[Illustration] A junior branch of a very ancient family, said indeed
by Habington, the Worcestershire antiquary, to be of Saxon origin,
and formerly seated at Acton, properly _Oakton_, in the parish of
Ombersley. Elias de Acton, of Ombersley, occurs in the third of
Henry III. He was the ancestor of various branches of the Actons
resident in different parts of this county, at Sutton, Ribbesford,
Elmley-Lovet, Bokelton, and Burton, all of whom now appear to be
extinct, the male line being preserved by the present family,
founded by a younger son of Sir Roger Acton, of Sutton, and the
heiress of Cokesey, about the middle of the seventeenth century.
See Nash's History of Worcestershire, vol. ii. p. 217; and
Blakeway's Sheriffs of Salop, p. 60.
ARMS.--_Gules, a fess within a border engrailed ermine_.
Present Representative, William Joseph Acton, Esq.
LYTTLETON OF FRANKLEY, BARON LYTTLETON 1794; IRISH BARON 1776;
BARONET 1618.
[Illustration] The name is derived from a place in the Vale of
Evesham, where the ancestors of this family in the female line were
seated before the reign of Richard I. Frankley came from an heiress
of that name in the reign of Henry III. In that of Henry V.
Elizabeth, heiress of Sir Thomas Lyttleton, of Frankley, married
Thomas Westcote of Westcote, in the county of Devon, Esquire, "but
the old knight, her father, desirous to perpetuate his name, (and
his purpose failed not,) would not yield consent to the marriage but
upon his son's-in-law assured promise that his son, enjoying his
mother's inheritance, should also take her name, and continue it,
which was justly performed." (Westcote's Devonshire, p. 306.)
Hagley, the principal seat, was purchased in 1564. Mr. John
Lyttleton, the head of this family, was implicated in Lord Essex's
rising in 1600; but his son, Sir Thomas, was right loyal to the
Crown in 1642.
See Leland's Itinerary in Coll. Topog. et Genealog., vol. iii. p.
339; Nash's Worcestershire, vol. i. p. 493; Prince's Worthies of
Devon, ed. 1701, p. 583; Wotton's Baronetage, vol. i. p. 306; and
Brydges's Collins, vol. viii. p. 316. See also in the Library of the
Society of Antiquaries a genealogical account of this family, in the
handwriting of Dr. Charles Lyttleton, Bishop of Carlisle, No. 151,
4to.
ARMS.--_Argent, a chevron between three escallops sable_, borne by
Thomas Lyttelton in the reign of Henry IV. as appears by his seal.
Present Representative, George William Lyttleton, 4th Lord
Lyttleton.
TALBOT OF GRAFTON, EARL OF SHREWSBURY 1442; EARL TALBOT 1784; BARON
1733; EARL OF WATERFORD IN IRELAND 1661.
[Illustration] This great historical family is traced to the
Conquest, Richard Talbot, living at that period, being the first
recorded ancestor. No family in England is more connected with the
history of our country than this noble race; few are more highly
allied. The Marches of Wales appear to be the original seat;
afterwards we find the Talbots in Shropshire, in Staffordshire,
(where their estates were inherited from the Verdons in the time of
the Edwards,) and lastly in Yorkshire, at Sheffield, derived from
the great heiress of Neville Lord Furnival. This was the seat of the
first seven Earls of Shrewsbury, of whom an excellent biographical
account will be found in Hunter's Hallamshire (p. 43). The manor of
Grafton, formerly the estate of the Staffords, was granted by Henry
VII. to Sir Gilbert Talbot in 1486; it afterwards became the seat of
a younger branch, who eventually, on the death of the eighth Earl,
became Earls of Shrewsbury, from whom all the succeeding Earls, to
the decease of Bertram Arthur, 17th Earl of Shrewsbury, in 1856,
were descended. The present and 18th Earl, who is also the 3rd Earl
Talbot, springs from the second marriage of Sir John Talbot of
Albrighton in Shropshire, and of Grafton, in this county, who died
in 1550, and who was grandfather of the 9th and ancestor of the
succeeding Earls.
Younger Branch. Talbot, Baron Talbot of Malahide in Ireland, (1831,)
descended from Richard, second son of Richard Talbot and Maud
Montgomery, the third ancestor of the House of Shrewsbury, who was
living in 1153.
See Nash's Worcestershire, vol. i. p. 158; Brydges's Collins, vol.
iii. p. i.; and the Shrewsbury Peerage Claim before the House of
Lords, 1857.
ARMS.--_Gules, a lion rampant within a border engrailed or_. Borne
by Sir Gilbert Talbot in the reign of Edward II. (Rolls), and said
to be the coat of Rhese ap Griffith, Prince of South Wales. The
ancient arms of Talbot being _Bendy of ten argent and gules_. The
Talbots of Malahide bear the border erminoise instead of or.
Present Representative, Henry John Chetwynd Talbot, 18th Earl of
Shrewsbury, and third Earl Talbot.