[Illustration] Trafford is in the parish of Eccles, and here the
ancestors of this family are said to have been established even
before the Norman Conquest. The pedigree given in Baines's
Lancashire professes to be founded on documents in possession of the
family, but some of it is certainly inaccurate, and cannot be
depended on: Ralph de Trafford, who is said to have died about 1050,
is the first recorded ancestor, but this is before the general
assumption of surnames, which, as Camden observes, are first found
in the Domesday Survey. On the whole, it may be assumed that the
antiquity of the family is exaggerated, though the name no doubt is
derived from this locality at an early period.
See Baines's Lancashire, iii. 110.
ARMS.--_Argent, a gryphon segreant gules_. See in "Hearne's Curious
Discourses," i. 262. edit. 1771, for the supposed origin of the
Trafford Crest, "a man thrashing," which was however only granted
about the middle of the 16th century.
Present Representative, Sir Humphry Trafford, 2nd Baronet.