[Illustration] "Sumetime," writes Leland, "the Wrotesleys were men
of more land than they bee now, and greate with the Earles of
Warwick; yet he hath 200 markes of londe; at Wrotesley is a fayre
house and a parker" and here, it may be added, the family are
supposed to have been seated from the period of the Conquest. The
pedigree however is not proved beyond William de Wrottesley, lord of
that manor before the reign of Henry III., father of Sir Hugh, who,
joining the insurgent Barons in the reign of Henry III., forfeited
his estate, redeemed under the dictum de Kenelworth for 60 marcs.
His great-grandson Sir Hugh Wrottesley, one of the "Founders" of the
Order of the Garter, who died in 1380-1, is the direct ancestor of
the present lord.
See Leland's Itinerary in Coll. Topog. et Genealogica, iii. 340;
Erdeswick, p. 359; Wotton's Baronetage, ii. 345; and Shaw's
Staffordshire, ii. 205, kindly corrected by the Hon. Charles
Wrottesley.
ARMS.--_Or, three piles sable and a quarter ermine_. The more
ancient coat, as appears by seals to original deeds of the years
1298 and 1333-37, preserved at Wrottesley, was _fretty_. Sir Hugh de
Wrottesleye bore the present arms in 1349 and 1381. But he is also
stated, on the authority of the Roll of the reign of Richard II., to
have used, _Or, a bend engrailed gules_. Sir William Wrottesley,
father of Sir Hugh, K.G., married Joan, daughter of Roger Basset,
which will account for the present arms, which belonged to the
Bassets of Warwickshire.
Present Representative, John Wrottesley, 2nd Baron Wrottesley.