Trafford of Trafford, Baronet 1841.
Trafford is in the parish of Eccles, and here the ancestors of this family are said to have been established even before the Norman Conquest. The pedigree given in Baines's Lancashire professes to be founded on documents in possession of the family, but some of it is certainly inaccurate, and cannot be depended on: Ralph de Trafford, who is said to have died about 1050, is the first recorded ancestor, but this is before the general assumption of surnames, which, as Camden observes, are first found in the Domesday Survey. On the whole, it may be assumed that the antiquity of the family is exaggerated, though the name no doubt is derived from this locality at an early period.
See Baines's Lancashire, iii. 110.
Arms.—Argent, a gryphon segreant gules. See in "Hearne's Curious Discourses," i. 262. edit. 1771, for the supposed origin of the Trafford Crest, "a man thrashing," which was however only granted about the middle of the 16th century.
Present Representative, Sir Humphry Trafford, 2nd Baronet.
Hesketh of Rufford, Baronet 1761
In the year 1275, the 4th of Edward I., Sir William Heskayte, Knight, married the coheiress of Fytton, and thus became possessed of Rufford, which has since remained the inheritance of this ancient family.
Younger branch. Hesketh of Gwyrch Castle, Denbighshire, descended from the Heskeths of Rossel, Lancashire, who were a younger branch of the house of Rufford.