CHAPTER IV
THE ARDENS OF CHESHIRE
In the Conqueror's time the Manor of Watford, Northamptonshire, was recognised as belonging to Gilbert the Cooke, to whom his son Baldwin succeeded. But the next owner was Eustace de Arden,[465] son of Alexander and Agnes Arden, in the time of Henry II. The first Eustace, born about 1140, was probably the Eustachius de Arderne who granted Watford Church to the Abbey of St. James. His son, also named Eustace,[466] died in 1213. The dower of his widow Hawisia was in Watford and Silvesworth, and Ranulph III., Earl of Chester, became her security that she would not marry again without license from the King.[467] Her two sons were Eustace[468] and John de Arderne. Eustace died in 4 Edward I., 1221, leaving a son Eustace. The line ended with four daughters, coheiresses—Aveline, Mary, Jane, Elena, 1275. The arms of Eustace were: Gules, on a chief argent, a label azure.[469] I have wondered if the following entries concerned younger sons of this family: "To Master William of Watford 50 marks for his expenses going as a messenger to the King beyond the sea";[470] and, "Paid to William de Watford, Keeper of the Queen's palfreys."[471]
John, the second son of the second Eustace and brother of the third, received either an original grant, or the confirmation of a grant, from the Earl of Chester of the Manor of Aldford, in Cheshire. He was probably the son-in-law of the Richard de Aldford who preceded him.[472] As the Earl of Chester was Hawisia's surety, he may have been her son John's guardian. John afterwards granted part of this fee to Peter, the Earl's clerk, and another part to Pulton and Chester Abbey. On November 28, 1213, he compounded with the King for his father's annual payment for lands in Watford, and granted to Eustace, his brother, the lands he had received there from his father. He executed this deed in Aldford, August, 1216. In that year he received, as a Knight of Ranulph, Earl of Chester, then in the Holy Land, a grant of the lands of Geoffrey de Sautemaris. Sir Walkelyn, his son, succeeded him in or before 1237-38. Through his wife, Agnes de Orreby, he acquired Elford, in Staffordshire, with Alvanley, Upton, and other manors in Cheshire. He was frequently at Court, as his attestations to various charters prove, about 41 Henry III. In 1264-65 he granted the Manor of Alvanley to his eldest son, Sir Peter, who succeeded to all the family estates on the death of his father, about 1268. He bore arms based not on those of Eustace de Watford, or on those of the Earl of Chester, from whom he held land, but on those of William de Beauchamp, who had succeeded to the Earldom of Warwick in 1257, as if to claim descent from the Warwickshire family. His seal appears first in 17 Edward I. in a release to Sir John de Orreby of a debt due.[473] It bore a shield with three crosses crosslet pattées, a chief Arderne, with the motto, "Frange, lege tege." See also the charters in the British Museum.[474] His son and heir by Margery, his wife, was Sir John, who married Margaret, daughter of Griffin ap Madoc, Lord of Bromfield, of royal Welsh extraction.[475]
Sir John de Arderne at the tournament at Stepney, 2 Edward II., in the retinue of the Earl of Lancaster, bore "Gules, 10 crosses crosslet, and a chief or."[476]
But it is said that after his marriage the Arden arms were temporarily varied to gules, crusule or, and a chief or.[477]
In 9 Edward II. he purchased part of Haselover from Geoffrey Salveyn.[478]
In that year the "Nomina de Villarum" gives the name of "Sir Henry de Ardena" as Lord of Elford. John's name, however, is given in the list by the Lieutenant of the Knights and men-at-arms of the county, 17 Edward II., 1324; and he was one of the Knights summoned to attend the great council at Westminster, 17 Edward II. John and Margaret had two sons—John, who succeeded to Aldford, Alderley, Alvanley, and Elford, 19 Edward III., and Peter, afterwards of Over Alderley. John married, first, Alice, daughter of Hugh de Venables, and had by her two sons, John and Peter, and a daughter Margaret. His second wife was Joane, daughter and heiress of Sir Richard de Stokeport, by whom he had no issue; and his third wife was Ellen Wasteneys, by whom he had two sons, Thomas and Walkelyn, born before marriage, and two daughters, Isabel, wife of Sir Hugh Wrottesley, and Maud, wife of Robert Leigh, of Adlington, and a son, born after marriage (about 1341), who evidently died soon.