[Illustration] A noble Norman family, which is traced to the Conquest, and of which there were in Leland's time four "notable houses" remaining in England, in the counties of Devon, Southampton, Stafford, and Buckingham. All with the exception of the third have been long extinct. The Giffords have been seated in Staffordshire since the reign of Henry II., when Peter Gifford, by the gift of Peter Corbesone, became Lord of the Manor of Chillington, ever since their principal residence. He is called in the Deed of Gift, "_Nepos uxoris meae_." This family had the honour to be concerned in the preservation of King Charles II. after the Battle of Worcester. See Erdeswick, p. 158, corrected from Huntbach's MSS. penes Lord Wrottesley. ARMS.--_Azure, three stirrups with leathers or_. The more ancient coat, which was used by the elder line of the Giffords, who were Earls of Buckingham, was, _Gules, three lions passant argent_. Present Representative, Thomas William Gifford, Esq. WROTTESLEY OF WROTTESLEY: BARON WROTTESLEY 1838; BARONET 1542. [Illustration] "Sumetime," writes Leland, "the Wrotesleys were men of more land than they bee now, and greate with the Earles of Warwick; yet he hath 200 markes of londe; at Wrotesley is a fayre house and a parker" and here, it may be added, the family are supposed to have been seated from the period of the Conquest. The pedigree however is not proved beyond William de Wrottesley, lord of that manor before the reign of Henry III., father of Sir Hugh, who, joining the insurgent Barons in the reign of Henry III., forfeited his estate, redeemed under the dictum de Kenelworth for 60 marcs. His great-grandson Sir Hugh Wrottesley, one of the "Founders" of the Order of the Garter, who died in 1380-1, is the direct ancestor of the present lord. See Leland's Itinerary in Coll. Topog. et Genealogica, iii. 340; Erdeswick, p. 359; Wotton's Baronetage, ii. 345; and Shaw's Staffordshire, ii. 205, kindly corrected by the Hon. Charles Wrottesley. ARMS.--_Or, three piles sable and a quarter ermine_. The more ancient coat, as appears by seals to original deeds of the years 1298 and 1333-37, preserved at Wrottesley, was _fretty_. Sir Hugh de Wrottesleye bore the present arms in 1349 and 1381. But he is also stated, on the authority of the Roll of the reign of Richard II., to have used, _Or, a bend engrailed gules_. Sir William Wrottesley, father of Sir Hugh, K.G., married Joan, daughter of Roger Basset, which will account for the present arms, which belonged to the Bassets of Warwickshire. Present Representative, John Wrottesley, 2nd Baron Wrottesley. BROUGHTON OF BROUGHTON, BARONET 1660.