Arms.—Argent, on a bend sable three owls of the field. This coat was borne by Monsieur John Sayvill, in the reign of Richard II. His son John differenced it by a label of three points gules.
Present Representative, John Charles George Savile, 4th Earl of Mexborough.
Gower of Stittenham, Duke of Sutherland 1833; Marquess of Stafford 1786; Earl Gower 1746; Baron 1703.
Descended from Sir Nicholas Gower, knight of the shire for this county in the reign of Edward III., and seated at Stittenham from about the same period. Of this family, it has been said, was Gower the Poet, but Sir Harris Nicolas in his memoir of Gower could not trace the connection. Leland remarks, "The House of Gower the Poet yet remayneth at Switenham (Stittenham) in Yorkshire, and divers of them syns have beene knightes." In the end of the seventeenth century the wealth of this family was greatly increased by marriage with the heiress of Leveson, of Trentham, in Staffordshire, and also in the year 1785 by the marriage of the Marquess of Stafford with Elizabeth, daughter and heir of William eighteenth Earl of Sutherland, mother of the present Duke.
Younger Branches. The Earl of Ellesmere 1846, and Gower of Bill-Hill, co. Berks, descended from John son of John first Earl Gower, by his third wife.
See Brydges's Collins, vol. ii. p. 441; Historical and Antiquarian Mag., 1828, vol. ii. p. 103; and Leland's Itin., vol. vi. fol. 15.
Arms.—Barry of eight argent and gules, a cross patonce sable.
Present Representative, George Granville William Sutherland Leveson Gower, 3rd Duke of Sutherland, K. G.
Dawnay of Cowick and Danby, Viscount Downe in Ireland 1680.