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

Knightly.

Dering of Surenden-Dering, Baronet 1626.

The family of Dering descend from Norman de Morinis, whose ancestor, Vitalis FitzOsbert, lived in the reign of Henry II. Norman de Morinis married the daughter of Deringus, descended from Norman Fitz-Dering, Sheriff of this county in King Stephen's reign. Richard Dering died seised of Surenden, which came from the heiress of Haute, in 1480. The loyalty of Sir Edward Dering in the Civil Wars, in Charles I.'s time, deserves to be remembered: see his character in Peck's Desiderata Curiosa, II. B. 14, 19, 20, and the interesting memoir of him by John Bruce, Esq. F.S.A. in "Proceedings in the County of Kent," printed for the Camden Society 1861.

For a notice of the old seats of this family, in the parish of Lidd, called Dengemarsh Place and Westbrooke, see Hasted's History of Kent, iii. 515, and for the family, iii. 228; and Wotton's Baronetage, ii. 13,

Arms.—Argent, a fess azure, in chief three torteauxes, borne by "Richard fil' Deringi de Haut," in 19 Hen. IV. as appears by his seal. The same coat is on the roof of the cloisters of Canterbury Cathedral. The son of this Sir Richard Dering bore, Or, a saltier sable, the ancient arms of De Morinis, and now generally quartered with Dering. See Willement's Heraldic Notices of Canterbury Cathedral, pp. 90, 106.

Present Representative, Sir Edward C. Dering, 8th Baronet, M.P. for East Kent.

Neville of Birling, Earl of Abergavenny 1784; Baron 1392.

"In point of antiquity, and former feudal power, probably the most illustrious house in the peerage," says Brydges. Descended from Gospatric, the Saxon Earl of Northumberland, whose great-grandson, marrying the heiress of Neville, gave that name to his posterity, for many ages the Nevilles were Barons of Raby and Earls of Westmerland. The last Earl was attainted in the 13th of Elizabeth. A younger branch of the Nevilles, in the person of Sir Edward Neville, obtained the castle and barony of Abergavenny, and the estate of Birling, with the heiress of Beauchamp, in the reign of Henry VI.; and the present family is descended from this match, having been Barons of Abergavenny previously to the creation of the Earldom. Birling was long deserted by the family, whose principal seat was afterwards at Sheffield, and Eridge, in Sussex; but it is now the residence of Lord Abergavenny.