LOCAL HERALDRY. 
01 
20. Sir John Skelton, Az. a fess or, betw. three horses' heads 
couped arg. : imp. Arg. a chev. sa. in chief a label of three points 
gu.; Prideaux. Sir John Skelton was Governor of Plymouth, 
and is recorded by a very fine monument in St. Andrew Church ; 
he married a Bridget Prideaux, but it does not appear what 
evidence there is for the statement that has been made that she 
was a daughter of Sir Peter Prideaux, and Lady Christian Gren- 
ville ; there is certainly no authority for the quarterings of Beville 
and Prideaux, assigned by Gilbert to Beville Skelton; if Lady 
Skelton were a daughter of Sir Peter Prideaux she certainly could 
not convey to her children any right to the arms of Prideaux or 
Grenville, as a glance at the pedigrees of those families will clearly 
show; and it is worthy of note that no arms are given on the 
monument of Sir John Skelton for Dame Bridget Prideaux, his 
wife. The name of Prideaux has long been numerous in the south 
of Devon ; and the arms given above for the wife of Sir John 
Skelton appear on a ledger stone, without any name or date, in the 
nave of St. Andrew Church, and also at Ermington ; while in the 
adjoining parish of Harford, on his father's leasehold estate of 
Stowford, was born the learned John Prideaux, d.d., Bishop of 
Worcester, who when young sought the post of parish clerk of 
Ugborough. The fact of Sir John Skelton having given his sons 
the names of Beville and Grenville is no evidence that they were 
descended from those families, but rather of their father's admira- 
tion for the character of Sir Beville Grenville. This family of 
Skelton was seated in the east of Cornwall in the early part of 
the sixteenth century ; they appear with the designation of gentle- 
men in the registers of Botus Fleming, in the seventeenth century, 
where they intermarried with the family of Crossman, whose 
pedigree was entered at the Heralds' Visitation, but that of Skelton 
is not recorded ; and they had a grant of arms, temp. King Charles 
II., the right to which would of course be limited to the descen- 
dants of Sir John Skelton. The Registers of St. Andrew record 
the burial of Sir John Skelton, Knight, on the 8th January, 1672; 
his will was proved the same year in London (P.P.C. Page 39.) 
21. Nicholas Slanning, Arg. two pallets eng. gu., over all on a 
bend az. three griffins' heads erased or: imp. Gu. a saltire vaire 
betw. twelve billets or; Champernoun. Nicholas Slanning, Esq., 
of Bickleigh, was the eldest son of John Slanning, Esq., by Jane, 
