adventuring in trade of merchandize first opened a light and way to the townsmen newe thriveing, and left his sonne large wealth and possessions, who, with a dayly bettering his estate, converteth the same to hospitality, and other actions fitting a gentleman well affected to his God, Prince, and Country."

See Carew, p. 136 a; Gilbert's Survey, ii. 244; Lysons, pp. cxiii. 316.

Arms.—Sable, a cross or between, in the first quarter, a Cornish chough argent, beaked and legged gules, in the second a text T, in the third and fourth a crescent, all argent. The Cornish chough and crescents were added on removing into Cornwall; the elder branch bore only two text T's in chief with the cross S.

Present Representative, William Rashleigh, Esq.

Glanville of Catchfrench, in the parish of St. German.

Descended from the Glanvilles of Halwell, in the parish of Whitchurch, in Devonshire, where they were settled about the year 1400. This branch is derived from a younger son of Serjeant Glanville, the son of Sir John Glanville, one of the Justices of the Common Pleas in the reign of Elizabeth. Catchfrench became the seat of the family in 1728.

See Prince's Worthies of Devon, pp. 326 and 339; Gilbert's Survey, ii. 121; Lysons, pp. civ. 116.

Arms.—Azure, three saltiers or. Present Representative, Francis Glanville, Esq.

CUMBERLAND.

Knightly.

Musgrave of Edenhall, Baronet 1611.

Originally seated at Musgrave in Westmerland, and traced to the time of King John, about the year 1204. After the marriage of Sir Thomas Musgrave, who died in 1469-70, with the coheiress of Stapleton of Edenhall, he removed to that manor, where is preserved the celebrated glass vessel called the Luck of Edenhall, well known from the Duke of Wharton's ballad:

See Lysons, ccix. where it is engraved.

Younger branches. The Musgraves of Hayton Castle, in this county, Baronet of Nova Scotia 1638; and the Musgraves of Tourin, in the county of Waterford, Baronet 1782.

See Lysons, lxiv. 100; Wotton's Baronetage, i. 74, iv. 354; and St. George's Visitation of Westmerland, printed 1853, p. 5, &c.

Arms.—Azure, six annulets or.

Monsire de Musgrave bore this coat, as appears by the Roll of the reign of Edward III., and Thomas Musgrave in that of Richard II. (Rolls of those dates.)

Present Representative, Sir George Musgrave, 10th Baronet.

Huddlestone of Hutton-John.

An ancient Northern family, said to be of Saxon descent, originally of Huddleston in Yorkshire, and afterwards of Millom Castle in this county, from an heiress of that name, where the elder line flourished till its extinction in 1745. Andrew, a younger son of John Huddleston of Millom, who lived in the reign of Henry VIII., married the heiress of Hutton of Hutton-John, and was the ancestor of the present family.

A younger branch of the Huddlestons were fixed in the county of Cambridge by a match with the illustrious House of Neville. Sir William Huddleston having married Isabel, fifth daughter of John, Marquess of Montecute, became possessed, on the partition of the Neville estates in 1496, of the manor of Sawston, still the inheritance of this line of the family.

For Sir John Huddleston, so much trusted by Queen Mary, see Fuller's Worthies, 1st ed. p. 168.

John Huddleston, the priest instrumental in saving the life of Charles II, and the same who attended him on his deathbed, was second son of Andrew Huddleston, of Hutton-John. This family afterwards became Protestants, and were active promoters of the Revolution.

For a curious account of Sawston and the Huddlestons, see Gent. Mag. for 1815, pt. 2. pp. 25 and 120; Lysons's Cambridgeshire, p. 248, and Cumberland, p. lxxiv. and 107; also Banks's Stemmata Anglicana, "Barones Rejecti," and the Visitation of Cambridgeshire 1619, fol. 1840, p. 19.

Arms.—Gules, fretty argent. This coat was borne by Sir John de Hodelestone in the reign of Edward II., Sir Adam the same, with a border indented or, Sir Richard with a label azure, Sir Richard, the nephew, with a label or. (Roll of the reign of Edw. II. co. York.)

Present Representative, W. Huddleston, Esq.

Gentle.

Irton of Irton.

A family of very great antiquity, and resident at Irton, on the river Irt, from whence the name is derived, as early as the reign of Henry I. The Manor of Irton has belonged also to the ancestors of Mr. Irton almost from the time of the Conquest.

See Lysons, lxxv. 119.

Arms.—Argent, a fess sable, in chief three mullets gules.

Present Representative, Samuel Irton, Esq. late M.P. for the Western Division of Cumberland.

Briscoe of Crofton, in the parish of Thursby, Baronet 1782.

Originally of Briscoe near Carlisle, where the family were seated three generations before the reign of Edward I. Crofton, which came by an heiress of that name, has been since the year 1390 the residence of the Briscoe family.

See Lysons, lxvi. 159.

Arms.—Argent, three greyhounds currant sable.

In Clutterbuck's Hertfordshire, i. 158, there is a pedigree of a younger branch of this family, who were seated at Aldenham, in that county, previous to 1736.

Present Representative, Sir Robert Briscoe, 3rd Baronet.

Dykes of Dovenby, in the parish of Bridekirk.

The name, originally "Del Dykes," is derived from the two lines of Roman wall in "Burgh," from whence the family at a remote period originated; Ramerus de Dikes, who lived before the reign of Henry II., is the first supposed ancestor. The pedigree is regularly traced three generations before the 50th of Edward III. to the present time. In the Wars of the Roses the Dykes's, like most other families in the Northern counties, were Lancastrian; and in the Civil Wars of the seventeenth century, devoted Royalists, and sufferers for their allegiance to the Crown. Dovenby, formerly the seat of the Lamplughs, came by marriage in the present century. The Manor of Warthole or Wardhill, purchased in the reign of Henry VI., and still in the family, was the former residence. Waverton, acquired in the 10th of Edward II., exchanged in 1619, and Distington, acquired in the 7th of Richard II., and afterwards alienated, were more ancient possessions.

See Lysons, lxxii. 36; Hutchinson's Cumberland, ii. 98 and note; Burn's Cumberland, ii. 49, and i. 157. I am obliged to the present Representative for additions to this account.

Arms.—Or, three cinquefoils sable. Monsr. Willm. de Dyks bore, Argent, a fess vaire or and gules, between three water bougets sable, as appears by the Roll of the reign of Richard II.

Present Representative, Frecheville-Lawson Ballantine-Dykes, Esq.

DERBYSHIRE.

Knightly.

Gresley of Drakelow, Baronet 1611.

"In point of stationary antiquity hardly any families in the kingdom can compare with the Gresleys," wrote the Topographer in 1789. In this county certainly none can claim precedence to the house of Drakelow; descended from Nigel, mentioned in Domesday, called de Stafford, and said to have been a younger son of Roger de Toni, standard-bearer in Normandy, it was very soon after the Conquest established in Derbyshire, first at Gresley, and immediately afterwards at Drakelow, in the same parish. The present is a younger branch, seated at Nether Seale, in Leicestershire, at the beginning of the eighteenth century.

See Leland's Itinerary in Coll. Topog. et Genealog. iii. 339; Nichols's History of Leicestershire, iii. pt. 2, p. 1009*; the Topographer, i. 432, 455, 474; Lysons, lxiii.; Wotton's Baronetage, i. 121; and Erdeswick's Staffordshire, ed 1844, p. 208.

Arms.—Vaire, ermine and gules. Allusive no doubt to the Ferrers,' under whom Drakelow was held anno 1200, by the service of a bow, quiver, and 12 arrows. The same coat was borne by Sir Geffray de Greseley in the reign of Edward I., and by Sir Peres de Gresle, in the reign of Edward II. (Rolls.) John de Greseley bore simply, Vair, argent and gules. (Roll Ric. II.)

Present Representative, Sir Thomas Gresley, 10th Baronet.

Fitzherbert of Norbury.

This ancient Norman house was seated at Norbury, by the grant of the Prior of Tutbury, in 1125, 25 Henry I. The principal male line becoming extinct in 1649, the succession went to a younger branch descended from William, third son of the celebrated Sir Anthony Fitzherbert the judge, who had seated themselves at Swinnerton, in Staffordshire, still the residence of this family.

Younger branch. Fitzherbert of Tissington, Baronet 1783, descended from Nicholas, younger son of John Fitzherbert of Somersall. See Topographer for a curious account of the pedigree and monuments, ii. 225, and Lysons, 217; for Fitzherbert of Tissington, Topographer and Genealogist, i. 362; Gent. Mag. lxvii. p. 645; Topographer, iii. 57; and Brydges's Collins, ix. 156.

Arms.—Argent, a chief vaire or and gules, over all a bend sable. This coat is also complimentary to Ferrers. The Tissington Fitzherberts have assumed a different coat, viz. Gules, three lions rampant or, from a fanciful notion of their descent from Henry Fitzherbert, Lord Chamberlain 5th Stephen, ancestor of the Herberts of Dean. The lions were assumed as early as 1569. See the Visitation of Derbyshire.

Present Representative, Basil Fitzherbert, Esq.

Curzon of Kedleston, Baron Scarsdale 1761, Baronet 1641.

This ancient family was seated at Kedleston as early as the reign of Henry I. It is said to be of Breton origin, and descended from Geraline, a great benefactor to the Abbey of Abingdon, in Berkshire, in which county the Curzons held lands soon after the Conquest.

Younger branches. Curzon Earl Howe 1821; Curzon of Parham, Sussex.

Extinct branches. Curzon of Croxall and Water-Perry, co. Oxford, and of Letheringset, Norfolk.

See Lysons, lii.; Brydges's Collins, vii. 294; Wotton's Baronetage, ii. 243.

Arms.—Argent, a bend sable, charged with three popinjays or, collared gules, borne by Monsr. Roger Curson in the reign of Richard II. Sir John Cursoun bore, Argent, a bend gules bezantée, in that of Edward II. (Rolls.) According to Burton's Collections quoted by Wotton, the more ancient coat was, Vair, or and gules, a border sable charged with popinjays argent: this was in compliment to William Earl Ferrers and Derby, who had granted to Stephen Curson the manor of Fauld, co. Stafford.

Present Representative, the Rev. Alfred Nathaniel Holden Curzon, 4th Baron Scarsdale.

Vernon of Sudbury, Baron Vernon 1762.

The Vernons were originally of Cheshire, and Barons of Shipbrooke, but became connected with Derbyshire by the heiress of Avenell's marriage with Richard Vernon in the 12th century; their son died s.p.m. leaving a daughter and heiress married to Gilbert le Francis, whose son Richard took the name of Vernon, seated himself at Haddon Hall in this county, and was the ancestor of the different branches of the House of Vernon. The Sudbury Vernons settled there in the reign of Henry VIII., and, by the extinction of the other lines, became in the end the chief of the family. Few houses have been more connected together by intermarriage than the Vernons.

Younger branches. The Vernon-Harcourts, now of Nuneham Courteney, co. Oxon; the Vernons of Hilton, Staffordshire; and the Vernon-Wentworths, of Wentworth Castle, Yorkshire.

See Lysons, liii.; Brydges's Collins, vii. 396; Topographer, ii. 217, for inscriptions to the Vernons at Sudbury, which came from the heiress of Montgomery: for Vernon of Houndhill, in the parish of Henbury, and of Harleston in Clifton Camville, see Shaw's Staffordshire, i. 87, 399, and the Topographer, ii. 11: and for Vernon of Tonge, Topographer, iii. 109, and Eyton's Antiquities of Shropshire, vol. ii. p. 191.

Arms.—Argent, fretty sable. This coat, with a quarter gules, was borne by Monsr. Richard Vernon in the reign of Richard II. (Roll.)

Present Representative, George John Warren, 5th Baron Vernon.

Pole of Radborne.

Originally from Newborough in Staffordshire, but from the fourteenth century established, through female descent, first at Hartington, and afterwards at Wakebridge, in this county. Radborne was inherited from the Chandos's, through the Lawtons, also in the fourteenth century. It came to the Chandos family from an heiress of Ferrers or "Fitz-Walkelin."

See Leland's Itinerary, vol. viii. fol. 70 a, and vol. iv. fol. 6; the Topographer, i. 280; Topographer and Genealogist, i. 176; and Lysons, xciv.

Arms.—Argent, a chevron between three crescents gules.

Present Representative, Edward Sacheverell Chandos Pole, Esq.

Cavendish of Hardwick, Duke of Devonshire 1694, Earl 1618, Baron 1605.

This family was originally from Cavendish Overhall, near Clare, in Suffolk, and is descended from Sir John Cavendish, who in the reign of Edward III. was Chief Justice of the King's Bench. It was John, a younger son of the Judge, who killed Wat Tyler, and from him the family are descended. But it was Sir William Cavendish, younger brother of George Cavendish, who had been Gentleman Usher to Wolsey, who may be called the real founder of the Cavendishes, by the great share of abbey lands which he obtained at the Dissolution of Monasteries, "and afterwards," adds Brydges, "by the abilities, rapacity, and good fortune of Elizabeth, his widow," the celebrated Countess of Shrewsbury. The Cavendishes first settled in Derbyshire by the marriage of this Sir William with "Bess of Hardwick," in 1544.

See Topographer, iii. 306; Brydges's Collins, i. 302; Collins's Noble Families.

Arms.—Sable, three buck's heads cabossed argent, attired or. Monsr. Andrew Cavendysh of this family bore, Sable, three crosses botonnée fitchée or, 2 and 1. (Roll Ric. II.)

Present Representative, William Cavendish, 7th Duke of Devonshire, and 2nd Earl of Burlington.

Harpur of Calke, Baronet 1626 (called Crewe).

This family was originally of Chesterton in Warwickshire, where it is traced as early as the reigns of Henry I. and II.

In right of Elianor, daughter and heir to William Grober, descended from Richard de Rushall, of Rushall, in Staffordshire, the Harpurs were afterwards seated at that place, but had no connection with Derbyshire till the reign of Elizabeth. Calke was purchased by Henry Harpur, Esq. in 1621.

See Dugdale's Warwickshire, 2nd ed, vol. i. 478; Shaw's History of Staffordshire, ii. 69; Wotton's Baronetage, ii. 1; Lysons, lxiii.

Arms.—Argent, a lion rampant within a border engrailed sable. This was the coat of Rushall; the arms of Harpur were a plain cross.

Present Representative, Sir John Harpur Crewe, 9th Baronet.

Burdett of Foremark, Baronet 1618.

The pedigree begins with Hugo de Burdet, who came into England with William I., and was lord of the manor of Loseby, in Leicestershire, in 1066. Arrow, in the county of Warwick, which came from the heiress of Camvile the 9th of Edward II., was long the seat of the Burdetts, but they had long before, as Dugdale shows, been connected by property with that county, William Burdett having founded the cell of Ancote, near Sekindon, in the fifth of Henry II. The manor of Arrow, and many other estates of this family, carried by an heiress to the Conways in the reign of Henry VII., became the fruitful cause of many lawsuits, which were not finally settled till the end of the reign of Henry VIII. See Dugdale for the curious details. Foremark was inherited from the heiress of Francis in 1602.

See Dugdale's Warwickshire, 2nd edit. ii. 847; Erdeswick's Staffordshire, ed. 1844, 462; Nichols's Leicestershire, iii. pt. 1. 351; Wotton's Baronetage, i. 327; and Lysons.

Arms.—Azure, two bars or. Sir William Burdett bore this coat in the reign of Edward II. Sir Robert the same, in the upper bar three martlets gules. (Roll Edw. II. under Leicestershire.) Sir Richard the same, with an orle of martlets gules. (Roll E. III.) Monsr, John Burdet the same, each bar charged with three martlets gules. (Roll Richard II.)

Present Representative, Sir Robert Burdett, 6th Baronet.

Cave of Stretton, Baronet 1641.

A family of great antiquity, which can be traced to the Conquest; originally of South and North Cave in Yorkshire. In the fifteenth century they removed into Northamptonshire and Leicestershire, and were long of Stanford, in the former county. The elder line of the Caves becoming extinct in 1810, the Baronetcy devolved on a younger branch, descended in the female line from the Brownes of Stretton, and from hence their connection with Derbyshire.

See Nichols's History of Leicestershire, vol. iv. part i. 350, for a curious account of this family, and for their monuments in Stanford Church, (the earliest of which is that for John Cave, who died in 1471;) Pedigree at p. 371; Wotton's Baronetage, ii. 164; Lysons, xviii.

Arms.—Azure, fretty argent. This coat was borne by "Monsire de Cave;" see the Roll of Arms of the reign of Edward III.

Present Representative, Sir Mylles Cave-Browne-Cave, 11th Baronet.

Colvile of Lullington.

This is an ancient Suffolk and Cambridgeshire family, and can be traced to the time of Henry I. The Colviles, Barons of Culross, in Scotland, are descended from a younger brother of the second progenitor of the family.

The manor of Newton-Colvile, acquired by the marriage of Sir Roger Colvile of Carleton Colvile in Suffolk, called "The Rapacious Knight," with the heiress of De Marisco, and held under the Bishop of Ely, continued in the Colviles from a period extending nearly from the Conquest to the year 1792, when it was sold, and the representative of this family, Sir Charles Colvile, settled in Derbyshire in consequence of his marriage with Miss Bonnel of Duffield. The head of the family was on the Royalist side in the reign of Charles I., and one of the intended Knights of the Royal Oak.

See Lysons's Cambridgeshire, 242; Blomefield's Norfolk; and Watson's History of Wisbeach.

Arms.—Azure, a lion rampant or, a label of five points gules. This coat, with the lion argent, was borne by Sir Geoffry de Colville in the reign of Edward II., and without the label by Monsr. John Colvyle in that of Richard II. (Rolls of Arms of the dates.) Sir Roger de Colvile bore the present coat with a label of three points only, in 1240; as appears by his seal to a deed of that date.

Present Representative, Charles R. Colvile, Esq. M.P. for South Derbyshire.

Gentle.

Coke of Trusley.

This is a younger branch of the old house of the Cokes of Trusley, a family of considerable antiquity. The elder line became extinct in 1718. The present family are descended from the Cokes of Suckley in Worcestershire. The Cokes were originally of Staffordshire, but settled in Derbyshire in consequence of a match with one of the coheiresses of Odingsells of Trusley, in the middle of the fifteenth century.

There is a younger branch of this family at Lower Moor, in Herefordshire. The Cokes of Melbourn were also a younger branch, from whom the Lambs, Viscounts Melbourne, were descended.

See Lysons, lxxxi.

Arms.—Gules, three crescents and a canton or.

Present Representative, Edward Thomas Coke, Esq.

Thornhill of Stanton, in the Parish of Youlgrave.

Descended from the Thornhills of Thornhill in the Peak, where they were seated as early as the seventh of Edward I. Stanton was inherited from an heiress of Bache in 1697.

See Lysons, xcvii.

ARMS, confirmed in 1734.—Gules, two bars gemelles and a chief argent, thereon a mascle sable. This coat, without the mascle, was borne by M. Bryan de Thornhill in the reign of Edward III. (Roll.)

Present Representative, William Pole Thornhill, Esq. late M.P. for North Derbyshire.

Abney of Measham.

This is a younger branch of a family who were seated at Willersley, by a match with the heiress of Ingwardby at the beginning of the fifteenth century. Willersley was the property of the late Sir Charles Abney Hastings by female descent. Measham is a purchase of about a century.

See Lysons, cxii.

Arms.—Or, on a chief gules a lion passant argent. Lysons however gives, Argent, on a cross sable five bezants.

Present Representative, William Wotton-Abney, Esq.

DEVONSHIRE.

Knightly.

Fulford of Fulford, in the parish of Dunsford.

There is every reason to believe that the ancestors of this venerable family have resided at Fulford from the time of the Conquest. Three knights of the house distinguished themselves in the wars of the Holy Land. William de Fulford, who held Fulford in the reign of Richard I., is the first ascertained ancestor. Sir Baldwin Fulford, a leading Lancastrian, was beheaded at Bristol in 1461.

See Prince's Worthies of Devon, ed. 1701, p. 298, for description of Fulford; Westcote's Devonshire Pedigrees, p. 612; Lysons, cxlv. 171.

Arms.—Gules, a chevron argent.

Present Representative, Baldwin Fulford, Esq.

Courtenay of Powderham Castle, Earl of Devon 1553, restored 1831.

This illustrious house is descended from Reginald de Courtenay, who came over to England with Henry II. A.D. 1151, and, having married the daughter and heiress of the hereditary sheriff of Devonshire, became immediately connected with this county. The Earldom of Devon was first conferred on the Courtenays in 1335, by reason of their descent from William de Redvers, Earl of Devon, The Powderham branch springs from Sir Philip, sixth son of Hugh second Earl of Devon.

See Brydges's Collins, vi. 214; Lysons, lxxxvii.; Westcote's Devonshire Pedigrees, 570, &c.; Journal of Arch. Institute, x. 52; and Sir Harris Nicolas's Earldom of Devon.

Arms.—Or, three torteauxes.

This coat, with a bend azure, was borne by Sir Philip de Courtenay in the reign of Edward II. (Roll.) And the same, with a label azure, by Hugh de Courtenay in 1300. See the Roll of Carlaverock, and Sir Harris Nicolas's notes, p. 193. This label was, he remarks, charged by respective branches of the family with mitres, crescents, lozenges, annulets, fleurs-de-lis, guttees, and plates, and with a bend over all. See also Willement's Heraldic Notices in Canterbury Cathedral.

Present Representative, William Reginald Courtenay, 11th Earl of Devon.

Edgcumbe of Edgcumbe, in the parish of Milton Abbot's.

Richard Edgcumbe was Lord of Edgcumbe in 1292, and was the direct ancestor of this venerable family, the present representative being twentieth in lineal descent from this first Richard.

In the reign of Edward III. William Edgcumbe, second son of the house of Edgcumbe, having married the heiress of Cotehele, in the parish of Calstock, removed into Cornwall, and was the ancestor of the Edgcumbes of Cotehele and Mount Edgcumbe, Earls of Mount Edgcumbe (1789).

Another younger branch was of Brompton, or Brampton, in Kent.

See Prince's Worthies of Devon, ed. 1701, p. 281; Gilbert's Survey of Cornwall, 4to. 1820, vol. i. p. 444; Carew's Cornwall, 1st ed., p. 99 b and 114 a; Brydges's Collins, v. 306; and Lysons's Cornwall, lxxiii. 212, 53.

Arms.—Gules, on a bend ermine cotised or three boar's heads couped argent.

Present Representative, Richard D. Edgcumbe, Esq.

Chichester of Youlston, in the parish of Sherwill, formerly of Ralegh, in the parish of Pilton; Baronet 1641.

This ancient family is said to have taken its name from Cirencester, in Gloucestershire, the residence of its remote ancestors. The Chichesters were, however, as early as the reign of Henry III. of the county of Devon, although Ralegh came to them at a later period from an heiress of that name; Youlston, the present seat, from an heiress of Beaumont in the time of Henry VII. John de Cirencester, living in the 20th of Henry I. is said to have been the first recorded ancestor.

Younger branches. Chichester of Hall, in Bishop's-Towton; seated at Hall, from an heiress of that name in the 15th century, Chichester of Arlington, since the reign of Henry VII.; and Chichester, Marquis of Donegal, descended from Edward, 3rd son of Sir John Chichester, in the reign of Elizabeth, &c.

See Prince's Worthies of Devon, ed. 1701, pp. 135, 199; Westcote's Devonshire, 303, and Pedigrees, 604, &c., Wotton's Baronetage, ii. 226; Brydges's Collins, viii. 177; Shaw's Staffordshire, i. 374; Lysons, cxi. 440; and Archdall's Lodge's Peerage, ii. 314.

Arms.—Cheeky or and gules, a chief vair.

Present Representative, Sir Arthur Chichester, 8th Baronet.

Fortescue of Castle Hill, Earl Fortescue 1789.

Like the Chichesters, an ancient and wide-spreading family, settled at Wymodeston, now called Winston, in the parish of Modbury, in the year 1209. "This was," writes Sir William Pole, "the most ancient seat of the Fortescues, in whose possession it continued from the days of King John to the Reign of Queen Elizabeth."

There are many younger branches of this family, both in England and Ireland, "to rank which in their seniority, and by delineating the descent to give every man his dew place, surpasseth, I freely confesse, my ability at the present." (Westcote's MSS. quoted by The Topographer, i. 178.) The great glory of this house is Sir John Fortescue, Lord Chief Justice of England in the reign of Henry VI. and the author of' the work "Of absolute and limited Monarchy."

Among the principal younger branches were the Fortescues of Buckland Filleigh and Fortescue of Fallopit in this county, both extinct in the male line, and the Fortescues of the county of Louth in Ireland, represented by the Barons Clermont.

See Westcote's Devonshire Pedigrees, 498, 625, &c.; Prince's Worthies, ed. 1701, 304; Brydges's Collins, v. 335; Lysons, lxxxv.

Arms.—Azure, a bend engrailed argent cotised or.

Present Representative, Hugh Fortescue, 3rd Earl Fortescue.

Cary of Torr-Abbey, in the parish of Tor-Mohun.

An ancient family, the history of which however is involved in great obscurity, supposed by some to have come from Castle Cary, in Somersetshire, by others from Cary, in the parish of St. Giles's in the Heath, near Launceston. It was certainly of the latter place in the reign of Edward I.

Cockington in this county was, previous to the Civil Wars of the seventeenth century, the principal seat of the family. Torr-Abbey was purchased by Sir George Cary, Knt. in 1662.

Younger branches. Cary of Follaton, in this county. In the county of Donegal and in that of Cork, and in Guernsey, there are families which claim to be branches of the House of Cary. The present Viscounts Falkland, and the extinct Barons Hunsdon, descend from the second marriage of Sir William Cary, of Cockington, in the time of Henry VII.

See Prince's Worthies, p. 196; Westcote's Devonshire Families, 507, &c.; Lysons, cxxxviii. 524; and Clutterbuck's Hertfordshire, i. 129. For Cary Viscount Falkland, see The Herald and Genealogist, vol. iii.; and for Cary Baron Hunsdon, the same work, vol. iv.

Arms.—Argent, on a bend sable three roses of the first seeded proper, said to have been the arms of a Knight of Arragon, vanquished by Sir Robert Cary in single combat in the reign of Henry V.

Present Representative, Robert Shedden Sulyarde Cary, Esq.

Carew of Haccombe, Baronet 1661.

About the year 1300, by the marriage of Sir John de Carru with a coheiress of Mohun, this ancient family first became connected with the county of Devon. The Carews are descended from Gerald, son of Walter de Windsor, who lived in the reign of Henry I., which Walter was son of Otho, in the time of William the Conqueror. Haccombe was inherited from an heiress of Courtenay, and was settled on this the second branch of the family in the fifteenth century.

The extinct families of Carew of Bickleigh and Carew Earl of Totnes were descended from Sir Thomas Carew, elder brother of Nicholas, the first of the Haccombe line. The present Lord Carew, of Ireland, represents, in fact the elder line of this family, being descended from a nephew of the Earl of Totnes. Carew of Antony, Baronet (1641), now extinct, was a younger branch of the house of Haccombe.

See Leland's Itin., iii. fol. 40; Prince's Worthies of Devon, 148, 176, 204; Westcote's Devonshire, 440; Pedigrees, 528; Wotton's Baronetage, iii. 323; Lysons, cxiv. For notices of a branch of this family formerly seated in the county of Cork, see Coll. Topog. and Genealog. v. 95; see also Nicolas's Roll of Carlaverock, p. 154, and Maclean's Life of Sir Peter Carew, London, 8vo. 1857.

Arms.—Or, three lions passant sable. This coat was borne by Sir Nicholas Carru in 1300. (Roll of Carlaverock.) Sir John de Carru, the same, with a label gules, in the reign of Edward II; and by M. de Carrew in that of Edward III. (Rolls.)

Present Representative, Sir Walter Palk Carew, 8th Baronet.

Kelly of Kelly.

Kelly is a manor in the hundred of Lifton and deanery of Tavistock, and lies on the borders of Cornwall, about six miles from Tavistock. The manor and advowson have been in the family of Kelly at least since the time of Henry II., and here they have uninterruptedly resided since that very early period.

See Westcote's Pedigrees, p. 540; Lysons, cl. 296.

Arms.—Argent, a chevron between three billets gules.

Present Representative, Arthur Kelly, Esq.

Pole of Shute, Baronet 1628.

This is an ancient Cheshire family, who settled in the county of Devon in the reign of Richard II., Arthur Pole, their ancestor, having married the heiress of Pole of Honiton. The representative of the family, the learned antiquary Sir William Pole, resided at Chute in the early part of the seventeenth century, though the fee of that manor, once the inheritance of the noble family of Bonvile, did not belong to the Poles till it was purchased by Sir John Pole, Baronet, in 1787.

See Prince's Worthies of Devon, p. 504; Wotton's Baronetage, ii. 124; Lysons, cix. 442.

Arms.—Azure, semée of fleurs-de-lis or, a lion rampant argent.

Present Representative, Sir John George Reeve De-la-Pole Pole, 8th Baronet.

Clifford of Ugbrooke, Baron Clifford of Chudleigh 1672.

An illustrious Norman family, traced to the Conquest, of which the extinct Earls of Cumberland were the chiefs, first connected with Devonshire by the marriage of Thomas, fourth grandson of Sir Louis Clifford, who died in 1404, with a daughter of John Thorpe of King's Teignton.

Ugbrooke came from an heiress of Courtenay, in the reign of Elizabeth. The peerage was conferred by Charles II. on the Lord Treasurer Clifford, one of the celebrated CABAL.

Sir Thomas Clifford-Constable, Baronet (1815), represents a younger branch of this family, descended from Thomas, fourth son of the fourth Lord Clifford.

See "Cliffordiana," by the Rev. G. Oliver, Exeter, 8vo., and "Collectanea Cliffordiana," Paris, 1817, 8vo.; Erdeswick's Staffordshire, edit. 1844, 73; and for the Earls of Cumberland, and their ancestors the Lords Clifford, see Whitaker's admirable account in his "Craven," ed. 1812, 240, &c., see also Queen's Coll. Ox. MS. cv. for "Evidences of the Cliffords;" Brydges's Collins, vii. 117, and Lysons, xci.; and for the early history of this family, Eyton's Antiquities of Shropshire, vol. v. p. 146.

Arms.—Checky or and azure, a fess gules. Borne by Roger de Clifford in the reign of Henry III., and by Walter de Clifford at the same period, instead of a fess, a bend gules. Sir Robert de Clifford, in the reigns of Edward II. and III. bore the present coat. Sir Lewis de Clifford, in the time of Richard II. differenced his coat by a border gules. (Rolls.) See also the Roll of Carlaverock, p. 195.

Present Representative, Hugh Charles Clifford, 8th Baron Clifford of Chudleigh.

Harington of Dartington (called Champernowne).

This is a younger line of the ancient and noble family of Harington, formerly of Ridlington, in the county of Rutland, created Baronet in 1611, and still represented by Sir John Edward Harington, the tenth Baronet: the name is local, from Harington in Cumberland, from whence Robert Harington was called in the reign of Henry III.

A younger branch of the Haringtons was fixed at Ridlington by purchase in the first year of Philip and Mary; but had been seated at Exton in the same county from the reign of Henry VII. Sir James Harington, third Baronet, was attainted in the 13th of Charles II., having been named as one of the Judges of his sovereign Charles I. He sat however only one day, and refused to sign the fatal warrant. Dartington, the ancient seat of the Champernowne family, was carried by an heiress, Jane, only daughter of Arthur Champernowne, Esq., the last heir male of the family, to the Rev. Richard Harington, second son of Sir James Harington, Baronet, grandfather of the present representative, and who assumed her name.

See Wright's History of the County of Rutland, pp. 48, 108; Blore's Rutlandshire; and Courthope's Debrett's Baronetage, p. 10. Arms.—Sable, fretty argent.

Present Representative, Arthur Champernowne, Esq.

Gentle.

Bastard of Kitley, in the parish of Yealmton, or Yalmeton.

Descended from Robert Bastard, who held several manors in this county in the reign of William I. For several generations Efford, in the parish of Egg-Buckland, was the seat of this family, but in the early part of the seventeenth century the hereditary estates were sold, and they were of Wolston and Garston, in West Allington. About the beginning of the eighteenth century Kitley, the present seat, was inherited from the heiress of Pollexfen.

In 1779, William Bastard, Esq., the representative of this family, was gazetted a Baronet: the honour, which was declined by Mr. Bastard, was intended as an acknowledgment of his services in raising men to defend Plymouth in 1779.

See Lysons, cxxxi, and 577.

Arms.—Or, a chevron azure.

Present Representative, Baldwin John Pollexfen Bastard, Esq.

Acland of Acland, Baronet 1644.

Acland, which gave name to this ancient family, is now a farm in the parish of Landkey; it is thus described in Westcote's Devonshire, (p. 290:) "Then Landkey, or Londkey; and therein Acland, or rather Aukeland, as taking name from a grove of oaks, for by such an one the house is seated, and hath given name and long habitation to the clarous family of the Aclands, which have many ages here flourished in a worshipful degree." Hugh de Accalen is the first recorded ancestor; he was living in 1155; from whom the present Sir Thomas Dyke Acland is twenty-second in lineal descent. Killerton, in the parish of Broad-Clist, purchased at the beginning of the seventeenth century, is the present seat of the family. Columb-John, an ancient Elizabethan mansion in the same parish, now pulled down, was the earlier residence of the Aclands, who were remarkable for their royalty during the Civil Wars.

Younger branch. Acland of Fairfield, Baronet 1818.

See Gilbert's Survey of Cornwall, i. 559; Prince's Worthies of Devon, p. 18; Wotton's Baronetage, ii. 407; and Lysons, cxiii.

Arms.—Checky argent and sable, a fess gules. This coat was borne by M. John Acland, as appears by the Roll of Arms of the reign of Richard II. According to Prince, three oak-leaves on a bend between two lions rampant, was also borne at this time by this family.

Present Representative, Sir Thomas Dyke-Acland, 10th Baronet.

Bamfylde of Poltimore, Baron Poltimore 1831, Baronet 1641.

John Baumfield, the ancestor of this family, became possessed of Poltimore in the reign of Edward I.; but the pedigree can be traced three generations before that period.

A younger branch was of Hardington in Somersetshire, extinct about the beginning of the eighteenth century.

For the story of the heir of the Bamfyldes taken away and recovered, see Prince's Worthies of Devon, p. 121; see also Westcote's Devonshire Pedigrees, p. 492; Wotton's Baronetage, ii. 188; and Lysons, cx.

Arms.—Or, on a bend gules three mullets argent.

Present Representative, Augustus Frederick George Warwick Bampfylde, 2nd Baron Poltimore.

Northcote of Pynes, Baronet 1641.

Descended from Galfridus, who was of Northcote, in the parish of East-Downe, in the twelfth century. Hayne, in the parish of Newton St. Cyres, was afterwards acquired by marriage with the heiress of Drew. Pynes was inherited from the heiress of' Stafford, originally Stowford, early in the last century.

See Lysons, pp. cx. 361, 545, and Wotton's Baronetage; ii. 206.

Arms.—Argent, three cross-crosslets botonny in bend sable. Used on seals in the reign of Henry VI. The earliest coat, used till the time of Edward III. was Or, a chief gules fretty of the first. Afterwards, Argent, a fess between three cross molines sable. In 1571, Robert Cooke, Clarencieux, is said to have granted, according to the foolish custom of the day, another coat to Walter Northcote of Crediton, grandfather or uncle of the 1st Baronet, viz.: Or, on a pale argent three bends sable. Sir William Pole mentions another coat, Or, three spread eaglets gules, on a chief sable three escallops of the first. But this appears to be a mistake.—From the information of the present Baronet.

Present Representative, Sir Stafford Henry Northcote, 8th Baronet, M.P. for Stamford.

Fursdon of Fursdon, in the parish of Cadbury.

From the days of Henry III. if not from an earlier period, this ancient family has resided at the place from whence the name is derived.

See the Visitation of Devon, 1620, Harl. MS. 1080. fo. 4; Lysons, cxlv. and 92.

Arms.—Argent, a chevron azure between three fireballs proper.

Present Representative, George Fursdon, Esq.

Strode of Newenham, in the parish of Plympton St. Mary.

Originally of Strode, in the parish of Ermington, where Adam de Strode, the first recorded ancestor, was seated in the reign of Henry III, In that of Henry IV. by the marriage of the coheiress of Newenham of Newenham, they became possessed of that place, since the seat of the family. "A right ancient and honourable family," says Prince; it may also be called an historical one, William Strode, of this house, being one of the Five Members of the House of Commons demanded by Charles I. in 1641.

See Prince's Worthies, p. 563; Westcote's Pedigrees, p. 542; Lysons, clv.

Arms.—Argent, a chevron between three conies sable.

Present Representative, George Strode, Esq.

Walrond of Dulford in the parish of Broad Hembury.

This is a younger branch of an ancient family seated at Bradfield, in Uffculm, as early as the reign of Henry III, For many years the Walronds, living at their venerable mansion of Bradfield, were a powerful family in Devonshire. The male line of this the principal branch has become extinct since the time of Lysons, and the representation devolved on the present family, descended from Colonel Humphry Walrond, a distinguished Loyalist during the Civil Wars of the seventeenth century. On the fall of the Royal Cause he emigrated to Barbadoes, of which island with the aid of other Royalists he made himself Governor. Philip IV. of Spain conferred upon him the title of Marques de Vallado, and other Spanish honours, for, as the still existing patent states, "services rendered to the Spanish Marine."

See Lysons, clviii. and 540; Westcote's Devonshire Pedigrees, p. 484.

Arms.—Argent, three bull's heads cabossed sable.

Present Representative, Bethell Walrond, Esq.

Bellew of Court, in the parish of Stockleigh-English.

This is a younger branch of the great Anglo-Irish family of Bellew of Bar-meath, in the county of Meath, settled in Devonshire in the reign of Edward IV., in consequence of a marriage with one of the coheiresses of Fleming of Bratton-Fleming.

See the Visitations of Devon in 1564 and 1620: Lysons, cxxxiv. and 455.

Arms.—Sable, fretty or, a crescent for difference.

Present Representative, John Prestwood Bellew, Esq.

Drewe of Grange, in the parish of Broad Hembury.

The name is derived from Drogo or Dru, and is supposed to be Norman. The first proved ancestor of the family however is William Drewe, who married an heiress of Prideaux of Orcheston in this county, and appears to have lived about the beginning of the fourteenth century. His son was of Sharpham, also in Devonshire. The present seat was erected by Sir Thomas Drewe in 1610.

Younger branches of this family were of Drew's Cliffe and High Hayne in Newton St. Cyres.

See Lysons, cxliii. and 266; Westcote's Pedigrees, 582-3; and the Topographer and Genealogist, ii. 209, for the Drews of Ireland, descended from a second son of the house of Drew's Cliffe, who came to Ireland, and settled at Meanus, in the county of Kerry, in 1633; see also Prince's Worthies, 1st ed. p. 249.

Arms.—Ermine, a lion passant gules.

Present Representative, Edward Simcoe Drewe, Esq.

Buller of Downes, in the parish of Crediton.

This is the head of the wide-spread family of Buller, of which there are several branches in the Western counties. The first recorded ancestor appears to be Ralph Buller, who in the fourteenth century was seated at Woode, in the hundred of South Petherton, and county of Somerset, by an heiress of Beauchamp. They became possessed of Lillesdon, in the same county, and afterwards, by an heiress of Trethurffe, we find them at Tregarrick, in Cornwall, but were not till the eighteenth century of Downes, which came from the coheiress of Gould.

Younger branches. Buller of Morval and of Lanreath, both in the county of Cornwall. Buller of Lupton, in this county, Baronet 1790, Baron Churston 1858.

See Lysons, cxxxvi.; Carew's Cornwall, ed. 1st, p. 133 b; and Gilbert's Survey of Cornwall, ii. 38.

Arms.—Sable, on a plain cross argent, quarter pierced, four eagles of the field.

Present Representative, James Wentworth Buller, Esq.

Huyshe of Sand.

Originally of Doniford, in Somersetshire, where John de Hywish is said to have been seated in the early part of the thirteenth century. Sand, in the parish of Sidbury, came by purchase to an ancestor of the family in the reign of Elizabeth; and, although we find it in Lysons's List of the Decayed Mansions of the County of Devon, it still remains the inheritance of this ancient family.

See Lysons, cxlix. v. 144, and Burke's History of the Commoners, 1st ed. vol. iv. p. 409.

Arms.—Argent, on a bend sable three lutes naiant of the first.

Present Representative, the Rev. John Huyshe.

DORSETSHIRE.

Knightly.

Bingham of Bingham's Melcombe.

Sir John de Bingham, Knight, who lived in the reign of Henry I., is the first recorded ancestor of this ancient family; he was of Sutton, in the county of Somerset. Melcombe was inherited from an heiress of Turberville in the time of Henry III., and has been ever since the residence of the Binghams, of whom the most remarkable was Sir Richard, a younger son of the head of the family in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, who greatly distinguished himself in Ireland.

Younger branch. The Earls of Lucan in the Peerage of Ireland (1795) descended from George, fourth son of Robert Bingham and Alice Coker, and younger brother of Sir Richard.

See Hutchins's History of Dorset, vol. iv. 202; and Archdall's Lodge's Peerage of Ireland, vii. 104.

Arms.—Azure, a bend cotised between six crosses patée or.

Present Representative, Richard Hippisley Bingham, Esq.

Russell of Kingston-Russell, Duke of Bedford 1694, Earl of Bedford 1550.

Although this family may be said to have made their fortune in the reign of Henry VII., first by Mr. John Russell's accidental meeting with Philip Archduke of Austria, and his consequent introduction to the King, and secondly by the large share of ecclesiastical plunder acquired by this same John at the Dissolution of the Monasteries, yet there is no reason to doubt that the Russells are sprung from a younger branch of an ancient baronial family, of whom the elder line were known by the name of Gorges, and were Barons of Parliament in the time of Edward III.

The Russells were seated at Kingston as early as the reign of Henry III.

See Wiffen's House of Russell, and Brydges's Collins, i. 266, &c.

Arms.—Argent, a lion rampant gules, on a chief sable three escallops of the first.

Present Representative, William Russell, 8th Duke of Bedford, K.G.

An ancient Leicestershire family, to be traced nearly to the Conquest, and supposed to be of Saxon origin. The name is derived from Digby, in Lincolnshire; but Tilton, in the county of Leicester, where AElmar, the first recorded ancestor of the Digbys, held lands in 1086, also gave name to the earlier generations of the family. These ancient possessions have long ceased to belong to the Digbys; and by the will of the last Earl Digby, who died in 1856, the manor of Coleshill, in Warwickshire, granted by Henry VII. to Simon Digby, and the Castle of Sherborne, in Dorsetshire, have also been alienated from the male line of the family.

There have been several branches of the Digbys both in England and Ireland, besides the extinct Earls of Bristol. During the seventeenth century the history of the family, as evinced in the lives of the celebrated Sir Kenelm Digby and the Earl of Bristol, is very r