The head of this family, according to Dallaway, may be considered one of the most ancient proprietors of land residing upon his estate in this county. The first in the pedigree is Adam de Bartelott, said to be of Norman origin, father of John, who married Joan Stopham, coheiress of lands in the manor from whence the name is derived. He died in 1428, and Stopham has ever since remained the inheritance of their descendants.

See the Topographer, vol. iv. p. 346; and Cartwright's edition of Dallaway's Rape of Arundel, p. 347.

Arms.—Sable, three falconer's sinister gloves pendent argent, tasseled or.

Present Representative, George Barttelot, Esq.

From the reign of King Edward I., this family has been settled at Wadhurst, Lamberhurst, Ticehurst, and the adjoining parishes on the borders of Sussex and Kent: at Goudhurst, in the latter county, they held the manors of Bockingfield and the Pillery from the year 1413 to 1498, and in 1513 Wyleigh, in the parish of Ticehurst, was acquired by John Courthope in marriage with his wife Elizabeth, daughter of William Saunders of Wyleigh. From this marriage sprung three sons, John, George, and Thomas; the issue male of the eldest has been long extinct; from the second, who had Wyleigh, is descended the present Representative of the family; and from the third and youngest, who succeeded to the estate of "Courthope" in Goudhurst, is descended William Courthope, Esq. Somerset Herald.

See Collectanea Topog. et Genealog., vol. ii. pp. 279, 363; and The Visitation of Sussex, C. 27, in Coll. Arm.

Arms.—Argent, a fess azure between three estoiles sable.

Present Representative, George Campion Courthope, Esq.

Sasuualo, or Sewallis, whose name, says Dugdale, "argues him to be of the old English stock," mentioned in Domesday as mesne Lord of Eatington, under Henry de Ferrers, is the first recorded ancestor of this, the oldest knightly family in the county of Warwick. Until the reign of Edward III., Eatington appears to have continued the principal seat of the Shirleys, whose name was assumed in the twelfth century from the manor of Shirley, in Derbyshire, and which, with Ratcliffe-on-Sore, in the county of Nottingham, and Rakedale and Staunton-Harold, in Leicestershire, derived from the heiresses of Basset and Staunton, succeeded, during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, as the usual residence of the chiefs of the house. In the sixteenth century, Astwell, in Northamptonshire, was brought into the family by the heiress of Lovett; and in 1615, by the marriage of Sir Henry Shirley with the coheiress of Devereux, a moiety of the possessions of the Earls of Essex, after the extinction of that title in 1646, centred in Sir Robert Shirley, father of the first Earl Ferrers; on whose death, in 1717, the family estates were divided, the Derbyshire, Leicestershire, and Staffordshire estates descending with the earldom to the issue of his first marriage, and the Warwickshire property, the original seat of the Shirleys, eventually to the great-grandfather of the present possessor, the eldest surviving son of the second marriage of the first Earl Ferrers.

Elder Branches.* Shirley of Staunton-Harold, in the county of Leicester, represented by Sewallis Edward, tenth Earl Ferrers 1711; and Shirley of Shirley, in the county of Derby, represented by the Rev. Walter Waddington Shirley, Canon of Christ Church, D.D. only son of the late Bishop of Sodor and Man, and great-grandson of Walter, younger brother of the fourth, fifth, and sixth Earls Ferrers.

Younger Branches (extinct). Shirley, of Wiston, Preston, West-Grinstead, and Ote-Hall, all in Sussex, and all descended from the second marriage of Ralph Shirley, Esq., and Elizabeth Blount; which Ralph died in 1466. All these families are presumed to be extinct on the death of Sir William Warden Shirley, Baronet, in 1815.

See Dugdale's Warwickshire, ed. 2, vol. i. p. 621; Nichols's History of Leicestershire, vol. iii. pt. ii. p. 704-727; Stemmata Shirleiana, pr. pr. 4to. 1841; and Brydges's Collins, vol. iv. p. 85.

Arms.—Paly of six, or and azure, a quarter ermine. The more ancient coat was, Paly of six, or and sable, as appears by the seal of "Sir Sewallis de Ethindon, Knight," with the legend, "Sum scutum de auro et nigro senis ductibus palatum," engraved in Dugdale's Warwickshire, and in Upton de Studio Militari. Indeed Sir Ralph Shirley bore it as late as the reign of Edward II; see Nicolas's Roll of that date, p. 73. Sir Hugh de Shirley bore the present coat (Roll of Richard II.): so did his father Sir Thomas, and his great-grandfather Sir James, as appears by their several seals engraved in Upton, &c.

Present Representative, Evelyn Philip Shirley, Esq., late M. P. for South Warwickshire.

In the time of King John, the venerable family of Bracebridge, originally of Bracebridge in Lincolnshire, acquired by marriage in the person of Peter de Bracebridge with Amicia, daughter of Osbert de Arden and Maud, and granddaughter of Turchill de Warwick, the manor of Kingsbury in this county, an ancient seat of the Mercian Kings, and inherited by Turchill, called the last Saxon Earl of Warwick, with his second wife Leverunia. The descendants of which Peter and Amicia had their principal seat at Kingsbury till about the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign, when it was sold, and the Atherstone estate purchased. "Kinisbyri is a fair manor place," writes Leland, in his Itinerary, "and lordship of 140 li.; one Bracebridge is lord of it; it is in Warwikshir." At Bracebridge, on the river Witham, near Lincoln, the original seat of the family, so called it is supposed from the two bridges which still exist there, a grant of free warren was obtained in the 29th of Edward I., which was still retained by Thomas Bracebridge, Esq. who died in 1567.

The Bracebridges represent the Holtes of Aston, near Birmingham, and, through that ancient family, the Breretons of Cheshire.

See Dugdale's Warwickshire, vol. ii. p. 1057-1061; Nichols's Leicestershire, vol. iii. part ii. p. 1145; for Holte, see Dugdale's Warwickshire, vol. ii. p. 871, and Davidson's History of the Holtes of Aston, fol. 1854; for Brereton, see Ormerod's Cheshire, vol. iii. pt. 31.

Arms.—Vair, argent and sable, a fess gules. This coat was borne by Sir John de Brasbruge, de co. Lincoln, in the reign of Edward II. and again by Monsire de Brasbridge in those of Edward III. and Richard III. (Rolls).

Present Representative, Charles Holte Bracebridge, Esq.

Although the early part of the pedigree of the Comptons is not entirely without doubt, we may conclude that the family was seated at Compton, called "in le Windgate," soon after the Conquest. Arnulphus de Compton and Osbertus de Compton were living in the 16th of Henry II., but Philip de Compton is the first of the name who certainly held the manor of Compton, in the fifth of John. Here the family continued resident for many ages; but its importance arose in a great degree from Sir William Compton having been brought up with Henry Duke of York, afterwards Henry VIII., and from the marriage of his great-grandson, the first Earl of Northampton, with the City Heiress of Spencer.

The Comptons were pre-eminently distinguished for loyalty during the Civil Wars of the seventeenth century.

See Dugdale's Warwickshire, vol. i. p. 549; and Brydges's Collins, vol. iii. p. 223.

Arms.—Sable, a lion of England or between three esquire's helmets argent. A former coat, borne by Thomas de Comptone, apparently about the reign of Edward III., was a chevron charged with three fleurs-de-lis. This is proved by a silver seal dug up at Compton in the year 1845; and the same arms are still to be traced on an ancient mutilated monument of a knight with collar of S.S., supposed to represent Sir Thomas de Compton, in the church of Compton Wyniate. The three helmets were afterwards adopted, and appear to have been the arms of a distinct family, the Comptons of Fenny Compton in this county; to which Henry VIII. gave the lion as an augmentation; at the same time, according to the custom of the period, was added a quartering to the family arms, viz.: Argent, a chevron azure, within a border vert bezantee.

Present Representative, Charles Douglas Compton, 3rd Marquess of Northampton.

The younger, but, in England, the only remaining branch of a very ancient family, denominated from Chetwynd, in Shropshire, and of Baxterly, in this county, in the 37th of Henry III. Sir William Chetwind was the first of the name seated at Grendon, in the 39th of Edward III., his mother being daughter and coheir of Sir Ralph de Grendon; but Ingestre, in Staffordshire, which came from the heiress of Mutton, was the principal seat of the Chetwinds, which was eventually carried by an heiress into the Talbot family (now Earl of Shrewsbury).

Elder Branch. The Viscounts Chetwynd of Ireland (1717).

See Dugdale's Warwickshire, vol. ii. p. 1101; Erdeswick's Staffordshire, ed. 1844, p. 61; Eyton's Shropshire, viii. p. 81; and Archdall's Lodge, vol. v. p. 148.

Arms.—Azure, a chevron between three mullets or. In the reign of Edward II. Sir John Chetwind bore, Azure, a chevron or, without the mullets; the present coat was borne by others of the family in the reigns of Edward III. and Richard II. (Rolls.)

Present Representative, Sir George Chetwynd, third Baronet.

The princely extraction of this noble family from the counts of Hapsburg in Germany is well known; its ancestor, Galfridus, or Geffrey, came into England in the twelfth year of the reign of Henry III., and received large possessions from that monarch. The name is derived from Rinfelden, in Germany, where, and at Lauffenburg, were the patrimonial possessions of the house of Hapsburg. Newnham was in possession of John Fildying in the twelfth of Henry VI., inherited from his mother Joan, daughter and heir of William Prudhome.

See Dugdale's Warwickshire, vol. i. p. 86; Brydges's Collins' vol. iii. p. 265; and Nichols's Leicestershire, vol. iv. pt. i. p. 273, for the history of this illustrious family, compiled by Nathaniel Wanley about the year 1670.

Arms.—Argent, on a fess azure three fusils or. The present coat was borne in the reigns of Edward III. and Richard II., as appears by Seals of those dates.

Present Representative, Rudolph William Basil Feilding, 8th Earl of Denbigh.

This family is stated by Thomas, in his additions to Dugdale's Warwickshire, to be a branch of the Stauntons of Staunton, in the county of Nottingham, an ancient house which is traced to the Conquest, and was lately represented by Sir George Staunton, Baronet of Ireland 1785, extinct 1859. The first of the line seated in Warwickshire was Thomas Staunton, in the 39th of Henry VI., 1461. The parent house, existing in the male line, until the year 1688, at Staunton, in Nottinghamshire, held their lands by tenure of Castle-Guard, by keeping and defending a tower in the Castle of Belvoir, to this day called Staunton Tower. There is an ancient custom also that the chief of the house of Staunton should present the key of this tower to any of the Royal Family who may honour Belvoir with their presence.

Younger Branch. Staunton of Wolverton, in this county, settled there in the eighteenth of Elizabeth; extinct in the last century.

See Dugdale's Warwickshire, vol. ii. p. 665; Thoroton's Nottinghamshire, p. 157; and for the poetical pedigree of this house, Ib. p. 159; the monuments at p. 164; see also "Memoirs of the Life and Family of the late Sir G. L. Staunton, Bart." pr. pr. 8vo. 1833.

Arms.—Argent, two chevrons within a border engrailed sable. Founded on the coat of Albany Lord of Belvoir, who bore, Or, two chevrons and a border gules. The elder line of Staunton sometimes omitted the border; see the tombs in the church of Staunton.

Present Representative, John Staunton, Esq.

The sole remains of what was perhaps during the middle ages the most powerful Norman family in England. Illustrious both for the antiquity of race, the former political consequence, and the splendour of connection of the various branches, of which the forfeited Earls of Derby, and De Ferrariis, or Ferrers, were the chiefs. Descended from Henry de Feriers at the time of the Conquest, who held in chief 210 lordships in fourteen counties of England, besides the castle and borough of Tutbury, in Staffordshire, the principal seat of the earldom.

The Baddesley-Clinton line was founded by Sir Edward Ferrers, (son of Sir Henry, who was second son of Thomas Ferrers, of Tamworth Castle, in this county,) by his marriage with Constantia, daughter and heiress of Nicholas Brome, of Baddesley. He died in 1535.

After the forfeiture of the Earldom of Derby, in the reign of Henry III., and the vast possessions attached to it, the Castle of Chartley, in Staffordshire, inherited from Agnes, daughter and coheir of Ranulph, Earl of Chester, became the seat of the principal male line, extinct on the death of William Lord Ferrers of Chartley in the 28th of Henry VI. The representation of the family thereupon devolved on the Ferrers's of Tamworth, sprung from the house of Groby, who were founded by William, younger brother of the last Earl of Derby: and on the decease of John Ferrers, of Tamworth, Esq. in 1680, the present family of Baddesley-Clinton succeeded as chief of this illustrious house.

See Dugdale's Warwickshire, vol. ii. p. 971, for Baddesley-Clinton, where however will be found no engravings of the monuments of the Ferrers's, "because," says Dugdale, "so frugall a person is the present heir of the family, now (1656) residing here, as that he refusing to contribute anything towards the charge thereof, they are omitted." For Ferrers of Chartley, and the Earls of Derby, see Sir O. Mosley's History of Tutbury, 8vo. 1832; and Dugdale's Warwickshire, vol. ii. p. 1089; and for Ferrers of Tamworth, the same, p. 1135.

Arms.—Gules, seven mascles or, a canton ermine. This was the coat of Quinci, Earl of Winchester, from whom the Ferrers of Groby were descended, the canton being added for difference. The original coat assigned to the first Earls of Derby, was, Argent, six horseshoes sable; afterwards, Vair or and gules, within a bordure of horseshoes, was used. The Chartley line bore only, Vair, or and gules, which was latterly also borne by Ferrers of Tamworth. The Quinci coat was used by William de Ferrers at Carlaverock in 1300. (See the Roll.)

Present Representative, Marmion Edward Ferrers, Esq.

Turvey in Bedfordshire was the principal seat in England of this noble Norman family, descended from Osbert le Mordaunt, who came over from Normandy with William the Conqueror, and received a grant of the lordship of Radwell in that county. In 1529, John Mordaunt, the representative of the family, was summoned to Parliament by writ as Baron Mordaunt of Turvey. His great-great-grandson was created Earl of Peterborough in 1628; which title, together with the elder line of the family, became extinct on the decease of Charles-Henry Mordaunt, fifth Earl, in 1814.

The present family descend from Robert, son of William Mordaunt of Hemsted, in Essex, who was second son of William Mordaunt of Turvey, living in the 11th of Henry IV., which Robert married Barbara, daughter of John le Strange, of Massingham-Parva in Norfolk, and of Walton-D'Eivile, in this county, which since the 32nd year of Henry VIII., 1549-50, has remained the inheritance of their descendants.

See Dugdale's Warwickshire, vol. i. p. 577: Parkins's continuation of Blomefield's Norfolk, vol. iv. p. 643; and that very rare volume compiled by order of the second Earl of Peterborough, called "Halstead's Genealogies," fo. 1685, privately printed.

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

Present Representative, Sir Charles Mordaunt, 10th. Baronet, M. P. for South Warwickshire.

This ancient family, originally of Biddulph, in the northern parts of Staffordshire, is traced to Ormus, mentioned in the Domesday Survey. He was, it is said, of Norman descent, and is supposed to have married the Saxon heiress of Biddulph, from whence the name was afterwards assumed. The elder line terminated on the death of' John Biddulph, Esq. of Biddulph and of Burton in Sussex, in the year 1835. The Birdingbury branch, now representing this venerable house, was founded by Symon, second son of Richard Biddulph, of Biddulph, in the time of Henry VIII., whose descendant, another Symon, purchased Birdingbury in 1687. The family were eminently loyal during the Civil Wars, when the ancient seat of Biddulph was destroyed by the Cromwellians about 1643-4.

Younger Branch. Biddulph of Ledbury, in the county of Hereford, descended from Anthony, younger brother of the first Baronet.

See Dugdale's Warwickshire, vol. i. p. 324; Shaw's History of Staffordshire, vol. i. p. 352; Erdeswick's Staffordshire, ed. 1844, p. 8; Ward's History of the Borough of Stoke-upon-Trent, p. 277; and Wotton's Baronetage, vol. iii. p. 442.

Arms.—Vert, an eagle displayed argent, armed and langued gules. Argent, three soldering-irons sable, is also said to have been borne by the Biddulphs.

Present Representative, Sir Theophilus William Biddulph, 7th Baronet.

The name is derived from Skipwith, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, and was first borne by Patrick, living in the reign of Henry I., who was second son of Robert de Estotevile, Baron of Cottingham in the reign of William the Conqueror. In the reign of Henry III. the Skipwiths removed into Lincolnshire, and were seated at Beckeby and Ormesby, in that county; a younger son of Sir William Skipwith, of Ormesby, who died in 1587, was of Prestwould, in Leicestershire. He was the ancestor of the Skipwiths of Newbold Hall, created Baronet in 1670, extinct in 1790, and of the present family, who for five generations were of Virginia, in America, where the grandfather of the present Baronet was born.

See Dugdale's Warwickshire, vol. i. p. 84; Nichols's Leicestershire, vol. iii. pt. i. p. 368; and Wotton's Baronetage, vol. i. p. 536,

Arms.—Argent, three bars pules, in chief a greyhound courant sable.

Present Representative, Sir Peyton Estoteville Skipwith, 10th Baronet.

The antiquity of this family need not be doubted, although the lineal descent, as Dugdale avouches, is not very plain. William de Suckeberge is presumed to be the first who assumed the name, from Shuckborough Superior, in this county; he was living in the third of John. The pedigree is deduced by Baker, in his History of Northamptonshire, from John de Shuckburgh, living in the first of Edward III. In the seventh of Henry V. his great-grandson William is ranked amongst those knights and esquires of this county who bore ancient arms from their ancestors. It was to Richard Shuckburgh, head of the family in 1642, that the remarkable incident happened which is related by Dugdale. Charles I. having met him hunting with his hounds a day or two before the battle of Edgehill, "Who is that," said the King, "hunting so merrily, while I am about to fight for my crown and dignity?" He was knighted the next day, and proved his loyalty at the battle of Edge-hill. He died in 1656, and his son was rewarded with the Baronetcy on the Restoration.

Younger Branch. Shuckburgh of Downton, Wiltshire, descended from Charles, fourth son of the first Baronet.

See Dugdale's Warwickshire, vol. i. p. 309; Baker's Northamptonshire, vol. i. p. 371; Wotton's Baronetage, vol. iii. p. 76; and Hoare's Modern Wiltshire, vol. iv. p. 34.

Arms.—Sable, a chevron between three mullets pierced argent. This coat is evidently founded on the arms of Danvers, the Norman family under whom the Shuckburghs held: it has been fondly assumed that the mullets are allusive to the astroites found in the ploughed fields at Shuckburgh.

Present Representative, Sir Francis Shuckburgh, 8th Baronet.

The name is derived from Throcmorton, in the parish of Fladbury, in the county of Worcester, where John de Trockemerton, the supposed ancestor of this family, was living about the year 1200. From this John descended, after many generations, another "John Throkmerton," who was, according the Leland, "the first setter up of his name to any worship in Throkmerton village, the which was at that tyme neither of his inheritance or purchase, but as a thing taken of the Sete of Wircester in farme, bycause he bore the name of the lordeship and village. This John was Under-Treasurer of England about the tyme of Henry V.;" and married Elianor, daughter and coheir of Guido de la Spine, and thus became possessed of Coughton, in the parish of Hadley, in this county, which has continued the principal seat of the family, of whom the most remarkable was Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, ambassador in France, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, who died in 1570.

Younger Branches (now extinct), were the Throckmortons of Stoughton and Ellington, in Huntingdonshire, [for the latter see Camden's Visitation of that county in 1613, printed by the Camden Society in 1849, p. 123;] and the Carews of Bedington, in Surrey, Baronet 1714, extinct 1764; descended in the male line from Sir Nicholas, younger son of Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, and Anne, daughter of Sir Nicholas Carew, Knt.; see Wotton's Baronetage, vol. ii. pi 351, and vol. iv. p. 159; Dugdale's Warwickshire, vol. ii. pp. 749 and 819; Nash's Worcestershire, vol. i. p. 452; Leland's Itinerary, vol. iv. p. 16; and for the poetical life of Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, see Peck's Memoirs of Milton.

Arms.—Gules, on a chevron argent three bars gemelles sable.

Present Representative, Sir Nicholas William Throckmorton, 9th Baronet.

The descent of this family from the ancient house of Sheldon, of Sheldon, in this county, is a matter of doubt, but admitted by Dugdale to be not improbable. It appears to be proved that the Sheldons are descended from John Sheldon, of Abberton, in Worcestershire, in the reign of Henry IV. Nash, in his History of that county, carries the pedigree two descents higher, viz., to Richard Sheldon of Rowley, in the county of Stafford, whose grandson John was of the same place in the fourth of Edward IV. The manor of Beoly, in Worcestershire, was purchased of Richard Neville Lord Latimer by William Sheldon in the same reign, and continued till the destruction of the mansion-house by fire in the Civil Wars of the seventeenth century, the principal seat of the family, who were connected with Warwickshire by the marriage of William Sheldon, Esq. with Mary, daughter and coheir of William Willington, of Barcheston, Esq., in the reign of Henry VIII. It was this William Sheldon who purchased the manor of Weston, in the parish of Long-Compton, in this county, and here his son Ralph built "a very fair house" in the reign of Queen Elizabeth; but these estates have both, within the memory of man, passed from this ancient family, who still possess considerable properly at Brailes, purchased by William Sheldon in the first of Edward VI.

Younger branches of the Sheldons were formerly of Abberton, Childswicombe, Broadway, and Spechley, in Worcestershire. See Dugdale's Warwickshire, vol. i. p. 584; and Nash's Worcestershire, vol. i. pp. 65 and 144.

Arms.—Sable, a fess between three sheldrakes argent.

Present Representative, Henry James Sheldon, Esq.

This family is traced to John Gregory, Lord of the manors of Freseley and Asfordby, in the county of Leicester, who married Maud, daughter of Sir Roger Moton, of Peckleton, knight; his son, Richard Gregory, of the same places, died in the year 1292. Arthur Gregory, Esquire, the representative of this ancient family, was seated at Styvechall, within the county of the city of Coventry, of which his father, Thomas, died seized in the sixteenth of Elizabeth.

See Nichols's Leicestershire, vol. iii. pt. i. p. 19; and Dugdale's Warwickshire, vol. i. p. 202.

Arms.—Or, two bars and in chief a lion passant azure.

Present Representative, Arthur Francis Gregory, Esq.

This family was founded by the wool-trade in the fourteenth century by William Grevel, "the flower of the wool merchants of the whole realm of England," who died and was buried at Campden, in Gloucestershire, in 1401. He it was who purchased Milcote, in this county, long the seat of the elder line of this family, who, after a succession of crimes, the particulars of which may be seen in Dugdale's Warwickshire, became extinct in the reign of James I. Fulke, second son of Sir Edward Greville of Milcote, who died in the 20th of Henry VIII., having married Elizabeth, one of the daughters and coheiress of Edward Willoughby, only son of Robert Willoughby, Lord Brooke, became possessed of Beauchamp's Court, in the parish of Alcester, inherited from her grandmother Elizabeth, the eldest of the daughters and coheirs of the last Lord Beauchamp of Powyke. This Fulke Greville was grandfather of the more celebrated Sir Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke, "servant to Queen Elizabeth, Counsellor to King James, and friend to Sir Philip Sidney," who died in 1628. "The fanatic Brooke," killed at Lichfield Close, was his cousin and successor, and ancestor of the present family. The Castle of Warwick was granted to Sir Fulke Greville by James I. in the second year of his reign.

Younger Branch. Greville of North Myms Place, in the county of Hertford, and of Westmeath, in Ireland, descended from Algernon, second son of Fulke 5th Lord Brooke.

See Leland's Itinerary, vol. iv. pt. i. fol. 16, vol. vi. fol. 19; Dugdale's Warwickshire, vol. ii. pp. 706, 766; Brydges's Collins, vol. iv. p. 330; and Edmondson's Account of the Greville Family, 8vo. 1766.

Arms.—Sable, on a cross engrailed or, five pellets within a border engrailed of the second. The present coat, with the addition of a mullet in the first quarter, was borne by William Grevil, of Campden, as appears by his brass, still in good preservation; his son John differenced his arms with ten annulets, in lieu of the five pellets; both were omitted by the Grevilles of Milcote.

Present Representative, George Guy Greville, 4th Earl of Warwick.

Eminently a knightly family, traced by Brydges to Sir Gervase de Lowther, living in the reign of Henry III. Other authorities make Sir Hugh de Lowther, knight of the shire for this county, in the 28th of Edward I., the first recorded ancestor; his great-grandson was at Agincourt in 1415. There have been three principal branches of this family, the first descended from Sir John Lowther, created a Baronet of Nova Scotia in 1640, who was grandfather of the first Viscount Lonsdale (1696), extinct on the death of the third Viscount in 1750. The second family sprung from Richard, third son of Sir John Lowther; and the third and present family descended from William, third son of a former Sir John Lowther, of Lowther, who died in 1637.

Younger Branch. Lowther of Swillington, in the county of York, Baronet 1824, descended from John, second son of Sir William Lowther, who died in 1788.

See Brydges's Collins, vol. v. p. 695; Burn's Westmorland, vol. i. p. 428; Whitaker's Leeds, vol. i. p. 281; and Wotton's Baronetage, vol. ii. p. 302.

Arms.—Or, six annulets sable, and borne by Monsire Louther, in the reign of Edward III. (Roll )

Present Representative, William Lowther, 2nd Earl of Lonsdale.

Descended from Walter de Stirkland, Knight, so called from the pasture-ground of the young cattle, called stirks or steers, in the parish of Morland, in this county; who was living in the reign of Henry III. A good account of this family, derived from original evidences, is given by Burn.

Sizergh, in the parish of Helsington, appears to have belonged to the Stricklands in the reign of Edward I. Sir Walter de Strickland had licence to empark there in the ninth of Edward III. During the civil wars of the seventeenth century the head of this house was loyal, while Walter, son of Sir William Strickland, of Boynton, Baronet 1641, was one of Cromwell's pretended House of Peers. The Stricklands of Boynton are supposed to be a younger branch of the house of Sizergh. The Stricklands called Standish, of Standish, in the county of Lancaster, represent the elder line, the present Mr. Standish being the eldest son of the late Thomas Strickland, of Sizergh, Esq.

See Burn's Westmorland, vol. i. p. 87; and Whitaker's Richmondshire, vol. ii. p. 333.

Arms.—Sable, three escallops within a border engrailed argent. The present coat, but without the border, was borne by Walter de Strykelande, in the reign of Richard II. Another coat, used in the reign of Edward II. was Argent, two bars and a quarter gules. (Rolls.) The Stricklands of Boynton bear, Gules, a chevron or between three crosses patée argent, on a canton ermine a stag's head erased sable.

Present Representative, Walter Strickland, Esq.

Michael le Fleming, living in the reign of William the Conqueror, is the ancestor of this ancient family, originally seated in Cumberland and at Gleston, in Furness, in Lancashire. Isabel, daughter of Sir John de Lancastre, living in the sixth of Henry VI., having married Sir Thomas le Fleming, of Coniston, Knight, seated the Flemings at Rydal, ever since the residence of the family.

See Burn's Westmorland, vol. i. p. 150; and Wotton's Baronetage, vol. iv. p. 105.

Arms.—Gules, fretty argent. The present coat, called "The arms of Hoddleston," with a label vert, was borne by John Fleming de Westmerland in the reign of Edward III. (Roll.) A more ancient coat, according to Wotton, was a Fleur-de-lis, within a roundell.

Present Representative, Sir Michael le Fleming, 7th Baronet.

In the thirty-eighth year of the reign of Edward III., William de Wybergh, of Saint Bee's, in Cumberland, became possessed of the manor of Clifton, in marriage with Elianor, only daughter of Gilbert D'Engayne, whose family had held it from the time of Henry II. It has ever since continued the seat and residence of their descendants. In Cromwell's days the Wyberghs had the honour to be considered delinquents; and in the succeeding century, in 1715, the head of the house was taken prisoner in consequence of his allegiance to the house of Hanover.

Younger Branch. Lawson of Brayton, Baronet 1831.

See Burn's Westmorland, vol. i. p. 417.

Arms.—Sable, three bars or, in chief two estoiles of the last. Sometimes I find two mullets in chief, and one in base, used in place of the estoiles.

Present Representative, William Wybergh, Esq.