THE RHYMED CHRONICLE OF JOHN HARESTAFFE. 75 



in the county of Derby. The elder line of the Haddon branch 

 of the Vernons became extinct in 1561, on the death of Sir 

 George Vernon. Sir John Vernon, a younger son of Sir Henry 

 Vernon, of Haddon, settled at Sudbury in the reign of Henry 

 VIII., through a marriage with a co-heiress of Montgomery. His 

 son, Henry Vernon, married a co-heiress of Swynnerton, and so 

 obtained Hilton, in Staffordshire. His eldest son John Vernon, 

 had no issue, but married Mary, widow of Walter Vernon, of 

 Houndshill, descended from another son of Sir Henry Vernon, 

 of Haddon. John Vernon, of Sudbury, made his step-son, Sir 

 Edward Vernon, his heir, who married his cousin Margaret, and 

 thus retained Hilton. Sir Henry Vernon, son and heir of Sir 

 Edward, married Muriel, daughter and heiress of Sir George 

 Vernon, of Haslington, Cheshire, by which match his posterity 

 became the representatives of the original elder male line of the 

 Vernons, Barons of Shipbroke. 



More need not here be said of the intricate connections of the 

 Vernons, as it comes out in the chronicle itself, is further eluci- 

 dated by the notes, and is made, we trust, quite clear by the 

 accompanying outline pedigree that has been specially drawn up. 

 There is much that is conflicting in various printed Vernon 

 pedigrees, as well as in some MS. ones ; it is hoped that this 

 one is entirely accurate ; the great majority of its names and 

 their connections must be correct, for they are taken from 

 unpublished abstracts of Rutland evidences, and from documents 

 in the Sudbury " Vernoniana." 



The patient, forgiving, but determined heroine of Harestaffe's 

 song is Mary, daughter of Edward Littleton, the wife of (1) Walter 

 Vernon, of Houndshill, and then of (2) John Vernon, of Sudbury. 

 The villain of the plot, though to some extent Justice Townshend, 

 is also chiefly played by a woman, Dorothy, the daughter of Sir 

 Anthony Heveningham, and wife of (1) Henry Vernon, of Hilton, 

 and of (2) Sir Henry Townshend. It is remarkable that the 

 name of Dorothy does not once occur in Harestaffe's rhymes, nor 

 does he give any clue to her family ; only those who are used to 

 genealogical research can enter into the trouble and time that 



