By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A. 281 



no lesse reason then affection offer to me. However, I doe not suspect in the 

 least my tytle to the ancient armes (as you call it) should be forgotten or questioned 

 since the monuments of my Ancestors will cleare that dispute, & which armes 

 was born by the father I think no man will deny to belong to the son : besydes 

 the very grant itselfe by whiche I am licensed to ware the lyon without the bend, 

 evinces that till the tyme of that grant it was borne with the bend : And as to 

 the canton I take it not to be given me as any essentiall part of my coat, (for so 

 I refuse to accept it) but (as t'is expressed in the grant,) as an Augmentation of 

 honour : & if my son think it not so, I know not but that he is at liberty to 

 omit it, & bear the lyon without it. To thes you object, that were to assume 

 the Coate of divers other families as for instance, Mathewes, Verdon, Pendoker 

 & Planck (to which you might have added Williams & Cromwell) which I take 

 are so many presedents against your allegation, to prove that divers families 

 may give one and the same armes & why not mine as well as others, deriving my 

 authority fi'om the same fountaine (the King) who may dispose of all Armes as 

 he pleases : but I must further tell you (as I have formerly) that I take not this 

 as a Grant of new Armes, but a restoration to the olde : for however you call the 

 Lyon under the bend the ancient bearing (which is indeed very ancient) yet it is 

 not the antientest : the originall coate being only Sable a Lyon Rampant Argent : 

 wi^ was the coate of Otho de Leon (as may be seen in all the French Heralds) 

 Castelan of Gisor (whom we call our Common ancestor) of whome we have this 

 account. 



" The said Otho had 2 sons, Richard, Lord of Montalban, & Wandrill, lord of 

 Courcelle : Richard had issue, by his wife Yoland Countess of Gramont, Claud 

 whose posterity continued the sirname De Leon : Wandrill had issue by his wife 

 Beatrice de Tria, Raoule & Roger, who tooke the sirname of Courcelle. Roger 

 the younger brother came into England with W"' the Conqueror, & had by guift 

 from the said King, the forfeited estates of Brictiic & Bond, Englishmen of 

 great note in the West : He married the lady Mabel de Solariis by whom he had 

 issue Roger commonly called the Blind Baron of Soleigny, who took the Sirname 

 of Fitz-Roger & gave his Mother's Armes, viz quarterly Arg : & Gules : he had 

 issue by his wife Gertrude dau. of Sir Guy de Torbay, 3 sons : 1. Roger, 2. Hugh 

 & 3, John : from Roger the elder brother (who was the second Baron of Soleigny) 

 descended the Fitz Rogers Ancestors to the familys of Clavering & Ewers in the 

 North. Hugh the 2nd brother was Lord of Corfeton in Dorsetshire (so tis call'd 

 in the Doomsday book which for ought I know was Gorton) who havinge the 

 estate of the above said Bond given to him in franch mariage with his only 

 daughter, his posterity assumed the name & Armes of the said Bond who was 

 Lord of Fisherton in Somersetshire ; Viz : in a feild sable a fesse Or. John the 

 3'^ Brother was Lord of Currichill, or as t'is in divers records Chirechile, since 

 called Churchill in Somersetsh.: who marying the lady Joane de Kilvington had 

 issue by her Sir Bartholomew de Churchill, a man of greate note in the time of 

 K. Steven : for whome he defended the Castle of Biistow against the Empress 

 Maud, & was slain afterward in that warr : he was father of Elj^as de Churchill, 

 who had 3 sons, Otho, Christopher & John. Otho having bin active in the Barons 

 Warr in the tyme of K. Henry 3, his son K. Edw. 1 . seised on his lordship of 

 Churchill, which continued in the Crown till Edward the 3'*' tyme who gave it 

 to a domestick of his one St Low who had deserved well of him in his French 



