[Illustration] The Wests are remarkable, not so much for the
antiquity of the family as for the early period at which they
attained the honour of the peerage. Sir Thomas West is the first
recorded ancestor; he died in the seventeenth of Edward II., having
married the heiress of Cantilupe, and thus became possessed of lands
in Devonshire, and at Snitterfield in Warwickshire. His grandson,
Thomas, married the heiress of De la Warr, and thus became connected
with Sussex. But the principal property of the Wests in this county
was granted to Thomas West, afterwards Lord la Warr, in the first
year of Henry VII. Few families indeed had broader lands; among
which may be mentioned, Offington, in the parish of Broadwater,
derived from the heiress of Peverel at the end of the fourteenth
century; and Halnaker, in the parish of Boxgrove, both in Sussex;
and Wherwell, in Hampshire; all now alienated. Buckhurst came to the
present Lord by his marriage with the coheiress of Sackville.
Younger Branch. West of Ruthyn Castle, Denbighshire, descended from
the younger son of John, second Earl De la Warr.
The Wests of Alscot, in the county of Gloucester, claim to be
descended from Leonard, the younger son of Sir Thomas West, Lord De
la Warr, K.G., who died in the year 1525, although there is nothing
but "family tradition," as is evident by the memorial to the Earl
Marshal of Mr. James West, of Alscot, dated December 12, 1768, to
justify this assumption; a distinct coat, viz. _Argent, a fess
dancette pean_, was granted to Mr. West on this occasion.
See Brydges's Collins, vol. v. p. i.; Blore's Rutlandshire, p. 100;
Cartwright's Rape of Bramber, p. 38; and Dallaway's Rape of
Chichester, pp. 129, 133.
ARMS.--_Argent, a fess dancette sable_. The badge of the De-la-Warrs
was a crampet or shape of a sword; assumed by Roger la-Warr, Lord
la-Warr, for having assisted Sir John Pelham in making John King of
France prisoner at the Battle of Poictiers. See Sussex
Archaeological Collections, vol. iii. p. 211.
Present Representative, George John Sackville West, 5th Earl De la
Warr.
GAGE OF FIRLE; BARON GAGE 1790; VISCOUNT GAGE IN IRELAND 1720;
BARONET 1622.
[Illustration] John, son of John Gage, living in the ninth of Henry
IV., had issue by Joan, heiress of John Sudgrove, of Sudgrove, in
Gloucestershire, Sir John Gage; an adherent of the house of York,
knighted by Edward IV., and who died in 1475. He married Elianor,
second daughter and coheiress of Thomas St.Clere, of Heighton St.
Clere, in Sussex, and acquired by this marriage several manors in
this county, as well as in Surrey, Kent, Buckinghamshire, and
Northamptonshire. The present family, seated at Firle from this
period, descend from his eldest son. From his second son sprung the
Gages of Raunds, in Northamptonshire, sold in 1675.
Younger Branch. Gage of Hengrave, in Suffolk, Baronet 1622,
descended from Edward, third son of Sir John Gage, of Firle, who
died in 1633.
See Gage's Hengrave, p. 225; Gage's Hundred of Thingoe, p. 204;
Bridges's History of Northamptonshire, vol. ii. p. 188; Wotton's
Baronetage, vol. i. p. 503, vol. iii. p. 366; Brydges's Collins,
vol. viii. p. 249; and Leland's Itinerary, vol. iv. p. 12.
ARMS.--_Party per saltier argent and azure, a saltier gules_.
Present Representative, Henry Hall Gage, 4th Viscount Gage.
+Gentle.+