[Illustration] In the time of King John, the venerable family of
Bracebridge, originally of Bracebridge in Lincolnshire, acquired by
marriage in the person of Peter de Bracebridge with Amicia, daughter
of Osbert de Arden and Maud, and granddaughter of Turchill de
Warwick, the manor of Kingsbury in this county, an ancient seat of
the Mercian Kings, and inherited by Turchill, called the last Saxon
Earl of Warwick, with his second wife Leverunia. The descendants of
which Peter and Amicia had their principal seat at Kingsbury till
about the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign, when it was sold,
and the Atherstone estate purchased. "Kinisbyri is a fair manor
place," writes Leland, in his Itinerary, "and lordship of 140 li.;
one Bracebridge is lord of it; it is in Warwikshir." At Bracebridge,
on the river Witham, near Lincoln, the original seat of the family,
so called it is supposed from the two bridges which still exist
there, a grant of free warren was obtained in the 29th of Edward I.,
which was still retained by Thomas Bracebridge, Esq. who died in
1567.
The Bracebridges represent the Holtes of Aston, near Birmingham,
and, through that ancient family, the Breretons of Cheshire.
See Dugdale's Warwickshire, vol. ii. p. 1057-1061; Nichols's
Leicestershire, vol. iii. part ii. p. 1145; for Holte, see Dugdale's
Warwickshire, vol. ii. p. 871, and Davidson's History of the Holtes
of Aston, fol. 1854; for Brereton, see Ormerod's Cheshire, vol. iii.
pt. 31.
ARMS.--_Vair, argent and sable, a fess gules_. This coat was borne
by Sir John de Brasbruge, de co. Lincoln, in the reign of Edward II.
and again by Monsire de Brasbridge in those of Edward III. and
Richard III. (Rolls).
Present Representative, Charles Holte Bracebridge, Esq.
COMPTON OF COMPTON WYNIATE, MARQUESS OF NORTHAMPTON 1812; EARL 1618;
BARON 1572.
[Illustration] Although the early part of the pedigree of the
Comptons is not entirely without doubt, we may conclude that the
family was seated at Compton, called "in le Windgate," soon after
the Conquest. Arnulphus de Compton and Osbertus de Compton were
living in the 16th of Henry II., but Philip de Compton is the first
of the name who certainly held the manor of Compton, in the fifth of
John. Here the family continued resident for many ages; but its
importance arose in a great degree from Sir William Compton having
been brought up with Henry Duke of York, afterwards Henry VIII., and
from the marriage of his great-grandson, the first Earl of
Northampton, with the City Heiress of Spencer.
The Comptons were pre-eminently distinguished for loyalty during the
Civil Wars of the seventeenth century.
See Dugdale's Warwickshire, vol. i. p. 549; and Brydges's Collins,
vol. iii. p. 223.
ARMS.--_Sable, a lion of England or between three esquire's helmets
argent_. A former coat, borne by Thomas de Comptone, apparently
about the reign of Edward III., was a chevron charged with three
fleurs-de-lis. This is proved by a silver seal dug up at Compton in
the year 1845; and the same arms are still to be traced on an
ancient mutilated monument of a knight with collar of S.S., supposed
to represent Sir Thomas de Compton, in the church of Compton
Wyniate. The three helmets were afterwards adopted, and appear to
have been the arms of a distinct family, the Comptons of Fenny
Compton in this county; to which Henry VIII. gave the lion as an
augmentation; at the same time, according to the custom of the
period, was added a quartering to the family arms, viz.: _Argent, a
chevron azure, within a border vert bezantee_.
Present Representative, Charles Douglas Compton, 3rd Marquess of
Northampton.