Chapter IV: Part 4

Originally of Northumberland, where the family were seated at an early period. The first recorded ancestor is Sir Robert de Maners, who obtained a grant of land in Berrington in 1327, and was M.P. for Northumberland in 1340. His son William Maners, of Etal, died before 1324, which estate appears to have been inherited from an heiress of Muschamp. At the end of the fifteenth century, by marriage with the heiress of the baronial family of Roos, the house of Manners came into possession of the Castle of Belvoir. In the succeeding century, a fortunate match with the heiress of Vernon of Haddon still further increased the wealth and importance of this noble family.

The royal title of Rutland, which had belonged to the house of York, was conferred upon Thomas Lord Roos in 1525 as the grandson of the lady Anne of York, sister to King Edward the Fourth.

An extinct branch was from the time of Henry VIII. for a long period of Newmanor House, in the parish of Framlington, in Durham. Another branch of the Etal family was of Cheswick, in the same county, extinct after 1633.

See Raine's North Durham, 211, 230; Nichols's Leicestershire, ii. pt. i. 67; and Brydges's Collins, i. 454.

ARMS.--_Or, two bars azure; a chief quarterly azure and gules, on the_ 1_st and_ 4_th two fleurs-de-lis, on the_ 2_nd and_ 3_rd a leopard of England of the first_; the chief being an augmentation granted by Henry VIII. The ancient arms, no doubt founded on those of the Muschamp family, were, _Or, two bars azure, a chief gules_. See the Rolls of the reign of Edward II. and Richard III.

Present Representative, Charles Cecil John Manners, sixth Duke of Rutland.

ALINGTON OF SWINHOPE.

This is a branch of the extinct family of the Lords Alington, of Horseheath, in Cambridgeshire, who were originally of Alington, in the same county, soon after the Conquest. The family descend from a younger son of Sir Giles Alington, and were seated at Swinhope in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.

See Clutterbuck's History of Hertfordshire, ii. 542; and Collectanea Topog. et Genealog. iv. 33-53, and note 2, p. 39. For Horseheath, see Topographer, ii. 374.

ARMS.--_Sable, a bend engrailed between six billets argent_.

Present Representative, George Marmaduke Alington, Esq.

+Gentle.+

THOROLD OF MARSTON, BARONET 1642.

It has been supposed, but without any evidence or authority, that this family is descended from Thorold, Sheriff of Lincolnshire in 1052, and that consequently it may claim Saxon origin. There is however no doubt that this is a family of very great antiquity, and seated at Marston as early as the reign of Henry I.

See Wotton's Baronetage, ii. 338, and iv. 250.

ARMS.--_Sable, three goats salient argent_.

Present Representative, Sir John Charles Thorold, 11th Baronet.

LANGTON OF LANGTON.

"Langton, Sir," exclaimed Dr. Johnson, alluding to his friend Bennet Langton of Langton, at that time the accomplished head of this very ancient family, "has a grant of free warren from Henry the Second, and Cardinal Stephen Langton in King John's reign was of this family." The name is derived from Langton-by-Spilsby in Lincolnshire, a manor which has remained to the present day the inheritance of this house, who are descended in the female line from the Massingberds of Sutterton in this county.

Younger branch. The Langton-Massingberds of Gunby.

See Allen's History of the County of Lincoln, ii. 175; and Boswell's Life of Johnson, ed. 1836, i. 294.

ARMS.--_Paly of six argent and sable, a bend or_.

Present Representative, Bennet Rothes Langton, Esq.

MASSINGBERD OF WRANGLE.

This very ancient family is descended from Lambert Massyngberd of Soterton, now Sutterton, in this county, who lived in the reign of Edward I. and has ever since remained in Lincolnshire. In the latter part of the fifteenth century, by the marriage of Sir Thomas Massyngberd with the heiress of Braytoft of Braytoft Hall in Gunby, the Massingberds removed to that place, which became the principal seat of their descendants. Ormsby, purchased from the Skipwiths in 1636, and afterwards Gunby Hall, built by Sir William Massingberd, the 2nd Baronet of this family, in 1699, was their principal residence, till it went by an heiress to a younger branch of the Langtons, who have assumed the name. Wrangle is a recent purchase in this county by the present representative of the male line of the family. The Massingberds early embraced the Reformed faith. Thomas Massingberd, the last representative for Calais in 1552, "fled abroad for his religion" under Mary. Nevertheless his descendant, William Burrell Massingberd of Ormsby, joined Prince Charles Edward at Derby: a miniature given to him by the Prince is still in the family. Ormsby belongs at present to a younger branch of the Mundys of Markeaton in Derbyshire, who have assumed the name of Massingberd.

See the Genealogy of this House, a MS. by Robert Dale, Suffolk Herald, compiled about the year 1718, and still at Ormsby; and Allen's History of the County, under Ormsby and Gunby.

ARMS.--_Azure, three quatrefoils (two and one,) and in chief a boar passant or, charged on the shoulder with a cross patée gules_, with which the following coat is generally quartered, said to be the arms assumed by Sir Thomas Massingberd, Knight of St. John, in the reign of Henry VIII. _Quarterly or and argent, on a cross humetté gules, between four lions rampant sable, two escallops of the first_.

Present Representative, The Rev. Francis Charles Massingberd.

MONSON OF BURTON, BARON MONSON 1728, BARONET 1611.

"In the Isle" of Axholme "be now there 4 gentilmen of name, Sheffild, Candisch, Evers, and _Mounsun_. The lands of one Bellewodde became by marriage to this Mounson, a younger son to old Mounson of Lincolnshire. This old Mounson is in a maner the first avauncer of his family." Thus wrote Leland in his Itinerary. The Monsons however are clearly traced to the year 1378, as resident at East-Reson, in this county. They were afterwards seated at South Carlton, a village adjacent to Burton.

See Leland's Itin., i. fol. 42; Allen's Lincolnshire, ii. 57; and Brydges's Collins, vii. 228.

ARMS.--_Or, two chevronels gules_.

Present Representative, William John Monson, 7th Baron Monson.

WHICHCOTE OF ASWARBY, BARONET 1660.

This is an ancient Shropshire house descended from William de Whichcote, of Whichcote, in that county, in 1255. In the reign of Edward IV., by marriage with the heiress of Tyrwhitt, the family became possessed of Harpswell in this county, which for a long time continued the residence of the Whichcotes.

See Wotton's Baronetage, iii. 13; and Allen's History of Lincolnshire, i. 38.

ARMS.--_Ermine, two boars passant in pale gules_.

Present Representative, Sir Thomas Whichcote, 7th Baronet.

ANDERSON OF BROCKLESBY, EARL OF YARBOROUGH 1837, BARON YARBOROUGH 1794.

Roger Anderson of Wrawby, in this county, Esquire, living in the latter part of the fourteenth century, and who came from Northumberland, stands at the head of the pedigree. His great-grandson Henry, also of Wrawby, was grandfather of Sir Edmund Anderson of Flixborough, Knight, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, who died in 1605. He was the ancestor of the present family, and of Sir Charles Anderson of Broughton in Lincolnshire, Baronet 1660, and of the Andersons of Eyworth in Bedfordshire, Baronets 1664, extinct in 1773. Brocklesby came from an heiress of Pelham, a younger branch of the Pelhams Earls of Chichester.

See Wotton's English Baronetage, vol. iii. p. 191, vol. iv. p. 427, and "The History of Lea," printed in 1841.

ARMS.--_Argent, a chevron between three crosses flory sable_.

Present Representative, Charles Anderson Pelham, 3rd Earl of Yarborough.

BERTIE OF UFFINGTON, EARL OF LINDSEY 1626.

The ancient extraction of the Berties from Berstead in the county of Kent is proved by the Thurnham charters in the possession of Sir Edward Dering, and by various public records of undoubted authority; and, although the exact line of pedigree is by no means clear, there appears no reason to doubt the descent of this "undefamed house" from John or Bartholomew de Bereteghe, who were living in the 35th of Edward I. The marriage of Richard Bertie son of Robert, who died in 1500, with Katherine daughter of William Willoughby, last Lord Willoughby of Eresby, and widow of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, was, as is well known, the origin of the consequence of this right loyal family, five generations of whose history have been so agreeably illustrated by Lady Georgiana Bertie. Grimsthorpe, inherited from the Duchess of Suffolk from her paternal Willoughby ancestors, became the principal seat of the Berties, Barons Willoughby of Eresby and Lords Great Chamberlains of England, advanced in the person of Robert second Lord Willoughby to the Earldom of Lindsey by King Charles I. His great-grandson was created Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven in 1715, which titles became extinct on the decease of the fifth Duke in 1809. The Earldom of Lindsey and representation of the family thereupon devolved on the father of the present Earl, descended from the fifth son of the second Earl of Lindsey by his first wife.

Younger branch, the Earl of Abingdon 1682, Baron Norreys of Rycote 1572, descended from the second marriage of the second Earl of Lindsey and the heiress of Wray, whose mother was the sole heir of Francis Norreys, Earl of Berkshire, and Lord Norreys of Rycote.

See Lady G. Bertie's "Five Generations of a Loyal House," 4to. 1845, and Brydges's Collins, vol. ii. p. 1, vol. iii. 628.

ARMS.--_Argent, three battering rams barways in pale azure, armed and garnished or_. The "docquet or grant" in the fourth of Edward VI. gives the arms, _Quarterly,_ 1 _and_ 4, _Argent, a battering ram azure, garnished or;_ 2 _and_ 3, _Sable a tower argent_.

Present Representative, George Augustus Frederick Albemarle Bertie, 10th Earl of Lindsey.

NORFOLK.

+Knightly.+

WODEHOUSE OF KIMBERLEY, BARON WODEHOUSE 1797, BARONET 1611.

"This family is very ancient, for they were gentlemen of good ranke in the time of King John, as it appeareth by many ancient grants and evidences of theirs which I have seen," wrote Peacham in his "Compleate Gentleman," in 1634. (p. 191.) The name is local, being derived from Wodehouse in Silfield, in this county; but as early as the reign of Henry III. the family had property in Kimberley, and in that of Henry IV. the manor was also inherited from the heiress of Fastolff.

See Blomefield's Norfolk, ed. 1739, vol. i. p. 751, for long extracts from the curious old pedigree in verse; Wotton's Baronetage, i. 164; and Brydges's Collins's Peerage, viii. 562.

ARMS.--_Sable, a chevron or, guttée de sang, between three cinquefoils ermine_. This coat is said to have been augmented as now borne, by Henry V. in honour of John Wodehouse's valour at the Battle of Agincourt, the _guttée de sang_, not at present considered very good heraldry, being then added. The supporters, two wode or wild men, were also, it has been said, then first used.

Present Representative, John Wodehouse, 3rd Baron Wodehouse, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.

WALPOLE OF WOLTERTON, EARL OF ORFORD 1806, BARON 1723.

Walpole, in Mershland, in this county, gave name to this historical family, and here Joceline de Walpole was living in the reign of Stephen. Reginald de Walpole, in the time of Henry I. seems to have been lineal ancestor of the house. He was father of Richard, who married Emma, daughter of Walter de Hawton, or Houghton, which at a very early period became the family seat, and which, after the death of the third Earl of the first creation, passed to the issue of his aunt Mary, Viscountess Malpas, daughter of Sir Robert Walpole; whose descendant, the Marquess of Cholmondeley, is the present possessor.

See Blomefield, iii. 796, and iv. 708; also Brydges's Collins, v. 631.

ARMS.--_Or, on a fess between two chevrons sable three cross-crosslets of the first_.

Present Representative, Horatio William Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford.

BERNEY OF KIRBY BEEDON, BARONET 1620.

Berney, in the hundred of North Greenhow in this county, doubtless gave name to this ancient family, who are traced pretty nearly to the Conquest. Park Hall, the former seat, is in the parish of Reedham, and was acquired by the marriage of Sir Thomas de Berney with Margaret daughter and heir of Sir William de Reedham in the reign of Edward III.

Younger branch, Berney of Morton Hall in this county, descended from a younger brother of the first Baronet.

See Parkins's continuation of Blomefield's Norfolk, v. 1482; and Wotton's Baronetage, i. 378.

ARMS.--_Party per pale gules and azure, a cross engrailed ermine_.

Present Representative, Sir Henry Hanson Berney, 9th Baronet.

ASTLEY, OF MELTON-CONSTABLE, BARON HASTINGS 1841, BARONET 1660.

Descended from the noble house of Astley Castle in Warwickshire, and traced to Philip de Estlega in the 12th of Henry II., and in the female line from the Constables of Melton-Constable, which estate came into the family by the second marriage of Thomas Lord Astley with Edith, third sister and coheir of Geffrey de Constable, in the time of Henry III. Astley Castle, the original seat, descended by an heiress to the Greys of Ruthin, afterwards Marquesses of Dorset, and Dukes of Suffolk. Hill-Morton in Warwickshire was also the seat of this family from the reign of Henry III.

The Astleys formerly of Patishull in Staffordshire were the elder branch, sprung from the first marriage of Thomas Lord Astley, who was killed in the Barons' Wars at Evesham, (the 49th of Henry III.,) extinct 1771. The Astleys, now of Everley, in Wiltshire, Baronets 1821, descend from the second son of Walter Astley of Patishull, the father of the first Baronet of that line (1662).

See Parkins's Blomefield's Norfolk, v. 940; Thomas's Dugdale's Warwickshire, i. 19, 107; and Wotton's Baronetage, iii. 63; for Astleys of Patishull, Shaw's Staffordshire, ii. 287; and Wotton's Baronetage, iii. 368.

ARMS.--_Azure, a cinquefoil ermine within a border engrailed or_. The Patishull and Everley family omit the border, and it was thus borne by the head of the house in the reign of Richard II. Thomas de Astley, at the same period, differenced his coat by _a label of three points or, charged with two bars gules_. (Rolls.)

Present Representative, Jacob Henry Delaval Astley, 3rd Baron Hastings.

BEDINGFELD OF OXBOROUGH, BARONET 1660.

Traditionally a Norman family seated at Bedingfeld, in Suffolk, soon after the Conquest. Oxburgh, or Oxborough, has been the residence of this eminently knightly house from the reign of Edward IV., when it came by the marriage of Edmund Bedingfeld with Margaret, daughter of Robert Tudenham, and to whom licence was granted to build the walls and towers of Oxburgh in the year 1482. The baronetcy was conferred by Charles II. as a mark of his favour and in consideration of the eminent loyalty and consequent sufferings of the family during the usurpation. The Bedingfelds of Ditchingham, in this county, are a younger branch parted from the parent stem as early as the middle of the fourteenth century.

See Blomefield, iii. 482; Wotton's Baronetage, iii. 212; and the Rev. G. H. M'Gill's account of Oxburgh Hall in the Proceedings of the Norfolk Archeological Society.

ARMS.--_Ermine, an eagle displayed gules, armed or_.

Present Representative, Sir Henry George Paston Bedingfeld, 7th Baronet.

HOWARD OF EAST-WINCH, DUKE OF NORFOLK 1483.

The great historical house of Howard in point of antiquity must yield precedence to many other English families: it can only be traced with certainty to Sir William Howard, Judge of the Common Pleas in 1297. Norfolk appears to be the county where this great family should be noticed, the Duke of Norfolk still possessing property in the county of his dukedom derived from his ancestors of the house of Bigod. In the fourteenth century, by the match with the heiress of Mowbray, the foundation of the honors and consequence of the Howards was laid, the first Duke being the son of Margaret, daughter and coheir of Thomas de Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk. The Sussex estates came from the heiress of Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel, in the reign of Edward VI.; Worksop from the Talbots; Greystoke and Morpeth from the Dacres.

All the English Peers of the house of Howard are traced to a common ancestor in Thomas, the second Duke of Norfolk, who died in 1524. The Duke of Norfolk, the Earls of Suffolk and Carlisle, descend from his first wife, and the Earl of Effingham from the second. The Howards of Greystoke, in Cumberland, are a younger branch of the present ducal house. The Howards of Corby Castle, in the same county, descend from the second son of "Belted Will," the ancestor of the house of Carlisle.

Extinct branches. The Viscount Bindon; the Earls of Northampton, Nottingham, and Stafford; and Lord Howard of Escrick.

See Brydges's Collins, i. 50, for the Duke of Norfolk; iii. 147, for the Earl of Suffolk; iii. 501, for the Earl of Carlisle; and iv. 264, for the Earl of Effingham. See also Cartwright's Rape of Bramber, p. 185; and Dallaway's Rape of Arundel; Hunter's South Yorkshire, ii. 10. For the Howard Monuments at East-Winch, see Weever's Funeral Monuments, p. 842-9; for their state in the 18th century Parkins's Blomefield's Norfolk, iv. 746; and Topographer and Genealogist, ii. 90. For the Earl of Carlisle, see Hodgson's History of Northumberland, ii. pt. 2, p. 381; for Howard of Corby, the same vol. p. 477. See also "Historical Anecdotes of some of the Howard Family," 12mo. 1769; Tierney's Castle and Town of Arundel, 8vo. 1834; and Mr. Howard's "Indication of Memorials, &c. of the Howard Family," fol. 1834.

ARMS.--_Gules, a bend between six cross-crosslets fitcheé argent, on an escucheon a demi-lion pierced through the mouth with an arrow, within a double tressure flory counter-flory gules_, granted by patent 5 Henry VIII. to Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, in remembrance of the victory gained over the Scots at Flodden. The present coat was borne by Sir John Howard in the reign of Edward II., and by Mr. Howard in those of Edward II. and Richard III.: it has been conjectured, from the similarity of this coat with that of the Botilers, Barons of Wem, (Gules, a fess cheeky argent and sable between six crosses pateé fitchée argent,) that Sir William Howard the Judge was descended from the Hords, stewards to these Barons: it is observable that none of the Howards ever prefixed the _de_ to their name, a fact which opposes their derivation from Hawarden in Flintshire. (Blakeway's Sheriffs of Shropshire, pp. 53 note.)

Present Representative, Henry Fitzalan Howard, 15th Duke of Norfolk.

GURNEY OF KESWICK.

This is a younger branch of the Gurneys of West Barsham in this county, whose principal male line became extinct in 1661, West Barsham came from the heiress of Waunci about the reign of Edward III. Previous to that time the Gurneys appear to have been seated at Harpley, also in Norfolk, as early as 1206, and are traced for two descents beyond that period, being (as there appears no reason to doubt) descended from the great Norman baronial house of the name. The present family may be said to have been refounded by John Gurney, an eminent silk-merchant at Norwich, about 1670. Keswick was purchased in 1747. The Gournays of Somersetshire, represented by the Earls of Egmont, may have been a distinct family; their arms were, Paly of six or and azure. Dugdale, however, gives them a common ancestor with the former house. (Baronage, i. 429.)

See the "Records of the House of Gournay," privately printed, 4to., 1848, and particularly, for the Norman origin of the family page 293 of that work. For the Gournays of Somersetshire, see the History of the House of Ivery. London, 1742, vol. ii. p. 473,

ARMS.--_Argent, a cross engrailed gules, in the first quarter a cinquefoil azure_.

Present Representative, Hudson Gurney, Esq.

DE GREY OF MERTON, BARON WALSINGHAM 1780.

This ancient family is supposed to have the same origin as the noble Norman house of Grey, now represented by the Earl of Stamford; it is traced to William de Grey, of Cavendish, in Suffolk; whose grandson Sir Thomas was seated about 1306 at Cornerth in that county, by his marriage with the heiress of the same name; their son and heir married the coheiress of Baynard, and thus became possessed of Merton, the long-continued seat of this family.

See Blomefield, i. 576; and Brydges's Collins, vii. 510.

ARMS.--_Barry of six argent and azure, in chief three annulets gules_. The ancient coat of Cornerth, _Azure, a fess between two chevronels or_, (which was doubtless derived from their superior lords the Baynards,) was borne for many generations by the ancestors of this family.

Present Representative, Thomas de Grey, 5th Baron Walsingham.

BACON OF RAVENINGHAM, PREMIER BARONET OF ENGLAND, OF REDGRAVE, SUFFOLK, 1611.

This family is said to have been established at a period shortly subsequent to the Conquest at Letheringsett, in Norfolk, but is better known as a Suffolk family, having been seated at Monks' Bradfield, in that county, in the reign of Richard I. Redgrave was granted by Henry VIII. in the 36th year of his reign, to the great Sir Nicholas Bacon, who with Francis his son, Viscount St. Alban's, were the principal ornaments of this family. Raveningham descended to the Bacons from the heiress of the ancient family of Castell, or de Castello, about the middle of the 18th century.

See Parkins's Continuation of Blomefield's Norfolk, iv. 262 Wotton's Baronetage, i. 1, and ii. 72.

ARMS.--_Gules, on a chief argent two mullets pierced sable_. This coat was borne by Sir Edmund Bacon, in the reign of Edward II., and by M. Bacon in that of Edward III. (Rolls.) A brass circa A.D. 1320, at Gorleston church, Suffolk, supposed to represent one of this family, bears five lozenges in bend on the field, besides the mullets in chief: see Boutell's Brasses, p. 36.

Present Representative, Sir Henry Hickman Bacon, 11th Baronet.

JERNINGHAM OF COSSEY, BARON STAFFORD, RESTORED 1824, BARONET 1621.

The ancestors of this ancient house were seated at Horham in Suffolk in the 13th century, "knights of high esteem in those parts," saith Camden, and traced to Sir Hubert Jernegan of that place. Somerleyton, in the same county, derived from the heiress of Fitzosbert, afterwards became the family seat, and so continued until the extinction of the elder line. Cossey was granted to Sir Henry Jerningham, (son of Sir Edward Jerningham, by his second wife,) in 1547, by Queen Mary, "being the first that appeared openly for her after the death of Edward VI." He was the ancestor of Lord Stafford.

See Weever's Ancient Funerall Monuments, p. 769; Blomefield's Norfolk, i. p. 660; Wotton's Baronetage, i. 450; and Suckling's History of Suffolk, ii. p. 46.

ARMS.--_Argent, three buckles gules_.

Present Representative, Henry Valentine Stafford Jerningham, 9th Baron Stafford.

TOWNSHEND OF RAINHAM, MARQUESS TOWNSHEND 1787; BARON 1661; VISCOUNT 1682.

In 1377, the ancestor of this family was of Snoring Magna in this county. In 1398, John Townshend settled at Rainham, which according to some accounts accrued to them by the heiress of Havile, but the pedigree as given by Collins cannot be relied on, neither can the defamatory account of Leland, who says--"the grandfather of Townsende now living was a meane man of substance." The truth seems to be that the family is old, but not of great account before the time of Sir Walter de Townsend, who married Maud Scogan, and flourished about the year 1400.

See Blomefield, iii. 815; Brydges's Collins, ii. 454; and Leland's Itinerary, iv. p. 13.

ARMS.--_Azure, a chevron ermine between three escallops argent_.

Present Representative, John Villiers Stuart Townshend, 5th Marquess Townshend.

NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.

+Knightly.+

WAKE OF COURTEENHALL, BARONET 1621.

This is a younger branch of the very ancient baronial house of Wake, who were Lincolnshire Barons in the reign of Henry I. Sir Hugh Wake was lord of Deeping in the county of Lincoln, and of Blisworth in this county, by gift of his father, Baldwin fourth Lord Wake. He died in 1315, and was the direct ancestor of the present Baronet. See memoir of the family of Wake privately printed in 1833, but written by Archbishop Wake; and Wotton's Baronetage, i. 465.

ARMS.--_Or, two bars gules, in chief three torteauxes_. This coat was borne by Hugh Wake in the reign of Henry III., and again by Sir John Wake in that of Edward II. Sir Hugh Wake at the latter period differenced his arms by a canton azure. His uncle reversed the colours gules and argent, the field being gules. M. Thomas Wake de Blisworth in the reign of Edward III. bore the same arms, with a border engrailed sable. (Rolls of the dates.)

Present Representative, Sir William Wake, 11th Baronet.

BRUDENELL OF DENE, EARL OF CARDIGAN 1661; BARON 1627; BARONET 1611.

William de Bredenhill, seated at Dodington in Oxfordshire, in the reign of Edward I., and the owner of lands at Aynho in this county at the same period, is the first ascertained ancestor of the Brudenells, whose principal consequence however must be traced to Sir Robert Brudenell, Chief Justice of the King's Bench in the reign of Henry VII., who married a coheiress of Entwisell, and thus became possessed of Dene and of Stanton Wyvill in the county of Leicester.

See the pedigree of this family in Nichols's History of Leicestershire, vol. ii. pt. ii. p. 807; see also Brydges's Collins, iii. 487.

Younger branch. The Marquess of Ailesbury (1821), descended from Thomas, fourth son of George fourth Earl of Cardigan, and the Lady Elizabeth Bruce, eldest daughter of Thomas second Earl of Ailesbury.

ARMS.--_Argent, a chevron gules between three morions azure_.

Present Representative, James Thomas Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan, K.C.B.

KNIGHTLEY OF FAWSLEY, BARONET 1798.

The first recorded ancestor of this ancient family is Rainald, mesne lord of Knightley, in the county of Stafford, under Earl Roger, in the time of William the Conqueror, as appears by Domesday Book. That estate went out of the family by an heiress who married Robert de Peshall, about the reign of Edward III., and the Knightleys removed to Gnowsall, in the same county, in the 17th of Richard II. (1394). Fawsley was purchased in the 3rd of Henry V. (1415-16). It is thus mentioned by Leland: "Mr. Knightley, a man of great lands, hath his principal house at Foullesle, but it is no very sumptuous thing." (Itin. i. fol. 11.)

See Baker's Northamptonshire, i. 381. Blakeway (Sheriffs of Salop, p. 103) asserts that "_the Knightleys appear to have been a branch of the Shirleys_," an assumption without any foundation except the similarity of their arms.

ARMS.--_Quarterly ermine, and paly of six or and gules_. This coat was borne as early as 1301-2 (30th Ed. I.) by Sir Robert de Knyteley: it is also borne by Cotes of Cotes, co. Stafford, probably from family connection.

Present Representative, Sir Rainald Knightley, 3rd Baronet, M. P. for South Northamptonshire.

SPENCER OF ALTHORPE, EARL SPENCER 1765.

The Spencers claim a collateral descent from the ancient baronial house of Le Despenser, a claim which, without being irreconcileable perhaps with the early pedigrees of that family, admits of very grave doubts and considerable difficulties. It seems to be admitted that they descend from Henry Spencer, who, having been educated in the Abbey of Evesham, obtained from the abbot in the reign of Henry VI. a lease of the domains and tithes of Badby in this county, and was induced to settle there. His son removed to Hodnell in Warwickshire, his grandson to Rodburn in the same county, his great-grandson Sir John purchased Althorpe in 1508. The Spencers of Claverdon, co. Warwick (extinct 1685), were a younger branch. The Dukes of Marlborough (1702) represent the elder line of this family.

See Baker's Northamptonshire, i. 106; and Brydges's Collins, i. 378.

The poet Spenser boasted that he belonged to this house; though, says Baker, "the precise link of genealogical connexion cannot now perhaps be ascertained."

ARMS.--_Quarterly, first and fourth argent, second and third gules, a fret or, over all a bend sable charged with three escallops of the first_. This coat, which is differenced from the ancient baronial arms by the three escallop shells, was used by Henry Spencer of Badby, who sealed his will with it. In 1504 another coat was granted, viz. _Azure, a fess ermine between six sea-mew's heads erased argent_, but the more ancient arms have been generally borne by the Spencers.

Present Representative, John Poyntz Spencer, 5th Earl Spencer.

ROKEBY OF ARTHINGWORTH.

This is a junior branch of the Rokebys of Rokeby in Yorkshire, a knightly race immortalized by Scott. The principal line has been long extinct. Sir Thomas Rokeby was Sheriff of Yorkshire in the eighth of Henry IV. The family was seated in the parish of Ecclesfield, and also at Sandal-Parva, in South Yorkshire, where William Rokeby was Rector in the reign of Henry VII. In 1512 he became Archbishop of Dublin. His brother Ralph wrote the history of the family, now in possession of Mr. Rokeby of Arthingworth, and which is printed in Whitaker's Richmondshire, vol. i. p. 158. The present family acquired Arthingworth from the Langhams by marriage in the end of the seventeenth century.

See Hunter's South Yorkshire, i. p. 199.

ARMS.--_Argent, a chevron between three rooks sable_, borne by Mons. Thomas de Rokeby in the reigns of Edward III. and Richard II. (Rolls of the dates.)

Present Representative, the Rev. Henry Ralph Rokeby.

MAUNSELL OF THORPE-MALSOR.

The curious poetical history of this family, preserved in "Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica," claims one "Saher," there written "_Sier, the syer of us all_," as their ancestor: he is stated to have been the son of Ralph Maunsel, who was living in Buckinghamshire in the 14th of Henry II. (1167). Thickthornes in Chicheley in that county appears to have been the residence of the Maunsells, and also Turvey in Bedfordshire. These lands were sold by William the son of Sampson le Maunsel of Turvey to William Mordaunt in 1287. The Maunsells afterwards settled at Bury-End in Chicheley, and in 1622 at Thorpe-Malsor.

Elder Branches. 1. Maunsell of Muddlescombe, co. Carmarthen, Baronet 1621-2. 2. The extinct Barons Maunsell, created 1711, extinct 1744.

Younger Branch. Maunsell of Cosgrave in this county, which came from the coheiress of Furtho.

See Coll. Topog. et Genealog. i. p. 389; Baker's Northamptonshire, ii. p. 132; and Memoirs of the family, an unfinished work privately printed in 1850 by William W. Maunsell, esq.

ARMS.--_Argent, a chevron between three maunches sable_.

Present Representative, Thomas Philip Maunsell, Esq. late M. P. for North Northamptonshire.

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ISHAM OF LAMPORT, BARONET 1627.

The name is local, from Isham in the hundred of Orlingbury in this county, where an elder branch of the family was seated soon after the Conquest. Robert Isham, who died in 1424, is however the first ancestor from whom the pedigree can with certainty be deduced. He was Escheator of the county of Northampton, and was of Picheley (a lordship contiguous to Isham) in the first of Henry V. Lamport was purchased by John Isham, the immediate ancestor of the present family, fourth son of Sir Euseby Isham, of Picheley, Knight, in the year 1559. He was an eminent merchant of London.

See Wotton's Baronetage, ii. 28.

ARMS.--_Gules, a fess and in chief three piles wavy argent_. This coat was borne by Robert de Isham in the 2nd of Richard II.

Present Representative, Sir Charles Edmund Isham, 10th Baronet.

PALMER OF CARLTON, BARONET 1660.

This family appears to have been founded by the law early in the fifteenth century, and descends from William Palmer, who was established at the present seat of Carlton in the ninth of Henry IV. The celebrated Sir Geoffry Palmer, Attorney-General to Charles II. was the first Baronet.

See Wotton's Baronetage, iii. 19; and Nichols's Leicestershire, vol. ii. pt. ii. p. 543.

ARMS.--_Sable, a chevron or between three crescents argent_.

Present Representative, Sir Geoffrey Palmer, 8th Baronet.

FANE OF APTHORP, EARL OF WESTMORELAND 1642.

The Fanes or Vanes are said to have originated from Wales; in the reign of Henry VI. they were seated at Hilden in Tunbridge, in Kent, by a marriage with the Peshalls. In 1574 Sir Thomas Fane married Mary daughter and heir of Henry Neville, Lord Abergavenny; hence the importance of the family, and the Earldom of Westmoreland, the ancient honour of the house of Neville. Apthorp came from the heiress of Mildmay, about the end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth.

Younger Branches. Fane of Wormesley, Oxfordshire, descended from Henry Fane, Esq., younger brother of Thomas eighth Earl of Westmoreland. The Duke of Cleveland (1833) and Sir Henry Vane, of Hutton Hall in Cumberland, Baronet (1786), descend from John younger brother of Richard Fane, ancestor of the Earl of Westmoreland.

See Brydges's Collins, iii. 283, and iv. 499; Hasted's Kent, ii. 265; and Blore's Rutlandshire, p. 103.

ARMS.--_Azure, three right-hand gauntlets or_.

Present Representative, Francis William Henry Fane, 12th Earl of Westmoreland.

NORTHUMBERLAND.

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CLAVERING OF CALLALY CASTLE.

Robert Fitz-Roger, Baron of Warkworth, the ancestor of this great Norman family, was father of John, who assumed the name of "Clavering," from a lordship in Essex, as it is said, by the appointment of King Edward I. From Sir Alan, younger brother of John, the present family is descended. Callaly was granted to Robert Fitz-Roger by Gilbert de Callaly in the reign of Henry III., and has ever since continued in the possession of the house of Clavering.

Younger Branches. Clavering of Axwell, co. Durham, Baronet 1661, descended from James, third son of Robert Clavering of Callaly. Clavering of Berrington in North Durham, descended from William, third son of Sir John Clavering, who died a prisoner in London for his loyalty to King Charles I. Extinct about 1812.

See Nicolas's Siege of Carlaverock, pp. 115, 117; Mackenzie's View of Northumberland, vol. ii. p. 27; Surtees's Durham, ii. 248; Wotton's Baronetage, iii. 295; and Raine's North Durham, p. 213.

ARMS.--_Quarterly or and gules, a bend sable_, and so borne by Robert Fitz-Roger, as appears by the Roll of Carlaverock, and by his son John de Clavering, who differenced his coat by a label vert. Sir Alexander de Clavering, in the reign of Edward II., charged the bend with three mullets argent. John Clavering, in the reign of Richard II., the same arms, with a label of three points argent. (Rolls of the dates.)

Present Representative, Edward John Clavering, Esq.

MITFORD OF MITFORD CASTLE.

Descended from Mathew, brother of John, who is said to have held the Castle of Mitford soon after the Conquest, and by whose only daughter and heiress it went to the Bertrams. The ancestors of the present family appear to have been for many ages resident at Mitford, though the castle was not in their possession till it was granted with the manor by Charles II. to Robert Mitford, Esq.

Younger Branches. Mitford of Pitshill, co. Sussex, descended from the fourth son of Robert Mitford of Mitford Castle, Esq., Sheriff of Yorkshire in 1702. Mitford of Exbury, co. Southampton, sprung from the third son of Robert Mitford, of Mitford Castle, Esq., who died in 1674. From this latter branch Mitford Baron Redesdale (1803) of Batsford, co. Gloucester, is derived.

See Hodgson's History of Northumberland, vol. ii. pt. ii. p. 44 and for Mitford of Exbury the same work, vol. i. pt. ii. p. 152; see also Brydges's Collins, ix. 182.

ARMS.--_Argent, a fess sable between three moles proper_.

Present Representative, Robert Mitford, Esq.

SWINBURNE OF CAPHEATON, BARONET 1660.

Swinburne in this county gave name to this ancient family, the first recorded ancestor being John, father of Sir William de Swinburne, living in 1278, and Alan Swinburne, Rector of Whitfield, who purchased Capheaton from Sir Thomas Fenwick, Knt., in 1274.

Chollerton in Northumberland was also an ancient seat of the Swinburnes; it was held under the great Umfrevile family by this same Sir William de Swinburne, the arms being evidently founded upon the coat of the Umfreviles. The date of the baronetcy points to the loyalty of the family during the civil wars of the seventeenth century.

See the early part of the pedigree in Surtees's Durham, ii. 872; Hodgson's History of Northumberland, vol. i. pt. ii. p. 231; and Wotton's Baronetage, iii. 167.

ARMS.--_Per fess gules and argent, three cinquefoils counterchanged_, borne by Monsieur William Swynburne in the reign of Richard II. (Roll of the date.)

Present Representative, Sir John Swinburne, 7th Baronet.

MIDDLETON (CALLED MONCK) OF BELSEY CASTLE, BARONET 1662.

John de Middleton, father of Sir Richard Middleton, sometime secretary and chancellor to King Henry III., is the first on record of the ancestors of this family. The castle of Belsey appears to have come from the heiress of Stryvelin in the reign of Edward III. The name was exchanged for Monck in 1799. A younger branch, now extinct, was of Silksworth, co. Durham.

See Hodgson's History of Northumberland, vol. i. pt. ii. p. 353; "The Record of the House of Gourney," 4to, pr. pr. 1848, p. 560; and Wotton's Baronetage, iii. 382.

ARMS.--_Quarterly gules and or, in the first quarter a cross flory argent_.

Present Representative, Sir Charles Miles Lambert Monck, sixth Baronet.

SELBY OF BIDDLESTON.

In 1272, King Edward I. granted in the first year of his reign the lands of Biddleston to Sir Walter de Selby: it has ever since remained in the possession of his descendants, and has been usually the chief seat of the Selbys. Their early history unfortunately is defective, occasioned by an accidental fire which took place at Allenton in 1721, at that time the residence of the family, whose evidences were thereby mostly destroyed.

For the grant above mentioned, and for the pedigree, see Mackenzie's View of Northumberland, ii. 39.

ARMS.--_Barry of eight or and sable_.

Present Representative, Walter Selby, Esq.

GREY OF HOWICK, EARL GREY 1806, BARONET 1746.

An eminent border family, of which there have been many branches, descended from Thomas Grey of Heton, living in the second of Edward I. (1273), and from Sir John Grey of Berwick, living in 1372, who was ancestor of the baronial house of Grey of Wark and Chillingham, and of the Howick family, founded by Sir Edward Grey of Howick, who died in 1532, and was the fourth son of. Sir Ralph Grey of Chillingham.

"No family perhaps in the whole of England," writes Raine in his admirable History of North Durham, "has in the course of the centuries through which the line of Grey can be traced, afforded so great a variety of character."

Younger Branches. Sir George Grey, Baronet 1814, and Grey of Morwick, co. Northumberland.

See the curious and valuable "Illustrations of the Pedigree of Grey," in Raine's North Durham, p. 327, &c.; Surtees's Durham, ii. 19; and Brydges's Collins, v. 676.

ARMS.--_Gules, a lion rampant within a border engrailed argent, a mullet for difference_. The present coat was borne by Monsieur Thomas Grey, as appears by the Roll of the reign of Richard II.

Present Representative, Henry George Grey, 3rd Earl Grey, K. G.

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LORAINE OF KIRK-HARLE, BARONET 1664.

This is said to be a Norman family, and to have been originally settled in the county of Durham. Kirk-Harle was inherited from Johanna, daughter of William, son of Alan del Strother, in the time of Henry IV.

See Hodgson's History of Northumberland, vol. i. pt. ii. p. 246; and Wotton's Baronetage, iii. 433.

ARMS.--_Quarterly sable and argent, a plain cross counter quartered of the field_. Another coat, viz. _Argent, five lozenges conjoined in pale azure, in the dexter chief an escucheon of the second_, is given in Courthope's Debrett's Baronetage.

Present Representative, Sir Lambton Loraine, 11th Baronet.

HAGGERSTON OF ELLINGHAM, BARONET 1643.

The pedigree is not regularly traced beyond Robert de Hagreston, Lord of Hagreston in 1399, although a Robert de Hagardeston occurs in 1312. It has been supposed that this family is of Scotch extraction; but a fire which took place at Haggerston Castle, the ancestral seat of this house, in the year 1618, and another which happened in 1687, having destroyed the ancient evidences, the early history is somewhat imperfect.

See Mackenzie's Northumberland, i. p. 328, note; Raine's North Durham, p. 224; and Wotton's Baronetage, ii. 388.

ARMS.--_Azure, on a bend cotised argent three billets sable_. The ancient arms of this venerable family, of which Raine writes, "few families can boast of such a pedigree or of such a shield of arms," was a scaling ladder between two leaves, alluding to the coat of Hazlerigg, an heiress of that house having married into the Haggerston family. The arms were so borne in 1577, as appears by a seal of that date: the scaling ladder was afterwards corrupted into the bendlets and billets.

Present Representative, Sir John Haggerston, 9th Baronet.

RIDLEY OF BLAGDON, BARONET 1756.

The pedigree is proved for three descents before the reign of Henry VIII., the original seat of the family being at Willimoteswick in this county, of which place Nicholas de Rydle is designated Esquire in 1481; here also was born the Martyr Bishop of London, Nicholas Ridley, early in the sixteenth century.

The present family is a younger branch, seated at Blagdon and inheriting the baronetcy on the death of Sir Mathew White in 1763.

See Hodgson's History of Northumberland, vol. ii. pt. ii. p. 322, and vol. iii. pt. ii. p. 340.

ARMS.--_Gules, a chevron between three goshawks argent_. The more ancient coat was, _Argent, an ox passant gules through reeds proper_.

Present Representative, Sir Mathew White Ridley, 4th Baronet.

NOTTINGHAMSHIRE.

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CLIFTON OF CLIFTON, BARONET 1611.

Gervase de Clifton, living in the fifth of John, is the patriarch of this honourable family, who took their name from the manor of Clifton, which was the inheritance of Sir Gervase Clifton, in the ninth of Edward II. One of the most remarkable members was the first Baronet, Sir Gervase Clifton, who died in 1666, "very prosperous and beloved of all, after having been the husband of seven wives."

See an interesting account of him and of the family and their curious monuments in Thoroton's Antiquities of Nottinghamshire, p. 53, &c.; see also Wotton's Baronetage, i. 34.

ARMS.--_Sable, semee of cinquefoils, and a lion rampant argent, armed and langued gules_. This coat reversed was borne by Monsieur John de Clyfton, in the reign of Richard II. (Roll of the date.)

Present Representative, Sir Robert Juckes Clifton, 9th Baronet.

SUTTON OF NORWOOD, BARONET 1772.

Sutton-upon-Trent gave name to this ancient family, the first upon record being Roland, son of Hervey, who lived in the reign of Henry III., and married Alice, daughter and coheiress of Richard de Lexington. From this match came the manor of Averham or Egram in this county, which long continued the seat and residence of the Suttons, who were represented in the days of Queen Elizabeth by Sir William Sutton, whom her Majesty coupled, not in the most complimentary manner, with three other eminent Nottinghamshire knights in the following distich:--

"Gervase the gentle,* Stanhope the stout,
Markham the lion, and _Sutton the lout_."

In 1646, Robert Sutton, the head of this family, was raised to the Peerage as Baron Lexington, extinct 1723, who is represented in the female line by Viscount Canterbury. The present family descend from Henry, younger brother of the first Lord Lexington.

See Thoroton's Nottinghamshire, pp. 327, 359; and Courthope's Debrett's Baronetage, p. 195.

ARMS.--_Argent, a canton sable_.

Present Representative, Sir John Sutton, 3rd Baronet.

* _i.e._ Sir Gervase Clifton.

STANHOPE OF SHELFORD, EARL OF CHESTERFIELD 1628.

Stanhope, in the wapentake of Darlington in the bishoprick of Durham, gave name to this knightly family, of whom the first recorded ancestor is Walter de Stanhope, whose son Richard died at Stanhope, in 1338 or 1339. In the reign of Edward III. we find Sir Richard Stanhope, grandson of Walter, Mayor of Newcastle-on-Tyne. Hampton and other manors in this county came by marriage with the heiress of Maulovel about 1370; but on the death of Richard Stanhope in 1529, these estates went to his only daughter and heiress, who became the wife of John Babington. The monastery of Shelford was soon after this period granted to Sir Michael Stanhope (in the 31st of Henry VIII).

Younger Branches. 1. Stanhope of Holme-Lacy, Baronet 1807, descended from the youngest brother of the great-grandfather of the present Earl. 2. Stanhope Earl Stanhope 1718, descended from the eldest son of the second marriage of the first Earl of Chesterfield. 3. Stanhope Earl of Harrington 1742, descended from Sir John Stanhope, younger brother by the half-blood of the first Earl of Chesterfield.

See Lord Mahon's (now Earl Stanhope) Notices of the Stanhopes. 8vo., 1855; Thoroton's Nottinghamshire, 147; Surtees's Durham, ii. 46; and Brydges's Collins, iii. 407, iv. 171, and 284.

ARMS.--_Quarterly ermine and gules_. And so borne in the reign of Edward III., but after the match with Maulovel, who brought into the family the estate and seat of Rampton from the heiress of Longvillers, the arms of that family, viz. _Sable, a bend between six cross-crosslets argent_, were assumed; on losing that great estate, Sir Michael Stanhope resumed the more ancient coat in the reign of Henry VIII.

Present Representative, George Stanhope, 6th Earl of Chesterfield.

WILLOUGHBY OF WOLLATON, BARON MIDDLETON 1711.

This is a younger and now the only remaining male branch of the great Lincolnshire family of Willoughby, descended from Sir Thomas Willoughby, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in the reign of Henry VIII., youngest son of Sir Christopher Willoughby of Eresby, who was sprung from Sir William Willoughby of Willoughby in Lincolnshire, and lord of that manor in the reign of Edward I. Wollaton was inherited from the heiress of Willoughby (of another family) in the thirty-eighth year of Queen Elizabeth.

See Brydges's Collins, vi. 591, vii. 215; and for the Nottinghamshire family, see Thoroton, p. 221; and for the tombs of this ancient house, pp. 36, 223, 227; see also Dugdale's Warwickshire, 2nd ed. vol. ii. p. 1052.

ARMS.--_Or, fretty azure_. And so borne by Robert de Willoughby in 1300, as appears by the Roll of Carlaverock; but after the death of Bishop Bek, his maternal uncle, in the 4th of Edward II. he adopted the coat of Bek, _Gules, a mill-rind argent_. See Nicolas's Roll of Carlaverock, p, 328.

Willoughby of Wollaton and of Middleton in the county of Warwick bore, _Or, two bars gules, the upper charged with two waterbougets, the lower with one waterbouget, argent_.

Present Representative, Henry Willoughby, 8th Baron Middleton.

CLINTON OF CLUMBER, DUKE OF NEWCASTLE 1756.

The Clintons are traced to the reign of Henry I., when, by favour of that king, Geffery de Clinton "was raised from the dust," as a contemporary writer affirms, and made Justice of England. He was enriched by large grants of land from the crown, and built the castle of Kenilworth. The present family descend from the brother of this Geffery, whose issue were of Coleshill and Maxtoke in Warwickshire, of which latter place John de Clinton was created Baron in 1298. His descendant, Edward Lord Clinton, was advanced to the Earldom of Lincoln in 1572. No family was more nobly allied, few had broader possessions--all have been long dissipated; but a fortunate match with the eventual heiress of Pelham in 1717 revived the drooping fortunes of the Clintons; hence the estate of Clumber, the former seat of the Holles family, and the Dukedom of Newcastle.

See Dugdale's Warwickshire, 2nd ed. vol. ii. pp. 992, 1007; and Brydges's Collins, ii. 181.

ARMS.--_Argent, three cross crosslets fitchée sable, on a chief azure two mullets pierced of the first_. The original arms, as borne by Thomas de Clinton in the reign of Henry III., appears to have been _a plain chief_. See his seal engraved in Upton, de Studio Militari, p. 82. In the reign of Edward II. Sir John Clinton of Maxtoke bore, _Argent, on a chief azure two mullets or_. At the same period another Sir John Clinton bore, _Or, three piles azure, a canton ermine_. His son in the fifth of Edward III. bore, _Argent, on a chief azure two fleurs-de-lis or_. William Clinton, Earl of Huntingdon, at the same period bore the present coat with the exception of _three mullets or_ in place of the _two mullets argent_, and John Clinton omitted the crosslets. William Clinton, Lord of Allesley, who lived at the same period, bore the present coat. John de Clinton in the succeeding reign, bore _two mullets of six points or pierced gules_, and Thomas de Clynton the same with _a label of three points ermine_.

See Willement's and Nicolas's Rolls, and Montagu's Guide to the Study of Heraldry, p. 51.

Present Representative, Henry Pelham Alexander Pelham-Clinton, 6th Duke of Newcastle.

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EYRE OF HAMPTON.

The Eyres appear as witnesses to charters in the Peak of Derbyshire in the remotest period to which private charters ascend. The first of the name known is William le Eyre, of Hope, in the reign of Henry III. In the reign of Henry V. the family divided into three great branches: the present house descends from Eyre of Laughton in South Yorkshire, who spring from Eyre of Home Hall near Chesterfield. One moiety of Rampton was purchased by Anthony Eyre in the reign of Elizabeth; the other came from the coheiress of Babington, in 1624.

See Hunter's South Yorkshire, i. 288; see also Lysons's Derbyshire, lxxxiii., for a note on the various branches of Eyre, and Gent. Mag. 1795, pp. 121, 212.

Extinct Branches. 1. Eyre of Highlow, who adopted the names of Archer, Newton, and Gell. 2. Eyre of Normanton-upon-Soar. 3. Eyre Earl of Newburgh.

ARMS.--_Argent, on a chevron sable three quatrefoils or_.

Present Representative, the Rev. Charles Wasteneys Eyre.

OXFORDSHIRE.

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STONOR OF STONOR, BARON CAMOYS 1383, RESTORED 1839.

"Stonor is a 3 miles out of Henley. Ther is a fayre parke and a warren of connies and fayre woods. The mansion place standithe clyminge on a hille, and hathe 2 courtes buyldyd withe tymbar, brike, and flynte; Sir Walter Stonor, now possessor of it, hathe augmentyd and strengthed the howse. The Stonors hathe longe had it in possessyon syns one Fortescue invadyd it by mariage of an heire generall of the Stonors, but after dispocessed." Thus wrote Leland in his Itinerary, (vii. fo. 62a.): to which it may be added that the family has the reputation of being very ancient, and may certainly be traced to the twelfth century as resident at Stonor. In the reigns of Edward II. and III., Sir John Stonor, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, (whose tomb is preserved in the chancel of Dorchester church in this county,) was the representative and great advancer of the family.

See Magna Britannia, iv. 425; and the first edition of Burke's Commoners, ii. 440; see also Excerpta Historica, p. 353, for some curious letters of the Stonors of the time of Edward IV.

ARMS.--_Azure, two bars dancetté or, a chief argent_. Monsieur John de Stonor bore, _Azure, a fess dancetté and chief or_, in the reign of Edward III. (Roll.)

Present Representative, Thomas Stonor, 3rd Baron Camoys.

WYKEHAM OF TYTHROP.

This ancient family is traced to the commencement of the fourteenth century, when Robert Wykeham was Lord of Swalcliffe, the original seat of the Wykehams in this county, and possessed by the late W. H. Wykeham, Esq., who died in 1800, and still, I believe, belonging to his daughter the Baroness Wenman. Tythrop came from the Herberts by will to the late P. P. Wykeham, Esq. uncle of Lady Wenman.

The relationship of the great William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester, with this family is a disputed point, for which see Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica, ii. 225, 368, iii. 178, 245; see also the Topographer and Genealogist, iii. 49, for a very interesting paper on this subject by C. Wykeham Martin, Esq., M.P.

Younger Branch. Wykeham Martin, of Leeds Castle, Kent.

ARMS.--Allowed by Robert Cooke, Clarencieux, in 1571.--_Argent, two chevronels sable between three roses gules, barbed and seeded proper_. This coat was borne by the great Bishop, though when he was Archdeacon of Lincoln he bore but _one chevron_ between the roses. But the herald Glover attributed a variation of the arms of Chamberlaine, derived from the Counts of Tankerville, to Wykeham of Swalcliffe, viz: _Ermine, on a bordure gules six mullets or_.

Present Representative, Philip Thomas Herbert Wykeham, Esq.

CROKE OF STUDLEY, ANCIENTLY BLOUNT.

This is the eldest branch of the great family of Blount or le Blond, whose origin has been traced by the late Sir Alexander Croke to the Counts of Guisnes before the Norman Conquest. Robert le Blount, whose name is found recorded in Domesday, was a considerable landholder in Suffolk, Ixworth in that county being the seat of his Barony. Belton in Rutlandshire was afterwards inherited by his descendants from the Odinsels, and Hampton-Lovet, in the county of Worcester, from the Lovet family. In 1404, Nicholas le Blount, who had been deeply engaged in the conspiracy to restore Richard II. to his throne, changed his name to Croke, on his return to England, in order to avoid the revenge of Henry IV. The Crokes afterwards became a legal family, and seated themselves at Chilton in Buckinghamshire. The priory of Studley was purchased from Henry VIII. by John Croke, in 1539.

Younger Branches. Blount of Sodington, in the county of Worcester, and of Mawley Hall in Shropshire, descended from William, second son of Sir Robert le Blount, who died in 1288, and the heiress of Odinsels. The Blounts of Maple-Durham in this county, and the extinct Lords Mountjoy, are of a still junior line to the house of Sodington. The other extinct branches are too numerous to mention.

See Croke's Genealogy of the Croke Family, 4to. 1823, and "The Scrope and Grosvenor Roll," vol. ii. p. 192, for a memoir of Sir Walter Blount, who fell at the battle of Shrewsbury together with Sir Hugh Shirley and two other knights in the royal coat-armour of Henry the Fourth--

"semblably furnished like the King himself."