[Illustration] The first recorded ancestor of this great and
widely-spreading family is Ranulphus, a Norman, Lord of Warmincham,
in Cheshire, at the period of the Domesday Survey; where his
descendants remained seated for two centuries. In the reign of Henry
III. they were of Over-Peover in the same county, and remained there
until the principal male line became extinct in the person of Sir
Henry Mainwaring of Peover, Baronet, who died unmarried in 1797.
Whitmore was inherited by Edward ninth son of Sir John Mainwaring of
Peover, on his marriage with the heiress of Humphry de Boghey or
Bohun of Whitmore. This was in the year 1519. The senior line of the
Mainwarings were on the loyal side during the great Rebellion, and
in 1745 opposed to the pretensions of the house of Stuart. But the
Whitmore branch favoured the Parliamentary interest.
Younger Branch. Mainwaring of Oteley Park, in the parish of
Ellesmere in Shropshire, sprung from Randle, third son of Edward
Mainwaring of Whitmore.
Extinct Branches. Maynwaring of Ightfield, co. Salop; extinct 1712.
(See Blakeway, Sheriffs of Shropshire, pp. 83, 133.) Mainwaring of
Kermincham, co. Chester, extinct 1783. (See Ormerod's Cheshire, vol.
iii. p. 46.) And Mainwaring of Bromborough, in the same county,
extinct 1827.
See Erdeswick's Staffordshire, p. 78; and Ormerod, vol. i. p. 368;
vol. ii. p. 239; vol. iii. p. 447.
ARMS.--_Argent, two bars gules_.
Present Representative, Rowland Mainwaring, Esq.