Ormus, at the period of the Norman Conquest was Lord of Okeover by grant of Nigel, Abbot of Burton. He is the direct ancestor of this venerable house, which has been ever since in possession of the ancient seat which gives name to the family, and which lies on the very edge of the county, near Ashbourne in Derbyshire.
See Wood's MSS. 8594, vol. 6, for a very curious and valuable cartulary of the Okeovers, and Dodsworth's MSS. 5037, vol. 96, fol. 17 (both in the Bodleian Library); see also Erdeswick's Staffordshire, Harwood's ed. 1844, p. 487; Shaw's Staffordshire, vol. i. p. 26; and the Topographer, ii. p. 313.
Arms.—Ermine, on a chief gules three bezants. This coat was borne by Monsieur Philip de Oker, in the reign of Richard II. (Roll).
Present Representative, Haughton Charles Okeover, Esq.
Bagot of Bagot's Bromley; Baron Bagot 1780; Baronet 1627.
A most ancient family, also coeval with the Conquest, descended from Bagod, who at the time of the compilation of Domesday Book held Bromley of Robert de Stadford or Stafford. In the reign of Richard I. the male line of the Staffords failing, Milicent Stafford married Henry Bagot of this family, and their issue, assuming their mother's name, were progenitors of the illustrious house of Stafford, Dukes of Buckingham. Blythfield in this county, which came from an heiress of that name, has been the seat of the Bagots from the thirteenth century.
Younger Branches. Chester of Chicheley Hall, co. Bucks, and Bagot of Pype Hayes, co. Warwick, descended from the second and third sons of Sir Walter W. Bagot, father of the first Lord Bagot.
See Bagot Memorials, privately printed, 4to. 1824; Wotton's Baronetage, ii. 47; and Erdeswick, p. 262.