[Illustration] "This is not one of those long lines which are
memorable only for their antiquity," says Whitaker, in his account
of several remarkable members of this eminent family; who are
descended from John del Legh, who died about the 4th of Edward III.,
and the great heiress Cecilia, daughter of Richard de Townley, whose
family was of Saxon origin, and traced to the reign of Alfred. There
is preserved at Townley, of which beautiful place Whitaker gives a
charming account, an unbroken series of portraits from John Townley,
Esq. in the reign of Elizabeth to the present time.
See Leland's Itinerary, i. 96 and v. 102; Whitaker's Whalley, 271,
341, 484; and for the extinct branches of Hurstwood Hall,
[1562-1794,] p. 384; and of Barnside [Edw. IV.--1739,] p. 395.
For the origin of the Legh (properly Venables) family of Cheshire,
see Leigh of Adlestrop, p. 92.
ARMS.--_Argent, a fess and in chief three mullets sable_.
Present Representative, Charles Townley, Esq.