[Illustration] This family claim descent from Robert de Toke, who
was present with Henry III. at the Battle of Northampton. In the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the Tokes were seated at Bere, in
the parish of Westcliffe, in this county: this line became extinct
at the latter end of the seventeenth century.
The Tokes of Godington are a junior branch, descended from the
heiress of Goldwell, of Godington, about the reign of Henry VI.
See Hasted's Kent, iii. 247; Visitations of Kent, 1574 and 1619; and
Harleian MSS. 1195. 55, 1196. 108.
ARMS.--_Party per chevron sable and argent, three gryphon's heads
erased and counterchanged_. John Toke, of Godington, had an
additional coat, an augmentation granted to him by Henry VII., as a
reward for his expedition in a message on which he was employed to
the French King: viz. _Argent, on a chevron between three
greyhound's heads erased sable, collared or, three plates_.
Present Representative, the Rev. Nicholas Toke.