[Illustration] Lewis de Brienne, who died in 1283, married Agnes,
Viscountess de Beaumont, who died in 1300: their children took the
name of Beaumont, and from hence this noble family is supposed to be
descended. Coleorton came from the heiress of Maureward in the
fifteenth century, but Grace-dieu, also in this county, was the
older seat. The representative of the elder line of the family was
created Viscount Beaumont in Ireland in 1622, extinct 1702, when
Coleorton went to the ancestors of the present Baronet, descended
from the third son of Nicholas Beaumont, of Coleorton, who died in
1585.
See Nicholas Leicestershire, iii. pt. 2. 743; Wotton's Baronetage,
iii. 230; Erdeswick's Staffordshire, ed. 1844, 396; and Hornby's
Tract on Dugdale's Baronage.
ARMS.--_Azure, semée of fleurs-de-lis and a lion rampant or_. Sir
Henry de Beaumont bore this coat with a _baton gabonny argent and
gules_, in the reign of Edward II.; in that of Richard II. Mons. de
Beaumont omitted the baton (Rolls of the dates.)
Present Representative, Sir George Howland Beaumont, ninth
Baronet.