[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.