"The name of the Finches," writes Leland, "hath bene of ancient tyme in estimation in Southsex about Winchelesey, and by all likelyhod rose by sum notable merchaunte of Winchelesey." The name is said to be derived from the manor of Finches in the parish of Kidd.

Vincent Herbert, alias Finch, married Joan, daughter and heir of Robert de Pitlesden, of Tenderden. His son was of Netherfield, in Sussex, in the reign of Richard II. and Henry IV.; and was the ancestor of this family, who were of the Moat, near Canterbury, by marriage with the heiress of Belknap before 1493. Eastwell came by the coheiress of Moyle about the reign of Elizabeth.

The heiress of Heneage, who married Sir Moyle Finch, was created Countess of Winchilsea in 1628. The Earldom of Nottingham is due to the law, being granted in 1681 to Heneage, grandson of the first Countess.

Younger Branch. Earl of Aylesford 1714.

From John, second son of the second Vincent Finch, of Netherfield, were descended the Finches of Sewards, Norton, Kingsdown, Feversham, Wye, and other places in this county.

See Leland's Itinerary, vi. fol. 59; Basted's Kent. iii. 198; and Brydges's Collins, iii. 371.

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

Present Representative, George James Finch Hatton, 10th Earl of Winchilsea, and 7th Earl of Nottingham.

Gamel de Pennington, ancestor of this ancient family, was seated at Pennington at the period of the Conquest. But, as early as the reign of Henry II., Muncaster, in Cumberland, belonged to the Penningtons, and afterwards became their residence; and here King Henry VI. was concealed by Sir John Pennington in his flight from his enemies. There is a tradition that, on quitting Muncaster, the king presented his host with a small glass vessel, still possessed by the family, and called "The Luck of Muncaster:" to the preservation of which a considerable degree of superstition was attached.

See Baines's History of the County of Lancaster, iv. 669; Lysons's Cumberland, 139; Wotton's Baronetage, iii. 602.

Arms.—Or, five fusils in fess azure.

Present Representative, Josslyn Francis Pennington, 5th Baron Muncaster.

An ancient Norman family, who have been possessed of the manor of Sefton, in this county, from the period of the Conquest, or very soon afterwards: it was held as a knight's fee, as of the Castle of Lancaster.

William de Molines is the first recorded ancestor, and from him the pedigree is very regularly deduced to the present day. This truly noble family have been greatly distinguished in the field, witness Agincourt and Flodden. Thrice has the honour of the banner been conferred on a Molyneux. The second occasion was in Spain in 1367, from the hands of the Black Prince himself. In the seventeenth century, the family proved themselves right loyal to the crown, and suffered accordingly.

Sir Archdall's Lodge's Peerage of Ireland, iii. 239; Brydges's Biographical Peerage, iv. 93; and Baines's Lancashire, iv. 276.

Younger Branch. Molyneux, of Castle Dillon, co. Armagh, Baronet 1730, descended from Thomas Molyneux, born at Calais in 1531, for whom see "An Account of the Family and Descendants of Sir Thomas Molyneux, Knight, Chancellor of the Exchequer in Ireland to Queen Elizabeth." Evesham, sm. 4to. 1820.

For Molyneux of Teversal, co. Notts, Baronet 1611, extinct 1812, descended from the second son of Sir Richard Molyneux, the hero of Agincourt, see Thoroton's Nottinghamshire, p. 269; and Wotton's Baronetage, i. 141.

Arms.—Azure, a cross moline or. The Irish branch bears a fleur-de-lis or in the dexter quarter.

Present Representative, William Philip Molyneux, 4th Earl of Sefton.

Hocton, or Hoghton, appears to have been granted in marriage by Warin Bussel to one Hamon, called "Pincerna," whose grandson was the first "Adam de Hocton," who held one carucate of land in Hocton in the reign of Henry II. His grandson, Sir Adam de Hoghton, lived in the 50th of Henry III., and was the ancestor of this family.

See Baines's Lancashire, iii. 348 and 459, for an interesting account of Hoghton-Tower, long deserted by the family; and Wotton's Baronetage, i. 15.

Arms.—Sable, three bars argent: borne in the reign of Richard II. by Mons. Ric. de Hoghton. His son (?) Richard, the same, with a label of three points gules. (Rolls.)

Present Representative, Sir Henry Hoghton, 9th Baronet.

Clifton is in the parish of Kirkham, and here William de Clifton held ten carucates of land in the 42nd year of Henry III., and was Collector of Aids for this county. His son Gilbert, Lord of Clifton, died in the seventeenth of Edward II. On the death of Cuthbert Clifton, in 1512, the manor was temporarily alienated from the male line by an heiress; but by a match with the coheiress of Halsall, before 1657, it again became the property of the then principal branch of this ancient family, who were originally a junior line descended from the Cliftons of Westby.

See Baines's Lancashire, iv. 404.

Arms.—Sable, on a bend argent three mullets pierced gules: borne in the reigns of Edward III. and Richard II. by Mons. Robert de Clyfton. (Rolls.)

Present Representative, John Talbot Clifton, Esq.

Trafford is in the parish of Eccles, and here the ancestors of this family are said to have been established even before the Norman Conquest. The pedigree given in Baines's Lancashire professes to be founded on documents in possession of the family, but some of it is certainly inaccurate, and cannot be depended on: Ralph de Trafford, who is said to have died about 1050, is the first recorded ancestor, but this is before the general assumption of surnames, which, as Camden observes, are first found in the Domesday Survey. On the whole, it may be assumed that the antiquity of the family is exaggerated, though the name no doubt is derived from this locality at an early period.

See Baines's Lancashire, iii. 110.

Arms.—Argent, a gryphon segreant gules. See in "Hearne's Curious Discourses," i. 262. edit. 1771, for the supposed origin of the Trafford Crest, "a man thrashing," which was however only granted about the middle of the 16th century.

Present Representative, Sir Humphry Trafford, 2nd Baronet.

In the year 1275, the 4th of Edward I., Sir William Heskayte, Knight, married the coheiress of Fytton, and thus became possessed of Rufford, which has since remained the inheritance of this ancient family.

Younger branch. Hesketh of Gwyrch Castle, Denbighshire, descended from the Heskeths of Rossel, Lancashire, who were a younger branch of the house of Rufford.

See Baines's Lancashire, iii. 426.

Arms.—Argent, on a bend sable three garbs or, the ancient coat of Fytton. Hesketh of Gwyrch Castle bears, Or, on a bend sable between two torteauxes three garbs of the field.

Present Representative, Sir Thomas George Hesketh, 5th Baronet.

"This is not one of those long lines which are memorable only for their antiquity," says Whitaker, in his account of several remarkable members of this eminent family; who are descended from John del Legh, who died about the 4th of Edward III., and the great heiress Cecilia, daughter of Richard de Townley, whose family was of Saxon origin, and traced to the reign of Alfred. There is preserved at Townley, of which beautiful place Whitaker gives a charming account, an unbroken series of portraits from John Townley, Esq. in the reign of Elizabeth to the present time.

See Leland's Itinerary, i. 96 and v. 102; Whitaker's Whalley, 271, 341, 484; and for the extinct branches of Hurstwood Hall, [1562-1794,] p. 384; and of Barnside [Edw. IV.—1739,] p. 395.

For the origin of the Legh (properly Venables) family of Cheshire, see Leigh of Adlestrop, p. 92.

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

Present Representative, Charles Townley, Esq.

This family claims the same ancestor as the now extinct house of the Windsors Earls of Plymouth; the Carews also, both of England and Ireland, are descended, according to Camden, from the same progenitors: the pedigree therefore is extended to the Conquest, Otherus or Otho being the first recorded ancestor. The Lancashire branch were not settled there till the reign of Edward III., when they became possessed of Bryn, by marriage with the heiress of that name and place, From the Gerards of Ince descended the extinct Lords Gerard, of Gerard's-Bromley, and Sir William Gerard, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, who died in 1581.

See Baines's Lancashire, iii. 641; and Wotton's Baronetage, i. 51.

Arms.—Argent, a saltire gules.

Present Representative, Sir Robert Tolver Gerard, 13th Baronet.

Although Sir Rowland Stanley Errington, brother of Sir William Massey Stanley, late of Hooton, in the county of Chester, Baronet, is in fact the head of this illustrious house, yet, as that estate has been sold, and his family have now no connection with Cheshire, the Earl of Derby must be considered the chief, as he is in truth the principal, branch of the house of Stanley.

As few families have acted a more prominent part in History, so few can trace a more satisfactory pedigree. Descended from a younger branch of the Barons Audeley, of Audeley in Staffordshire, the name of Stanley, from the manor of that name in this county, in the reign of John, was assumed by William de Audleigh. Sir John Stanley, K.G., Lord Deputy of Ireland, in 1381 married the heiress of Lathom, and thus became possessed of Knowesley; it was this Sir John also who obtained a grant of the Isle of Man, which afterwards descended to the Murrays Dukes of Athol till 1765. The principal branch of this family became extinct on the death of James, tenth Earl, in 1736; when the earldom descended on Sir Edward Stanley of Bickerstaff, Baronet, descended from Sir James Stanley, brother of Thomas second Earl of Derby.

For Stanley of Hooton, see Ormerod's Cheshire, ii. 230. The famous, or rather infamous, Sir William Stanley was of this line.

Younger Branches. Stanley of Cross-Hall, descended from Peter second son of Sir Thomas Stanley, 2nd Baronet, who died in 1653; and the family of the late Rev. James Stanley of Ormskirk, descended from Henry 2nd son of Sir Edward Stanley 1st. Bart. who died in 1640.

Stanley of Alderley, Cheshire, Baron Stanley of Alderley 1839, descended from Sir John Stanley and the heiress of Wever of Alderley. See Ormerod, iii. 306.

Stanley of Dalegarth, Cumberland, descended from John, second son of John Stanley, Esq., younger brother of Sir William Stanley, and the heiress of Bamville.

See Brydges's Collins, iii. 50; Seacome's House of Stanley, 4to. 1741; for Stanley Legend, &c. Coll. Topog. et Genealog. vii. 1.

Arms.—Argent, on a bend azure three buck's heads cabossed and attired or, assumed on the match with the heiress of Bamville, instead of the coat of Audeley.*

Present Representative, Edward Geoffery Smith Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby, K.G.

This is the only remaining branch of the old Lancashire family of Assheton, originally seated at Assheton-under-Lyne, and of whom the Asshetons of Middleton and of Great Lever, both Baronets, represented the elder lines. The present family descend from Radcliffe Assheton, second son of Ralph Assheton, of Great Lever, born in 1582.

Downham appears to have come into the family in the seventeenth century.

See Whitaker's Whalley, p. 299 and p. 300, for the curious journal of Nicholas Assheton, of Downham, Esq. 1617-18, since published entire as vol. xiv. of the series of the Chetham Society, 1848. For Assheton of Ashton-under-Lyne, Baines's Lancashire, ii. 532, and Collectanea Topog. et Genealog. vii. 12; for Ashton of Lever and Whalley, Baines, iii. 190.

Arms.—Argent, a mullet pierced sable.

Present Representative, Ralph Assheton, Esq.

This is a younger branch of the well-known Lancashire family of this name, who trace their descent from Richard of Radclyffe Tower, near Bury, in the reign of Edward I. Ordshall, also in this county, was for many ages the seat of the ancestors of the present family, who are descended from Robert, sixth and youngest son of Sir Alexander Radclyffe, of Ordshall, who was born in 1650. Foxdenton, which as early as the fifteenth century belonged to one branch of the Radclyffes, was bequeathed to the present family early in the last century. The extinct house of the Radclyffes, Barons Fitzwalter and Earls of Sussex 1529, were sprung from William, elder brother of the first Sir John Radclyffe, of Ordshall. The Radclyffes of Dilston, Baronets 1619, and Earls of Derwentwater 1687, were perhaps also of the same origin, but this has not been ascertained.

See Burke's Landed Gentry, 2nd. ed. vol. ii. p. 1091, and Ellis's Family of Radclyffe, for the House of Dilston (1850).

Arms.—Argent, two bends engrailed sable, a label of three points gules. The more simple coat of Argent, a bend engrailed sable, was borne by the Earls of Sussex, and also by the Earls of Derwentwater.

Present Representative, Robert. Radclyffe, Esq.

Hulton is in the parish of Dean, and gave name to Bleythen, called de Hulton, in the reign of Henry II., and from him this ancient family, still seated at their ancestral and original manor, is regularly descended.

See Baines's Lancashire, iii. p. 40.

Arms.—Argent, a lion rampant gules.

Present Representative, William Hulton, Esq.

Descended from Robert Eccleston of Eccleston, living in the reign of Henry III., an estate which continued in the family until the last generation, when it was sold, and that of Scarisbrick, with the name, acquired by marriage about the same period.

See Baines, iii. 480; and for Scarisbrick, iv. 258.

In Flower's Visitation of this county, in 1567, is a pedigree of Eccleston.

Arms.—Argent, a cross sable, in the first quarter a fleur-de-lis gules.

Present Representative, Charles Scarisbrick, Esq.

There is a good pedigree of this, his own family, in Ormerod's History of Cheshire, (ii. p. 204,) under Chorlton, a seat of the family purchased in 1811. The first recorded ancestor is Matthew de Hormerodes, living about 1270. The elder line of his descendants, whose name was derived from Ormerod in Whalley, became extinct in 1793. The present family trace their lineage from George Ormerod, fourth son of Peter Ormerod, of Ormerod, who died in 1653.

See also Whitaker's Whalley, p. 364.

Arms.—Or, three bars, and in chief a lion passant gules.

Present Representative, George Ormerod, Esq.

The pedigree begins with Geoffry Starky, of Barthington (Barnton) in Cheshire, supposed to be the same with Geoffry, son of Richard Starkie, of Stretton, in the same county, an ancient family which can be traced almost to the Conquest. William Starkie was of Barnton in the seventh of Edward IV. Huntroyd was acquired by marriage, in 1464, with the heiress of Symondstone.

See Whitaker's Whalley, 266, 529; also Ormerod's Cheshire, i. 474; and Baines, iii. 309.

Younger branches. Starkie of Twiston, and Starkie of Thornton, Yorkshire.

Arms.—Argent, a bend between six storks sable.

Present Representative, Le Gendre Starkie, Esq.

A younger branch of Chadwick of Chadwick, now extinct, a family which can be traced to the reign of Edward III.

Healey came from the coheiress of Okeden in 1483. Mavesyn Ridware, in Staffordshire, is also the property of this family, derived by an heiress from the Cawardens, and ultimately from the Malvesyns, who came in with the Conqueror.

Younger branch. Chadwick of Swinton, in this county, derived from the heiress of Strettell: they bear their arms differenced by a border engrailed or, charged with cross crosslets.

See Shaw's Staffordshire, i. p. 166, for a curious account of the Malvesyns, Cawardens, and Chadwicks of Mavesyn Ridware: see also Whitaker's Whalley, p. 459.

Arms.—Gules, an inescutcheon within an orle of martlets argent.

Present Representative, John de Heley Mavesyn Chadwick, Esq.

Richard Patten, who appears to have flourished before the reign of Henry III. by his marriage with a coheiress of Dagenham became possessed of the Court of that name in the county of Essex, and was the remote ancestor of this family. John Patten of Dagenham Court, living in 1376, removed to Waynflete in Lincolnshire; he was the great-grandfather of the celebrated William Patten alias Waynflete Bishop of Winchester; from whose brother, Richard Patten, of Boslow, in the county of Derby, the present family descend. His son was of Warrington in this county in 1536.

See the pedigree by Bigland and Heard drawn up in 1770, and printed in Bloxam's Memorial of Bishop Waynflete for the Caxton Society in 1851.

Arms.—Lozengy ermine and sable, a canton gules.

Present Representative, John Wilson Patten, Esq. M.P. for North Lancashire.

"One of the ancientest families in the whole shire," wrote Burton in 1622; descended from Ralph Turvile, a benefactor to the abbey of Leicester in 1297. The principal seat was at Normanton Turvile, in this county, where the elder line of the family became extinct in 1776. Aston Flamvile, also in Leicestershire, was the residence of the immediate ancestors of this younger branch. It was sold early in the eighteenth century, and Husband's Bosworth inherited, by the will of Maria-Alathea Fortescue, in 1763.

See Nichols's Leicestershire, under Normanton Turvile, iv. pt. 2. 1004; under Aston Flamvile, ii. pt. 2. 465; under Husband's Bosworth, iv. pt. 2. 451

Arms.—Gules, three chevronels vair. This coat was borne by Sir Richard Turvile, de co. Warw. in the reign of Edward II., and Sir Nicholas Turvil, at the same period, bore the same coat reduced to two chevrons. (Rolls of the date.)

Present Representative, Francis Charles Turvile, Esq.

This ancient family was certainly seated at Quorndon two descents before the reign of Edward I. In that of Henry VI. Thomas, second son of John Farnham and Margaret Billington, living in 1393, founded a junior branch denominated of "The Nether-Hall." He was the ancestor of the present family, who also descend in the female line from the elder branch, denominated "of Quorndon," by the marriage of the coheiress in 1703 with Benjamin Farnham, of the Nether-Hall.

See Nichols's History of Leicestershire, vol. iii. pt. i. p. 103.

Arms.—Quarterly or and azure, in the first and second quarter a crescent interchanged.

Sir Robert de Farnham, of the county of Stafford, bore in the reign of Edward II. Quarterly argent and azure, four crescents counterchanged. (Roll.)

Present Representative, Edward Basil Farnham, Esq. late M.P. for North Leicestershire.

Lewis de Brienne, who died in 1283, married Agnes, Viscountess de Beaumont, who died in 1300: their children took the name of Beaumont, and from hence this noble family is supposed to be descended. Coleorton came from the heiress of Maureward in the fifteenth century, but Grace-dieu, also in this county, was the older seat. The representative of the elder line of the family was created Viscount Beaumont in Ireland in 1622, extinct 1702, when Coleorton went to the ancestors of the present Baronet, descended from the third son of Nicholas Beaumont, of Coleorton, who died in 1585.

See Nicholas Leicestershire, iii. pt. 2. 743; Wotton's Baronetage, iii. 230; Erdeswick's Staffordshire, ed. 1844, 396; and Hornby's Tract on Dugdale's Baronage.

Arms.—Azure, semée of fleurs-de-lis and a lion rampant or. Sir Henry de Beaumont bore this coat with a baton gabonny argent and gules, in the reign of Edward II.; in that of Richard II. Mons. de Beaumont omitted the baton (Rolls of the dates.)

Present Representative, Sir George Howland Beaumont, ninth Baronet.

Dugdale begins the pedigree of this great historical family with Henry de Grey, unto whom King Richard the First in the sixth year of his reign gave the manor of Turroc or Thurrock in Essex. His son Richard was of Codnoure or Codnor in Derbyshire, inherited from his mother, a coheiress of Bardolf. Groby and Bradgate came from the heiress of Ferrers in the reign of Henry VI. Of the latter Leland writes, "This parke was parte of the old Erles of Leicester's landes, and since by heires generales it came to the Lord Ferrers of Groby, and so to the Greyes."

Extinct Branches of this illustrious family were, the Greys of Codnor, of Wilton, of Rotherfield, of Ruthyn, and the Dukes of Kent and Suffolk.

See Dugdale's Baronage, i. 709; Nichols's Leicestershire, iii. pt. 2. 682; Brydges's Collins, iii. 340.

Arms.—Barry of six, argent and azure. Richard de Grey bore this coat in the reign of Henry III. John de Grey differenced it with a label gules. In the reign of Edward II. the same arms were borne by different members of the family, with the additions of a bend gules, a label gules, a label gules bezantée, a baton gules, and three torteauxes in chief, which last was used by the Dukes of Suffolk.

Present Representative, George Harry Grey, seventh Earl of Stamford and Warrington.

The Babingtons were of Babington in Northumberland in the reign of King John: they afterwards removed into Nottinghamshire, and became very distinguished. The elder line was seated at Dethick in Ashover, in the county of Derby, by marriage with the coheiress of the ancient family of that name, before the year 1431. The Rothley branch, descended from a second son of the house of Dethick, was seated there at the very beginning of the sixteenth century, and is now the chief line of the family on the extinction of Babington of Dethick about 1650.

See Nichols's Leicestershire, iii. pt. 2. 955; and Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica, ii. 94, and viii. 313, for a most valuable article on the elder line of this family. See also Topographer and Genealogist, i. 133, 259, 333, for the various branches of this ancient family.

Arms.—Argent, ten torteauxes and a label of three points azure. This coat reversed and without the label was borne by Sir John de Babington in the reign of Edward II. (Roll of the date.)

Present Representative, Thomas Gisborne Babington, Esq.

Originally of Northumberland, where Simon de Hasilrig was seated in the time of Edward I. Early in the fifteenth century Thomas Hasilrig of Fawdon, in that county, having married Isabel Heron, heiress of Noseley, the family removed into Leicestershire. Leland makes the following mention of the head of the house in his time, "Hasilrig of Northamptonshire [a mistake for Leicestershire] hath about 50li lande in Northumbreland, at Esselington, where is a pratie pile of Hasilriggs; and one of the Coilingwooddes dwellith now in it, and hath the over-site of his landes."

See Leland's Itin., i. fol. 15. v. fol. 101; Wotton's Baronetage, i. 520; Nichols's Leicestershire, ii. pt. 2. 756; and the Scrope and Grosvenor Roll, vol. ii. p. 325.

Arms.—Argent, a chevron between three hazel-leaves slipped vert.

Present Representative, Sir Arthur Grey Hazlerigg, 12th Baronet.

The Wollastons were lords of the manor of Wollaston in the parish of Old Swinford and county of Stafford, (which they sold to the Aston family in the time of Richard II.) at a very early period: they afterwards settled at Trescot and Perton, in the parish of Tettenhall, in the same shire. The pedigree in Nichols's Leicestershire begins with Thomas Wollaston of Perton, "a person of figure in the reigns of Henry VII. and VIII." In 1709, William Wollaston, Esq., the celebrated author of "The Religion of Nature," compiled an account of this family, which is printed in the History of Leicestershire. He was the direct ancestor of the present family, who have been also seated at Oncott, in Staffordshire, and Finborough Hall, in Suffolk. Shenton was acquired early in the reign of James I.

See Nichols's Leicestershire, iv. pt. 2. 541.

Arms.—Argent, three mullets pierced sable.

Present Representative, Frederick William Wollaston, Esq.

Welby, near Grantham, in this county, is supposed to have given name to this "ancient howse, Bering armes,"* and here Sir William Welby, who heads their well-authenticated pedigree, undoubtedly possessed property between 1307 and 1327. The manor of Frieston, with Poynton Hall, also in Lincolnshire, was held by Sir Thomas Welby, (who it cannot be doubted was a still earlier ancestor,) of King Henry III. in chief, in 1216. The first-mentioned Sir William having married the heiress of Multon of Multon in this county, that place continued, till the end of the sixteenth century, the principal seat of his descendants. Denton was purchased by John Welby, the ancestor of the present family, in 1539.

See "Notices of the Family of Welby," 8vo., Grantham, 1842; and Allen's History of Lincolnshire, ii. 314; for Welby of Multon, see Blore's Rutlandshire, 192.

Arms.—Sable, a fess between three fleurs-de-lis argent.

Present Representative, Sir Glynne Earle Welby, 3rd Baronet.