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

A branch of the Dods of Edge in Cheshire, now extinct in the male line, and one of the oldest families in England, which can be traced in a direct line, undoubtedly of Saxon, if not of British descent, which, says Blakeway, "is in the highest degree probable." The following is Ormerod's account of the origin of this family. "About the time of Henry II., Hova, son of Cadwgan Dot, married the daughter and heiress of the Lord of Edge, with whom he had the fourth of that manor. It is probable that the Lord of Edge was son of Edwin, who before the Conquest was sole proprietor of eight manors; we may call him a Saxon thane. It appears by Domesday that Dot was the Saxon lord of sixteen manors, from all of which he was ejected; we may presume he was identical with Cadwgan Dot." "A descent in the male line (adds Ormerod) from a Saxon noticed in Domesday would be unique in this county" (Cheshire). The Dods of Cloverley descend from Hugo, living in the fourteenth of Henry IV., who married the coheiress of Roger de Cloverley. He was the son of John Dod of Farndon, who was son of Roger Dod of Edge, living in the reign of Edward III., which John Dod had also acquired property in Shropshire, by marriage with the coheiress of Warden of Ightfield.

See Ormerod's Cheshire, ii. 374; and Blakeway, p. 206.

Arms.—Argent, a fess gules between two cotises wavy sable. The Dods of Edge bore three crescents or, on the fess, by which one would imagine they were the younger rather than the elder line of the family, and the present owner of Cloverly possesses deeds which appear to prove that this was the fact.

Present Representative, John Whitehall Dod, Esq. late M.P. for North Shropshire.

Oakeley of Oakeley.

An ancient family, descended from Philip, who in the reign of Henry III. was lord of Oakeley in the parish of Bishop's Castle, from whence he assumed his name, and which has ever since been the inheritance of his descendants.

Younger Branch. Sir Charles Oakeley, Baronet 1790.

See Blakeway, pp. 132, 173; and Morris MSS.

Arms.—Argent, on a fess between three crescents gules as many fleurs-de-lis or. These arms are, with those of the Plowdens and other families of the vicinity, allusive to the services of ancestors who fought under the banners of the great suzeraines of their district, the Fitz-Alans, in the Crusades and the battlefields of France.