Mainwaring of Whitmore.
The first recorded ancestor of this great and widely-spreading family is Ranulphus, a Norman, Lord of Warmincham, in Cheshire, at the period of the Domesday Survey; where his descendants remained seated for two centuries. In the reign of Henry III. they were of Over-Peover in the same county, and remained there until the principal male line became extinct in the person of Sir Henry Mainwaring of Peover, Baronet, who died unmarried in 1797. Whitmore was inherited by Edward ninth son of Sir John Mainwaring of Peover, on his marriage with the heiress of Humphry de Boghey or Bohun of Whitmore. This was in the year 1519. The senior line of the Mainwarings were on the loyal side during the great Rebellion, and in 1745 opposed to the pretensions of the house of Stuart. But the Whitmore branch favoured the Parliamentary interest.
Younger Branch. Mainwaring of Oteley Park, in the parish of Ellesmere in Shropshire, sprung from Randle, third son of Edward Mainwaring of Whitmore.
Extinct Branches. Maynwaring of Ightfield, co. Salop; extinct 1712. (See Blakeway, Sheriffs of Shropshire, pp. 83, 133.) Mainwaring of Kermincham, co. Chester, extinct 1783. (See Ormerod's Cheshire, vol. iii. p. 46.) And Mainwaring of Bromborough, in the same county, extinct 1827.
See Erdeswick's Staffordshire, p. 78; and Ormerod, vol. i. p. 368; vol. ii. p. 239; vol. iii. p. 447.
Arms.—Argent, two bars gules.
Present Representative, Rowland Mainwaring, Esq.
Arden of Longcroft.
