The Noble and Gentle Men of England / or, notes touching the arms and descents of the ancient knightly and gentle houses of England, arranged in their respective counties.

by Evelyn Philip Shirley

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.

Grey of Groby and Bradgate, Earl of Stamford 1628; Baron 1603.

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.