Lechmere of Hanley; Baronet 1818.
A family of great antiquity, said to have migrated from the Low Countries, and to have received a grant of land called "Lechmere's Field," in Hanley, from William the Conqueror. The first in the pedigree is Reginald de Lechm'e de Hanlee, mentioned in a deed without date. He was father of Adam de Lechmere, who married Isabella, and was the ancestor of this venerable house, whose ancient seat at Severn-End, in Hanley, with the exception of a period of thirty years, has ever since remained in the family. During the civil wars the Lechmeres were on the side of the Parliament. A second son, who died without issue in 1727, was raised to the Peerage in 1721.
Younger Branches. Lechmere of Steeple-Aston, in the county of Oxford, and Lechmere of Fanhope, in the county of Hereford; also the Lechmeres (called Patteshalls) of Allensmore, in the same county; the two last being descended from Sandys, second son of Sir Nicholas Lechmere, the Judge, who died in 1701.
See Nash's Worcestershire, vol. i. p. 563.
Arms.—Gules, a fess and in chief two pelicans or, vulning themselves proper.
Present Representative, Sir Edmund Anthony Harley Lechmere, 3rd Baronet.
Sebright of Besford; Baronet 1626.
William Sebright, of Sebright, in Much Beddow, in Essex, living in the reign of Henry II. is the ancestor of this ancient family, who removed into this county at a very early period, apparently after the marriage of Mabel Sebright with Katharine, daughter and heir of Ralph Cowper, of Blakeshall, in the parish of Wolverly, in which parish the Sebrights possessed lands in the sixth year of Edward I. Besford was purchased about the reign of Elizabeth.