1 1 2 The Egerton Family. 



The armorial bearings of the Egertons, like those of 

 the Leghs of Lyme, are at once very interesting and 

 very intelligible. Originally they were " argent, three 

 phaeons sable" that is to say, upon a shield faced with 

 silver were depicted three iron spear-heads, arranged in 

 . a triangle, two above the third, and with the points 

 directed downwards. So they remained till the time of 

 Richard II., when, on account of the great value of 

 Urian Egerton's services in the wars waged with Scot- 

 land, the red lion of the latter country was superadded, 

 and placed in the centre, as an " honourable augmenta- 

 tion." From the end of the fourteenth century, the 

 family has carried, accordingly, " argent, a lion rampant 

 gules, between three phseons sable." 



Malpas derives additional interest from the fact of the 

 rectory having been the scene, on April 21, 1783, of the 

 birth of the pious and truly eminent Bishop Heber. 

 Grateful as are the associations given to it by the proud 

 name of Egerton, there is something quite as pleasing in 

 those supplied in the memory of the Christian mis- 

 sionary and noble scholar. 



