An ancient family, which has been seated in many counties, originally of Waldegrave, in Northamptonshire; afterwards settled in Suffolk; about the latter end of the fifteenth century, seised of lands in this county; and again we find them in Norfolk and Somersetshire. Naverstock was granted by Queen Mary in 1553, the Waldegraves having suffered for their attachment to the old faith at the time of the Reformation. Leland thus mentions the family; "As far as I could gather of young Walgreve, of the Courte, the eldest house of the Walgreves cummith owt of the Town of Northampton or ther about, and there yet remaineth in Northamptonshire a man of landes of that name."

See Leland's Itinerary, iv. fol. 19; Morant's Essex, i. 181; Brydges's Collins, iv. 232; and the Scrope and Grosvenor Roll, ii. p. 374, for an interesting memoir of Sir Richard Waldegrave, who died in 1401, having been chosen Speaker of the House of Commons in 1381.

Younger branch, Baron Radstock, of Ireland, 1800, descended from the younger brother of the fourth Earl Waldegrave.

Arms.—Per pale argent and gules. This coat was borne by M. Richard Waldeg've, as appears by the Roll of the reign of Richard II.

Present Representative, William Frederick Waldegrave, 9th Earl Waldegrave.

A younger branch of an ancient Knightly Norman house, settled for many years at Norton D'Isney in Lincolnshire, where the principal line became extinct in 1722. The present family descend from the eldest son by the second marriage of Sir Henry Disney of Norton Disney, who died in 1641. See very elaborate pedigrees of this family in the College of Arms, Norfolk 1, p. 38, and Norfolk 7, p. 76; also Hutchins's Dorset, iv. p. 389, for Disney of Swinderby, co. Lincoln, and of Corscomb, co. Dorset, and for the present family.

See also the Topographer and Genealogist, iii. 393; and Leland's Itinerary, i. p. 28, "Disney, alias De Iseney. He dwelleth at Diseney, and of his name and line be Gentilmen yn Fraunce."

Arms.—Argent, on a fess gules three fleurs-de-lis or. In the reign of Richard II. Monsieur William Dysney bore, Argent, three lions passant in pale gules. (Roll.)

Present Representative, Edgar Disney, Esq.

The family of Gent was seated at Wymbish in this county in 1328. William Gent, living in 1468, married Joan, daughter and heir of William Moyne of Moyne or Moyns. His widow purchased that manor in 1494, and it has since continued the seat of this family, who were greatly advanced by Sir Thomas Gent, the Judge, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.

See Morant's History of Essex, ii. 353.

Arms.—Ermine, a chief indented sable. Sometimes a chevron sable is borne on the field. The Judge bore two spread eagles on the chief, as appears by his seal.

Present Representative, George Gent, Esq.

The family of Vincent descend from Miles Vincent, owner of lands at Swinford in the county of Leicester, in the tenth of Edward II. Early in the fifteenth century the family removed to Bernack, in the county of Northampton, on marriage with the heiress of Sir John Bernack, of that place. Here they continued to reside, until David Vincent, Esq. seventh in descent from that marriage, settled at Long-Ditton, in Surrey, in the reign of Henry VIII. His son, Sir Thomas Vincent, by marriage with the heiress of Lyfield, removed to Stoke d'Abernon, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, which was sold shortly after 1809, when the family removed to the present seat in this county.

See Wotton's Baronetage, vol. i. p. 418; and Manning and Bray's Surrey, vol. ii. p. 723.

Arms.—Azure, three quatrefoils urgent.

Present Representative, Sir Francis Vincent, 10th Baronet.

Pre-eminent among the Norman aristocracy is the house of Berkeley, and more especially remarkable from being the only family in England in the male line retaining as their residence their ancient Feudal Castle. This great family are descended from Hardinge, who fought with William at the battle of Hastings; and whose son, Robert Fitzhardinge, received the lordship and castle of Berkeley from Henry II., in reward for his fidelity to the Empress Maude and her son. His son and successor Maurice married Alice, daughter of Roger de Berkeley, the former and dispossessed owner of Berkeley.

Younger branches. The Berkeleys of Cotheridge and Spetchley, both in Worcestershire, and both descended from Thomas, fourth son of James fifth Lord Berkeley, and Isabel, daughter of Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk. (Nash's Worcestershire, i. 258.)

For Berkeley of Stoke-Gifford in this county, and of Bruton, co. Somerset, (Lords Berkeley of Stratton,) both extinct, see Blore's Rutlandshire, p, 210; for Berkeley of Wymondham, also extinct, see Nichols's Leicestershire, ii. pt. 1. p. 413; for Berkeley-Portman of Bryanston, co. Dorset, see Hutchins's Dorset, i. 154.

For Berkeley Genealogy, see Leland's Itinerary, vi. fo. 49, &c.; for Charters of the Berkeleys, with their seals copied from the originals at Berkeley Castle, see MSS. Reg. Coll. Oxon. cxlix., and, above all, Fosbroke's "Abstracts and Extracts of Smyth's Lives of the Berkeleys," admirably illustrative of the ancient manners of our old landed families.

Arms.—Gules, a chevron between ten crosses patée argent. The original arms were, Gules, a chevron argent, and were so borne by Moris de Barkele, in the reign of Henry III. The present coat was used by Sir Moris in the reigns of Edward II. and III. and Richard II. His son, during his father's life, differenced his arms by a label azure; Sir Thomas de Berkeley used "rosettes" instead of crosses; Sir John de Berkeley, Gules, a chevron argent between three crosses patée or. (Roll of Edw. II. &c.)

See for the differences in the Berkeley coat, Camden's Remains, ed. 1657, p. 226.

Present Representative, Thomas Morton Fitz-Hardinge Berkeley, 6th Earl of Berkeley.

Ansgerus, or Arthur, owner of lands in Combe, in the parish of Wotton under Edge, in this county, the gift of the Empress Maude, is the patriarch of this venerable family. The manor of Kingscote, which had been given by William I. to Roger de Berkeley, was inherited from Aldeva, the daughter of Robert Fitz-Hardinge and the wife of Nigel de Kingscote, soon after the reign of Henry II.

The Kingscotes shared in the glories of both Poictiers and Agincourt, and, although a family of such long standing in this county, appear never to have exceeded the moderate limits of their present ancestral property.

See Atkyns's Gloucestershire, 2nd edit. 1768, p. 258; Rudder's Gloucestershire, p. 512; and Fosbroke's Smyth's Lives of the Berkeleys, p. 218.

Arms.—Argent, nine escallops sable, on a canton gules a mullet pierced or.

Present Representative, Thomas Henry Kingscote, Esq.

This family is traced to Rawlin Try, in the reign of Richard II. He married an heiress of Berkeley, by whom he had the manor of Alkington in Berkeley. His great-grandson was High Sheriff of Gloucestershire in 1447, and married an heiress of Boteler, from whence came the manor of Hardwicke, sold to the Yorkes in the last century. Leckhampton came from the Norwood family in recent times.

See Atkyns's Gloucestershire, p. 238; and Rudder, p. 471, &c.

Arms.—Or, a bend azure. In the Roll of Arms of the Thirteenth Century, printed by the Society of Antiquaries in 1864 [numbers 69 and 70], occur the following coats:

Present Representative, Rev. Charles Brandon Trye.

The printed accounts of this ancient family are somewhat meagre, but original evidences in the possession of the present Mr. Estcourt prove the long continuance of his ancestors as lords of the manor of the place from whence the name is derived, and of which John Estcourt died seised in the fourteenth year of Edward IV. The estate has remained the inheritance of his descendants from that period.

Walter de la Estcourt is the first recorded ancestor. He held lands in Shipton in 1317, and died about 1325. See Atkyns's Gloucestershire, 2nd ed. p. 340; Rudder, p. 654 and Lee's History of the Parish of Tetbury, p. 196.

Arms.—Ermine, on a chief indented gules three estoiles or, and so borne by William Estcourt, Warden of New College, Oxford, in 1426, as appears by his silver seal in the possession of Mr. Estcourt.

Present Representative, The Right Hon. Thomas H. S. Sotheron-Estcourt, late M.P. for North Wilts.

Descended from Agnes, daughter and heir of Richard de Legh, and her second husband William Venables, the common ancestress of the Leighs of West-Hall in High-Leigh. (See p. 22.) They had a son who took the name of Legh, and settled at Booths in Cheshire: from hence came the Leighs of Adlington, and from them the Leighs of Lyme, both in Cheshire, and both now extinct. John Leigh, Escheator of Cheshire in the 12th of Henry VI., was a younger son of Sir Peter Leigh, of Lyme, and the ancestor of the Leighs of Ridge, in the same county. Ridge was sold in the fourth of George II., and the family (still I believe existing) removed into Kent.

The present family are descended from Sir Thomas Leigh, Knight, Lord Mayor of London in 1558, who was also the ancestor of the extinct house of Stoneleigh. Sir Thomas was great-grandson of Sir Peter Leigh, Knight Banneret, who fell at Agincourt.

Younger Branches. Leigh of Middleton in Yorkshire, and Egginton in Derbyshire. See also Townley of Townley.

Extinct Branches. Leigh of Rushall, in Staffordshire; see Shaw's Staffordshire, ii. 69; of Brownsover, co. Warwick, Baronet; of Baguly, co. Chester; of Annesley, co. Notts; of Birch, co. Lancaster; of Stockwell, co. Surrey; and of Isall, co. Cumberland, &c.

So various indeed are the ramifications of the different branches of this wide-spreading family, that "as many Leighs as fleas" has grown into a proverb in Cheshire.

See Ormerod's Cheshire, i. 350; iii. 333, 338, 374.

Arms.—Gules, a cross engrailed, and in the dexter point a fusil argent.

Present Representative, William Henry Leigh, 2nd Baron Leigh.

Hugh de Bodenham, Lord of Bodenham, in this county, grandfather of Roger who lived in the reign of Henry III., is the ancestor of this family; who were afterwards of Monington and of Rotherwas, about the middle of the fifteenth century.

See Blore's Rutlandshire for Bodenham of Ryhall, in that county, now extinct, (p. 49,) and Duncomb's Herefordshire, i. 91, 104.

Arms.—Azure, a fess between three chess-rooks or.

Present Representative, Charles De la Barre Bodenham, Esq.

This is the only remaining branch of an ancient Norman family formerly seated at Upton and Norton near Warminster, in Wiltshire; Walter de Scudamore being lord of the former manor in the reign of Stephen. In that of Edward III. Thomas, younger son of Sir Peter Scudamore, of Upton-Scudamore, having married the heiress of Ewias, removed into Herefordshire, and was the ancestor of the family long seated at Holme-Lacy, created Viscounts Scudamore in 1628, and extinct in 1716. From him also descended the house of Kentchurch, who are said to have been seated there in the reign of Edward IV.

See Gibson's Views of the Churches of Door, Holme-Lacy, and Hemsted, &c. 4to. 1727; and Guillim's Heraldry, ed. 1724, p. 549.

Arms.—Gules, three stirrups, leathered and buckled, or. Ancient coat, Or, a cross patée fitchée gules.

Present Representative, John Lucy Scudamore, Esq.

Luttley is in the parish of Enfield, in the county of Stafford, and Philip de Luttley was lord thereof in the 20th of Edward I. He was the ancestor of a family the direct line of which terminated in an heiress in the reign of Henry VI. But Adam de Luttley, younger brother of Philip above-named, was grandfather of Sir William Luttley, Knight, of Munslow Hall, co. Salop, whose lineal descendant, John Luttley, Esq. was of Bromcroft Castle, in the same county, 1623. Philip Luttley, Esq. of Lawton Hall, co. Salop, great-grandson of John last-named, married Penelope, only daughter of Richard Barneby, Esq. of Brockhampton; and their son, Bartholomew, succeeding to the Barneby estates, assumed that name; and was grandfather of the late John Barneby, Esq. M. P. for the county of Worcester.

From the MSS. of Mr. Joseph Morris of Shrewsbury.

Arms.—Quarterly or and azure, four lions rampant counterchanged.

Present Representative, John Habington Barneby, Esq.

The name is derived from Berington, in the hundred of Condover, and county of Salop, where Thomas and Roger de Berington were living in the reigns of Edward I. and II. Another Thomas, living in the time of Edward III., married Alice, daughter of Sir John Draycot, Knight, and was ancestor of John Berington, of Stoke-Lacy, in this county, who, about the reign of Henry VII. married Eleanor, daughter and heir of Rowland Winsley, of Winsley, Esq. From this marriage the present Mr. Berington is tenth in descent.

From Roger de Berington, brother of Thomas first-named, the Beringtons of Shrewsbury and of Moat Hall, co. Salop, traced their descent. Thomas Berington, of Moat Hall, Esq. who died in 1719, married Anne, daughter of John Berington, of Winsley, Esq.; and the last heir male of their descendants, Philip Berington, Esq. dying s.p. in 1803, devised his Shropshire estates to his kinsman, Mr. Berington, of Winsley.

From the MSS. of Mr. Joseph Morris, of Shrewsbury, and Eyton's Shropshire, vi. p. 42.

Arms.—Sable, three greyhounds courant in pale argent, collared gules, within a border of the last.

Present Representative, John Berington, Esq.

A family of Norman origin, said to have come into England with William the Conqueror, and to have been seated at Sempringham, in the county of Lincoln, by the grant of that monarch. In 1249 Thomas Jocelyn, son of John, having married Maud, daughter and coheir of Sir John Hyde, of Hyde, brought that manor and lordship into this family, in which it has ever since continued. The peerage was originally conferred on Robert Jocelyn, Lord Chancellor of Ireland in 1739, created Baron Newport 1743, whose son, the first Earl, married the heiress of the Hamiltons, Earls of Clanbrassil, in 1752.

See "Historical Anecdotes of the Families of the Boleyns, Careys, Mordaunts, Hamiltons, and Jocelyns, arranged as an Elucidation of the Genealogical Chart at Tollymore Park," Newry, 1839, privately printed. See also Archdall's Lodge's Peerage of Ireland, iii. 258, and Chauncy's Hertfordshire, 1st ed. p. 182.

Arms.—Azure, a circular wreath argent and sable, with four hawk's bells joined thereto in quadrature or.

Present Representative, Robert Jocelyn, third Earl of Roden, K.P.

This is a very ancient Shropshire family, descended from Sir Adam Wolryche, Knight, of Wenlock, living in the reign of Henry III., and who, previous to being knighted, was admitted of the Roll of Guild Merchants of the town of Shrewsbury in 1231, by the old Saxon name of "Adam Wulfric." His descendant Andrew Wolryche was M. P. for Bridgnorth in 1435, being then of Dudmaston, where the elder branch of this family was seated for a considerable period, created Baronets in 1641, extinct in 1723. The present family descend from Edward, third son of Humphry Wolryche, Esq. grandson of Andrew Wolryche, which Humphry is recorded as one of the "Gentlemen" of Shropshire, in the seventeenth of Henry VII., 1501. There were branches of the family, now extinct, at Cowling and Wickhambroke, Suffolk, and Alconbury, Huntingdonshire.

From the MSS. of Mr. Joseph Morris, of Shrewsbury.

Arms.—Azure, a chevron between three swans argent.

Present Representative, Humphry William Wolryche, Esq.

The pedigree of this family does not appear to be proved beyond William Sherard, who died in 1304. His ancestors, however, are said to have been of Thornton, in Cheshire, in the thirteenth century. In 1402 the family were established at Stapleford in Leicestershire by marriage with the heiress of Hawberk.

On the decease of Robert Sherard, sixth Earl of Harborough, in 1859, the representation of the family devolved upon the present lord, descended from George, third son of the first Baron.

See Nichols's Leicestershire, vol. ii. pt. i. 343; and Brydges's Collins, iv. 180,

An extinct younger branch was of Lopthorne, in the county of Leicester.

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

Present Representative, Philip Castell Sherard, 9th Baron Sherard.

The family of Dering descend from Norman de Morinis, whose ancestor, Vitalis FitzOsbert, lived in the reign of Henry II. Norman de Morinis married the daughter of Deringus, descended from Norman Fitz-Dering, Sheriff of this county in King Stephen's reign. Richard Dering died seised of Surenden, which came from the heiress of Haute, in 1480. The loyalty of Sir Edward Dering in the Civil Wars, in Charles I.'s time, deserves to be remembered: see his character in Peck's Desiderata Curiosa, II. B. 14, 19, 20, and the interesting memoir of him by John Bruce, Esq. F.S.A. in "Proceedings in the County of Kent," printed for the Camden Society 1861.

For a notice of the old seats of this family, in the parish of Lidd, called Dengemarsh Place and Westbrooke, see Hasted's History of Kent, iii. 515, and for the family, iii. 228; and Wotton's Baronetage, ii. 13,

Arms.—Argent, a fess azure, in chief three torteauxes, borne by "Richard fil' Deringi de Haut," in 19 Hen. IV. as appears by his seal. The same coat is on the roof of the cloisters of Canterbury Cathedral. The son of this Sir Richard Dering bore, Or, a saltier sable, the ancient arms of De Morinis, and now generally quartered with Dering. See Willement's Heraldic Notices of Canterbury Cathedral, pp. 90, 106.

Present Representative, Sir Edward C. Dering, 8th Baronet, M.P. for East Kent.

"In point of antiquity, and former feudal power, probably the most illustrious house in the peerage," says Brydges. Descended from Gospatric, the Saxon Earl of Northumberland, whose great-grandson, marrying the heiress of Neville, gave that name to his posterity, for many ages the Nevilles were Barons of Raby and Earls of Westmerland. The last Earl was attainted in the 13th of Elizabeth. A younger branch of the Nevilles, in the person of Sir Edward Neville, obtained the castle and barony of Abergavenny, and the estate of Birling, with the heiress of Beauchamp, in the reign of Henry VI.; and the present family is descended from this match, having been Barons of Abergavenny previously to the creation of the Earldom. Birling was long deserted by the family, whose principal seat was afterwards at Sheffield, and Eridge, in Sussex; but it is now the residence of Lord Abergavenny.

See Hasted, ii. 200; Brydges's Collins, v. 151; and Surtees's Durham, iv. 158, for pedigrees of the Nevilles, Earls of Westmerland, and the Nevilles of Weardale and Thornton-Bridge. See also Rowland's "Account of the Noble Family of Neville," privately printed 1830, folio; Surtees's "Sketch of the Stock of Nevill," 8vo. 1843.

Arms.—Gules, a saltier argent, thereon a rose of the first, seeded proper.

This coat, without the rose, was borne by Robert de Neville in the reign of Henry III. In the reign of Edward III. M. de Neville de Hornby bore the coat reversed, Argent, a saltier gules. M. Alexander de Neville, at the same period, differenced it by a martlet sable. M. William Neville and N. Thomas Neville bore for difference respectively, a fleur-de-lis azure and a martlet gules, in the reign of Richard II. (Rolls.) The Rose is allusive to the House of Lancaster, Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmerland, having married to his second wife Joan, daughter of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. The older coat was, Or, fretty gules, on a canton sable an ancient ship.

Present Representative, the Rev. William Neville, 4th Earl of Abergavenny.

The name is derived from Henewood, near Postling, in this county, where the ancestors of this family resided as early as the reign of Henry III. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the Honywoods removed to Hythe, which they often represented in Parliament, and afterwards to Sene, in Newington, near Hythe. Caseborne, in Cheriton, came from an heiress of that name before the time of Henry VI.; Evington, by purchase, in the reign of Henry VII.

Younger branches were of Marks Hall, in Essex, and of Petts, in Charing, in this county. Of the former family was Robert Honywood, whose wife Mary, daughter of Robert Atwaters, or Waters, lived to see 367 descendants: she died in 1620, aged 93.

See Topographer and Genealogist, i. 397, 568; ii. 169, 189, 256, 312, 433; Hasted's Kent, ii. 442, 449; iii. 308; Wotton's Baronetage, iii. 105.

Arms.—Argent, a chevron between three hawk's heads erased azure. These arms, of the time of Richard II. are carved on the cloisters of Canterbury Cathedral. See Willement, p. 101.

Present Representative, Sir Courtenay John Honywood, 7th Baronet.

Twysden, in the parish of Goudhurst, appears to have given name to this family: it was possessed by Adam de Twysden in the reign of Edward I.; and in that of Henry IV. Roger Twysden, his descendant, married the daughter and heir of Thomas Chelmington of Chelmington, in Great Chart, Esq. where his son Roger removed. Twysden was sold in the reign of Henry VI. In the reign of Elizabeth, William Twysden, of Chelmington, married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Roydon, of Roydon-Hall, which has since been the residence of his descendants. There is another Twysden, in the parish of Sandhurst, in this county, where the family are also said to have lived in the time of Edward I.

A younger branch of Bradbourne, in this county, also Baronets, were extinct in 1841.

See Hasted's Kent, ii. 213, 275; iii. 37, 244; Philpot's Kent, p. 300; Wotton's Baronetage, i. 211.

Arms.—Gyronny of four, argent and gules, a saltier between four crosses crosslet, all counterchanged.

Present Representative, Sir William Twysden, 8th Baronet.

This family claim descent from Robert de Toke, who was present with Henry III. at the Battle of Northampton. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the Tokes were seated at Bere, in the parish of Westcliffe, in this county: this line became extinct at the latter end of the seventeenth century.

The Tokes of Godington are a junior branch, descended from the heiress of Goldwell, of Godington, about the reign of Henry VI.

See Hasted's Kent, iii. 247; Visitations of Kent, 1574 and 1619; and Harleian MSS. 1195. 55, 1196. 108.

Arms.—Party per chevron sable and argent, three gryphon's heads erased and counterchanged. John Toke, of Godington, had an additional coat, an augmentation granted to him by Henry VII., as a reward for his expedition in a message on which he was employed to the French King: viz. Argent, on a chevron between three greyhound's heads erased sable, collared or, three plates.

Present Representative, the Rev. Nicholas Toke.

William Roper, or Rosper, who lived in the reign of Henry III, is the first recorded ancestor; his descendants were of St. Dunstan's, near Canterbury, in the reigns of Edward III. and Richard II. Edmund Roper was one of the Justices of the Peace for this county in the time of Henry IV. and V.

The elder line of this family were seated at West-Hall, in Eltham, and also at St. Dunstan's, and became extinct in 1725. The younger and present branch at Linstead, which came from the heiress of Fineux, in the reign of Henry VIII. King James I. conferred the peerage on Sir John Roper in 1616.

For the origin of the family, see Dugdale's Warwickshire, 2nd ed. p. 316; Hasted's Kent, i. 55; ii. 687; iii. 589; and Brydges's Collins, vii. 77.

Arms.—Per fess azure and or, a pale counterchanged, three buck's heads erased of the second.

Present Representative, George Henry Roper Curzon, 16th Baron Teynham.

Hasted gives no detailed pedigree of this family before the purchase of the manor and estate of Hatch, by Richard Knatchbull, in the reign of Henry VII. It appears however that the first recorded ancestor, John Knatchbull, held lands in the parish of Limne, in this county, in the reign of Edward III., where some of the name remained in that of Charles I. There are pedigrees in the Visitations of Kent of 1574 and 1619.

See Philpot's Kent, p.199; Hasted's Kent, iii. 286; and Wotton's Baronetage, ii. 228.

Arms.—Azure, three cross-crosslets fitchée in bend or, cotised of the same.

Present Representative, Sir Norton Joseph Knatchbull, 10th Baronet.

The Filmers were anciently seated at the manor of Herst, in the parish of Otterden, in this county, in the reign of Edward II., and there remained till the time of Elizabeth, when Robert Filmer, son of James, removed to Little-Charleton, in East-Sutton: the manor was purchased by his elder son. There are pedigrees of Filmer in the Kentish Visitations of 1574 and 1619. The Baronetcy was conferred by Charles II., as a reward for the loyal exertions of Sir Robert Filmer during the Usurpation.

See Hasted's Kent, ii. 410; Wotton's Baronetage, iii. 581. Arms.—Sable three bars, and in chief three cinquefoils or.

Present Representative, Sir Edmund Filmer, 9th Baronet, late M.P. for West Kent.

Solomon Oxenden, who lived in the reign of Edward III., is the first known ancestor. Dene, in the parish of Wingham, was purchased at the latter part of the reign of Henry VI. The family had previously been stated at Brook, in the same parish. Thomas Oxenden died seised of Dene in 1492. There is a pedigree in the Visitation of Kent in 1619.

See Hasted's Kent, iii. 696; Wotton's Baronetage, iii. 638.

Arms.—Argent, a chevron gules between three oxen sable. Confirmed in the 24th of Henry VI.

Present Representative, Sir Henry Chudleigh Oxenden, 8th Baronet.