[Illustration] Turvey in Bedfordshire was the principal seat in
England of this noble Norman family, descended from Osbert le
Mordaunt, who came over from Normandy with William the Conqueror,
and received a grant of the lordship of Radwell in that county. In
1529, John Mordaunt, the representative of the family, was summoned
to Parliament by writ as Baron Mordaunt of Turvey. His
great-great-grandson was created Earl of Peterborough in 1628; which
title, together with the elder line of the family, became
extinct on the decease of Charles-Henry Mordaunt, fifth Earl, in
1814.
The present family descend from Robert, son of William Mordaunt of
Hemsted, in Essex, who was second son of William Mordaunt of Turvey,
living in the 11th of Henry IV., which Robert married Barbara,
daughter of John le Strange, of Massingham-Parva in Norfolk, and of
Walton-D'Eivile, in this county, which since the 32nd year of Henry
VIII., 1549-50, has remained the inheritance of their descendants.
See Dugdale's Warwickshire, vol. i. p. 577: Parkins's continuation
of Blomefield's Norfolk, vol. iv. p. 643; and that very rare volume
compiled by order of the second Earl of Peterborough, called
"Halstead's Genealogies," fo. 1685, privately printed.
ARMS.--_Argent, a chevron between three estoiles sable_.
Present Representative, Sir Charles Mordaunt, 10th. Baronet, M. P.
for South Warwickshire.