[Illustration] This family is supposed to derive its name from Blois
in France, and is thought to be of great antiquity in this county;
it is not regularly deduced, however, beyond Thomas Blois, who was
living at Norton in Suffolk in 1470. Third in descent was Richard
Blois of Grundisburgh, which he purchased, and which became for many
years the principal seat of the family. He died in 1557.
See Wotton's Baronetage, iv. p. 9; and Davy's Suffolk Collections,
Add. MSS. 91,118, vol. xlii. p. 386.
ARMS.--_Gules, a bend vair between two fleurs-de-lis argent_.
Gwillim makes the field _sable_, and the fleurs-de-lis _or_.
Present Representative, Sir John Ralph Blois, 8th Baronet.