Evelyn Philip Shirley

Name: The Noble and Gentle Men of England
Author: Evelyn Philip Shirley

Summary

Evelyn Philip Shirley’s The Noble and Gentle Men of England is a thorough genealogical study tracing the lineages, estates, and heraldic emblems of England’s aristocratic families from medieval times to the 19th century. Concentrating on themes of ancestry, succession, and land ownership, Shirley explores how noble houses such as the Burdetts, Cottons, and Howards ascended through strategic marriages, territorial gains, and legal conflicts, frequently involving heiresses and manors.

The work combines historical documentation with heraldic information, depicting the complex network of family legacies and feudal connections that shaped England’s social structure. Its detailed examination of family trees and properties provides an essential perspective on the enduring impact of the nobility across centuries.

Quotes from The Noble and Gentle Men of England (Evelyn Philip Shirley)

Evelyn Philip Shirley, The Noble and Gentle Men of England

“ Arrow, in the county of Warwick, which came from the heiress of Camvile the 9th of Edward II., was long the seat of the Burdetts, but they had long before, as Dugdale shows, been connected by property with that county, William Burdett having founded the cell of Ancote, near Sekindon, in the fifth of Henry II. The manor of Arrow, and many other estates of this family, carried by an heiress to the Conways in the reign of Henry VII., became the fruitful cause of many lawsuits, which were not finally settled till the end of the reign of Henry VIII. See Dugdale for the curious details. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Evelyn Philip Shirley, The Noble and Gentle Men of England

“ The present family descend from the brother of this Geffery, whose issue were of Coleshill and Maxtoke in Warwickshire, of which latter place John de Clinton was created Baron in 1298. His descendant, Edward Lord Clinton, was advanced to the Earldom of Lincoln in 1572. No family was more nobly allied, few had broader possessions—all have been long dissipated; but a fortunate match with the eventual heiress of Pelham in 1717 revived the drooping fortunes of the Clintons; hence the estate of Clumber, the former seat of the Holles family, and the Dukedom of Newcastle. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Evelyn Philip Shirley, The Noble and Gentle Men of England

“ In the time of King John, the venerable family of Bracebridge, originally of Bracebridge in Lincolnshire, acquired by marriage in the person of Peter de Bracebridge with Amicia, daughter of Osbert de Arden and Maud, and granddaughter of Turchill de Warwick, the manor of Kingsbury in this county, an ancient seat of the Mercian Kings, and inherited by Turchill, called the last Saxon Earl of Warwick, with his second wife Leverunia. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Evelyn Philip Shirley, The Noble and Gentle Men of England

“ A Norman family, which for centuries has flourished in the West of England, traced by Dugdale to "Rogerius Arundel," mentioned in Domesday. "The most diligent inspection, however," writes Hoare in his Wiltshire, "of an immense collection of ancient charters, deeds, and instruments of all kinds, and from the earliest periods of documentary evidence, among the archives of Wardour Castle, have not enabled us to trace the filiation of this House from the said Rogerius." ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Evelyn Philip Shirley, The Noble and Gentle Men of England

“ The immediate ancestor of the Cornish Bassets was William Basset, who married in 1150 Cecilia, daughter and coheiress of Alan de Dunstanville, and the daughter of Reginald Fitzhenry, Earl of Cornwall, natural son of Henry I., who thus acquired the manor of Tehidy, which has ever since continued the residence of his descendants of the house of Basset. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Evelyn Philip Shirley, The Noble and Gentle Men of England

“ This family can also lay claim to great antiquity, being certainly resident at Eyton on the Wealdmoors as early as the reigns of Henry I. and II. They were in some way connected with the Pantulfs, Barons of Wem, who were Lords of Eyton at the period of the Domesday Survey, and, in consequence of this connection, not only quarter their arms, but were among the very few Shropshire gentry who were not dispossessed after the Rebellion of the third Norman Earl of Shrewsbury, in the time of Henry I.
Robert de Eyton stands at the head of the pedigree. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Evelyn Philip Shirley, The Noble and Gentle Men of England

“ West of Ruthyn Castle, Denbighshire, descended from the younger son of John, second Earl De la Warr.
The Wests of Alscot, in the county of Gloucester, claim to be descended from Leonard, the younger son of Sir Thomas West, Lord De la Warr, K.G., who died in the year 1525, although there is nothing but "family tradition," as is evident by the memorial to the Earl Marshal of Mr. James West, of Alscot, dated December 12, 1768, to justify this assumption; a distinct coat, viz. Argent, a fess dancette pean, was granted to Mr. West on this occasion. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Evelyn Philip Shirley, The Noble and Gentle Men of England

“ The parent house, existing in the male line, until the year 1688, at Staunton, in Nottinghamshire, held their lands by tenure of Castle-Guard, by keeping and defending a tower in the Castle of Belvoir, to this day called Staunton Tower. There is an ancient custom also that the chief of the house of Staunton should present the key of this tower to any of the Royal Family who may honour Belvoir with their presence. ”

Evelyn Philip Shirley

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