DIXON OF BEESTON.

Will the Editor be kind enough to insert the accompanying letter, for if true it is worthy of a place in the heraldic portion of "N. & Q.," and if not true, its imposture should stand recorded? On receiving it I sent a copy to my brother, Mr. J. H. Dixon, an able antiquary, and late of the council of the Percy Society, who, somewhat too hastily I think, and without sufficient proof, rejected the information offered. That the family which my brother represents is a "good old" one, is sufficiently attested by the pedigree furnished by Thoresby in the Ducatus Leodiensis, and thence copied by Mr. Burke in his Landed Gentry; but of its earlier history there is no reliable account, unless that by Mr. Spence can be considered such.

I shall feel very much obliged if any of your correspondents learned in the genealogies of Yorkshire and Cheshire could either corroborate the genuineness of the information tendered by Mr. Spence, or prove the reverse; and it is only fair to that gentleman to add that he is entitled to credibility on the written testimony of the Rev. Mr. Knox, Incumbent of Birkenhead.

R. W. Dixon, J.P.

Seaton Carew, co. Durham.

Sir,

Having been engaged by Miss Cotgreave, of Notherlegh House, near Chester, to inspect and arrange the title-deeds and other documents which belonged to her father, the late Sir John Cotgreave, I find a very ancient pedigree of the Cotgreaves de Hargrave in that county; which family became extinct in the direct male line in the year 1724, but which was represented through females by the above Sir J. C.

It is the work of the great Camden, anno 1598, from documents in the possession of the Cotgreave family, and contains the descents of five generations of the Dixons of Beeston, in the county of York, and Congleton, Cheshire, together with their marriages and armorial bearings, commencing with "Ralph Dixon, Esq., de Beeston and Congleton, living temp. Hen. VI., who was slain whilst fighting on the part of the Yorkists, at the battle of Wakefield, A.D. 1460."

Presuming that you are descended from this ancient family, I will (if you think proper) transmit to you extracts from the aforesaid pedigree, as far as relates to your distinguished progenitors, conditionally that you remunerate me for the information and definition of the armorial bearings, there being five shields, containing twelve quarterings connected with the family of Dixon.

Miss Cotgreave will allow me to make the extracts, and has kindly consented to attest the same.

The arms of Dixon, as depicted in the Cotgreave pedigree, are "Sable, a fleur-de-lis or, a chief ermine," quartering the ensigns of the noble houses of "Robert Fitz-Hugh, Baron of Malpas in the county of Chester, temp. William the Conqueror; Eustace Crewe de Montalt, Lord of Hawarden, Flintshire, during the said reign; Robert de Umfreville, Lord of Tours, and Vian, and Reddesdale, in Northumberland, who flourished in the same reign also; Pole, Talboys, Welles, Latimer," and others.

In the pedigree, Camden states that the aforesaid "Ralph Dixon quartered the ensigns of the above noble families in right of his mother Maude, daughter and co-heiress of Sir Ralph Fitz-Hugh de Congleton and Elton in the county palatine of Chester."

I have the honour to be, Sir,

Your very obedient humble servant,

William Sidney Spence.

Priory Place, Birkenhead,

Chester.

Dec. 14. 1848.

Minor Queries.

Atherstone Family.—Can any of your readers oblige me with information concerning the Atherstone family? Is it an old name, or was it first given some three or four generations back to a foundling, picked up near the town of Atherston?