[Illustration] This is a junior branch of the Rokebys of Rokeby in
Yorkshire, a knightly race immortalized by Scott. The principal line
has been long extinct. Sir Thomas Rokeby was Sheriff of Yorkshire in
the eighth of Henry IV. The family was seated in the parish of
Ecclesfield, and also at Sandal-Parva, in South Yorkshire, where
William Rokeby was Rector in the reign of Henry VII. In 1512 he
became Archbishop of Dublin. His brother Ralph wrote the history of
the family, now in possession of Mr. Rokeby of Arthingworth, and
which is printed in Whitaker's Richmondshire, vol. i. p. 158. The
present family acquired Arthingworth from the Langhams by marriage
in the end of the seventeenth century.
See Hunter's South Yorkshire, i. p. 199.
ARMS.--_Argent, a chevron between three rooks sable_, borne by Mons.
Thomas de Rokeby in the reigns of Edward III. and Richard II. (Rolls
of the dates.)
Present Representative, the Rev. Henry Ralph Rokeby.