[Illustration] The family of Savile was one of the most illustrious in the West Riding of the county of York. Some writers have fancifully ascribed to it an Italian origin, but it probably had its rise at Silkston, in this county. It certainly flourished in those parts in the thirteenth century; and in the middle of the fourteenth century we find (1358) Margaret Savile Prioress of Kirklees. In the reign of Edward III. the family divided itself into two main branches, in the person of two brothers, John of Tankersley and Henry of Bradley. The senior branch acquired its greatest renown in the person of George first Marquess of Halifax, a title which became extinct in 1700. The junior branch was of Copley and Methley, and, having produced one of the most learned men of our country, Sir Henry Savile, the Provost of Eton, is now represented by the Earl of Mexborough. See Dugdale's Baronage, ii. p. 462; Whitaker's Leeds, vol. i. pp. 272, 310; Archdall's ed. of Lodge's Peerage of Ireland, vol. iii. p. 156; Hunter's Antiquarian Notices of Lupset, 1851; and the Savile Correspondence, edited for the Camden Society by W. D. Cooper, F.S.A., 1858. ARMS.--_Argent, on a bend sable three owls of the field_. This coat was borne by Monsieur John Sayvill, in the reign of Richard II. His son John differenced it by a label of three points gules. Present Representative, John Charles George Savile, 4th Earl of Mexborough. GOWER OF STITTENHAM, DUKE OF SUTHERLAND 1833; MARQUESS OF STAFFORD 1786; EARL GOWER 1746; BARON 1703. [Illustration] Descended from Sir Nicholas Gower, knight of the shire for this county in the reign of Edward III., and seated at Stittenham from about the same period. Of this family, it has been said, was Gower the Poet, but Sir Harris Nicolas in his memoir of Gower could not trace the connection. Leland remarks, "The House of Gower the Poet yet remayneth at Switenham (Stittenham) in Yorkshire, and divers of them syns have beene knightes." In the end of the seventeenth century the wealth of this family was greatly increased by marriage with the heiress of Leveson, of Trentham, in Staffordshire, and also in the year 1785 by the marriage of the Marquess of Stafford with Elizabeth, daughter and heir of William eighteenth Earl of Sutherland, mother of the present Duke. Younger Branches. The Earl of Ellesmere 1846, and Gower of Bill-Hill, co. Berks, descended from John son of John first Earl Gower, by his third wife. See Brydges's Collins, vol. ii. p. 441; Historical and Antiquarian Mag., 1828, vol. ii. p. 103; and Leland's Itin., vol. vi. fol. 15. ARMS.--_Barry of eight argent and gules, a cross patonce sable_. Present Representative, George Granville William Sutherland Leveson Gower, 3rd Duke of Sutherland, K. G. DAWNAY OF COWICK AND DANBY, VISCOUNT DOWNE IN IRELAND 1680.