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

Alington of Sswinhope.

This is a branch of the extinct family of the Lords Alington, of Horseheath, in Cambridgeshire, who were originally of Alington, in the same county, soon after the Conquest. The family descend from a younger son of Sir Giles Alington, and were seated at Swinhope in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.

See Clutterbuck's History of Hertfordshire, ii. 542; and Collectanea Topog. et Genealog. iv. 33-53, and note 2, p. 39. For Horseheath, see Topographer, ii. 374.

Arms.—Sable, a bend engrailed between six billets argent.

Present Representative, George Marmaduke Alington, Esq.

Gentle.

Thorold of Marston, Baronet 1642.

It has been supposed, but without any evidence or authority, that this family is descended from Thorold, Sheriff of Lincolnshire in 1052, and that consequently it may claim Saxon origin. There is however no doubt that this is a family of very great antiquity, and seated at Marston as early as the reign of Henry I.