[Illustration] Descended from Mathew, brother of John, who is said
to have held the Castle of Mitford soon after the Conquest, and by
whose only daughter and heiress it went to the Bertrams. The
ancestors of the present family appear to have been for many ages
resident at Mitford, though the castle was not in their possession
till it was granted with the manor by Charles II. to Robert Mitford,
Esq.
Younger Branches. Mitford of Pitshill, co. Sussex, descended from
the fourth son of Robert Mitford of Mitford Castle, Esq., Sheriff of
Yorkshire in 1702. Mitford of Exbury, co. Southampton, sprung from
the third son of Robert Mitford, of Mitford Castle, Esq., who died
in 1674. From this latter branch Mitford Baron Redesdale (1803) of
Batsford, co. Gloucester, is derived.
See Hodgson's History of Northumberland, vol. ii. pt. ii. p. 44 and
for Mitford of Exbury the same work, vol. i. pt. ii. p. 152; see
also Brydges's Collins, ix. 182.
ARMS.--_Argent, a fess sable between three moles proper_.
Present Representative, Robert Mitford, Esq.