DE BON VOULOIR SERVIR LE ROI.--_Family Motto._ * * * * * The family of GREY--the Greys of the North, as they are styled distinctively from the Greys of the South,[1]--is of Saxon origin.[2] They have held manors in Northumberland from the earliest records to the present time. The direct founder of the present branch was Baron Grey of Werke, ennobled by James I. and advanced to the earldom of Tankerville by William III. which titles became extinct in 1710; and the heiress carried the estates by marriage to Charles Bennet, Lord Ossulston, who was, in consequence, created Earl of Tankerville, in 1714. [1] Wilton Castle, on the Wye, was for several centuries the baronial residence of the Greys of the South, who derived from it their first title, and became its owners in the time of Edward I.--See _Mirror_, vol. xiv. p. 305. [2] The barony of Werke was given to the family of Ros, Barons of Hemsley, in Yorkshire, by Henry I. for the service of two knights' fees, and was in their possession till 1399; but in the next year was found to belong to Sir Thomas Grey, of Heton. It gave title of baron in 1622, to Sir William Grey, who died in 1674. The village of Werke, and its ruined castle, are all that remain of the possessions of the barony; the former consisting of a miserable cluster of thatched cottages; the latter of mere fragments of ashlar work, near its foundations and lines of its moat. The village stands on the margin of the Tweed: and the castle is celebrated in the border annals. Heton, of which we have just spoken, in Edward the First's reign, belonged to William de Heton; and in the next reign, to Sir Thomas Grey, captain of Norham Castle. Sir John Grey, of Heton, in 1420, was graced with the order of St. George, or the Garter; and from him the estate descended to the Tankervilles. The father of Earl Grey was Sir Charles Grey, who entered the army at an early age, had a command in the American war, and commanded in chief the military forces in the expeditions against the French West India Islands, the successful result of which was the annexing of Martinique, St. Lucie, Guadaloupe, &c. to our empire. He married, in 1762, Elizabeth, daughter of George Grey, Esq. of Southwick, in Durham, (of a different family,) by whom he had five sons and two daughters. He was created Lord Grey of Howick, in 1801; and Viscount Howick, and Earl Grey, in 1806. He died in the following year, and was succeeded by his son, Charles, second and present earl.