THE RHYMED CHRONICLE OF JOHN HARESTAFFE. 79 



First then to shewe his name and Pedegree,* 

 This worthie Esquire was Lord of Sudburie, 

 John Vernon called, whose father Henry wight, 

 The sonne and heire of S r Juhn Vernon, Knight, 

 Of Haddon house a younger sonne was he, 

 And married Ellen second of the three 

 Coheires unto S r John Moungomerie. 

 By her came Sudbury with other landes 

 And manie faire possessions to his handes : 

 Whereof to treate I do not here intend, 

 But onely shew they lineallye discend 

 From her to Henry, and from him to John, 

 Who beinge yonge did enter thereupon. 

 He was by suites of lawe encumbred long, 

 And by his mothers meane's endured much wrong, 

 Who practized by all the wayes she might 

 To injure him, and take away his right : 

 Not only in such things his father left him, 

 But also of his Birth-right she bereft him, 

 And gave her Landes unto his yonger brother : 

 Who can speak well of so unkynd a mother? 

 She was Coheire unto an auncient Squier 

 Hight Thomas Swinnerton of Staffordshire :+ 

 Whose Landes she with a sister did devyde : 



* See the skeleton pedigree prepared to illustrate, as far as possible, all the 

 Vernons and their kinsfolk named in the chronicle. 



t Thomas Swynnerton, of the ancient and distinguished family of Swynner- 

 ton, of Swynnerton, was Sheriff of Staffordshire, 1536-7; he married Alice, 

 daughter of Sir Humphrey Stanley, of Fife, and died 1542-3. He died seized 

 of both Swynnerton and Hilton. Hilton originally came to the family in 

 131 1, through John de Swynnerton, second son of Roger de Swinnerton. 

 Humphrey de Swynnerton, of Swynnerton, about 1450, brought Hilton to the 

 senior branch of the family by marriage with Anna, daughter and co-heir of 

 Thomas Swynnerton, of Hilton ; this Humphrey was grandfather of Thomas 

 Swynnerton, the Sheriff. His only son, Humphrey Swynnerton, of Swynner- 

 ton and Hilton, married Cassandra, daughter of Sir John Giffard, of Chilling- 

 ton ; he died in 1562, leaving, as his heirs, two daughters. Margaret, the 

 eldest, married Henry Vernon, of Sudbury, and brought to him Hilton ; 

 Elizabeth, the younger daughter, married William Fitzherbert, and brought to 

 him Swynnerton. See an excellent and full account of the Swynnertons, of 

 Swynnerton, in the 7th vol. of the Salt Archaological Society Transactions, 

 by Hon. and Rev. Canon Bridgeman. 



