[Illustration] A branch of the Dods of Edge in Cheshire, now extinct
in the male line, and one of the oldest families in England, which
can be traced in a direct line, undoubtedly of _Saxon_, if not of
_British_ descent, which, says Blakeway, "is in the highest degree
probable." The following is Ormerod's account of the origin of this
family. "About the time of Henry II., Hova, son of Cadwgan Dot,
married the daughter and heiress of the Lord of Edge, with whom he
had the fourth of that manor. It is probable that the Lord of Edge
was son of Edwin, who before the Conquest was sole proprietor of
eight manors; we may call him a Saxon thane. It appears by Domesday
that Dot was the Saxon lord of sixteen manors, from all of which he
was ejected; we may presume he was identical with Cadwgan Dot." "A
descent in the male line (adds Ormerod) from a Saxon noticed in
Domesday would be unique in this county" (Cheshire). The Dods of
Cloverley descend from Hugo, living in the fourteenth of Henry IV.,
who married the coheiress of Roger de Cloverley. He was the son of
John Dod of Farndon, who was son of Roger Dod of Edge, living in the
reign of Edward III., which John Dod had also acquired property in
Shropshire, by marriage with the coheiress of Warden of Ightfield.
See Ormerod's Cheshire, ii. 374; and Blakeway, p. 206.
ARMS.--_Argent, a fess gules between two cotises wavy sable_. The
Dods of Edge bore three crescents or, on the fess, by which one
would imagine they were the younger rather than the elder line of
the family, and the present owner of Cloverly possesses deeds which
appear to prove that this was the fact.
Present Representative, John Whitehall Dod, Esq. late M.P. for North
Shropshire.