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

"Sumetime," writes Leland, "the Wrotesleys were men of more land than they bee now, and greate with the Earles of Warwick; yet he hath 200 markes of londe; at Wrotesley is a fayre house and a parker" and here, it may be added, the family are supposed to have been seated from the period of the Conquest. The pedigree however is not proved beyond William de Wrottesley, lord of that manor before the reign of Henry III., father of Sir Hugh, who, joining the insurgent Barons in the reign of Henry III., forfeited his estate, redeemed under the dictum de Kenelworth for 60 marcs. His great-grandson Sir Hugh Wrottesley, one of the "Founders" of the Order of the Garter, who died in 1380-1, is the direct ancestor of the present lord.

See Leland's Itinerary in Coll. Topog. et Genealogica, iii. 340; Erdeswick, p. 359; Wotton's Baronetage, ii. 345; and Shaw's Staffordshire, ii. 205, kindly corrected by the Hon. Charles Wrottesley.

Arms.—Or, three piles sable and a quarter ermine. The more ancient coat, as appears by seals to original deeds of the years 1298 and 1333-37, preserved at Wrottesley, was fretty. Sir Hugh de Wrottesleye bore the present arms in 1349 and 1381. But he is also stated, on the authority of the Roll of the reign of Richard II., to have used, Or, a bend engrailed gules. Sir William Wrottesley, father of Sir Hugh, K.G., married Joan, daughter of Roger Basset, which will account for the present arms, which belonged to the Bassets of Warwickshire.

Present Representative, John Wrottesley, 2nd Baron Wrottesley.

Broughton of Broughton, Baronet 1660.

"The Broughtons descend in the male line from one of the most ancient families of the county of Chester, the Vernons of Shipbrook. Richard de Vernon, a younger brother of this house, was father of Adam de Napton, in the county of Warwick, whose issue assumed their local name from Broughton in Staffordshire. The pedigrees vary as to the exact point of connection, and, confused and contradictory as the Shipbrooke pedigree is at this period, there can be little hope of its being positively identified; but the general fact of descent is allowed by all authorities."

See Ormerod's Cheshire, iii. 269; Wotton's Baronetage, iii. 259; and Erdeswick, p. 111.

Arms.—Argent, two bars gules, on a canton of the last a cross of the first. In the reign of Richard II. Monsieur Thomas de Broughton bore, Azure, a cross engrailed argent. (Roll.)

Present Representative, Sir Henry Delves Broughton, ninth Baronet.