[Illustration] A Norman family by reputation, and said to be traced to the Conquest, descended from Sir William Downay, who was in the wars in the Holy Land with Richard I. in 1192, at which time that King gave him, in memory of his acts of valour, a ring from his finger, which is still in possession of the family. At an early period the Dawnays were in possession of lands in Cornwall; fifteen manors in that county descended by an heiress to the house of Courtenay Earl of Devon, about the reign of Edward II. In Richard the Second's time the family removed into this county by a match with the heiress of Newton of Snaith. Cowick was the seat and residence of Sir Guy Dawnay, in the reigns of Henry VII. and Henry VIII. See Brydges's Collins, vol. viii. p. 453; and Gilbert's Cornwall, vol. i. p. 457. ARMS.--_Argent, on a bend cotised sable three annulets of the field_. Present Representative, Hugh Richard Dawnay, 8th Viscount Downe. PILKINGTON OF NETHER-BRADLEY AND CHEVET-HALL, BARONET OF NOVA-SCOTIA 1635. [Illustration] "A right ancient family, gentlemen of repute in the county (of Lancaster) before the Conquest," according to Fuller in his "Worthies," and also mentioned by Gwillim as a "knightly family of great antiquity, taking name from Pilkington in Lancashire." That estate appears to have remained in the family until the ruin of the elder branch in consequence of Sir Thomas Pilkington having taken part against Henry VII. and with Richard III. at the battle of Bosworth. The present house descended from Sir John Pilkington, second son of Robert Pilkington, and brother of the unfortunate Sir Thomas. His son Robert is stated to have been of Bradley, in this county. He died in 1429, and was the ancestor of Sir Arthur the first Baronet. Younger Branches. Pilkington of Park-Lane Hall, in this county, descended from the second son of Robert Pilkington, of Bradley, who was living in 1540; and Pilkington of Tore, in the county of Westmeath, descended from Sir Robert, younger brother of Sir John Pilkington, ancestor of the house of Bradley. See Wotton's Baronetage, vol. iv. p. 338; Hunter's South Yorkshire, vol. ii. p. 394; Burke's Landed Gentry; and "The Grand Juries of the County of Westmeath," vol. ii. p. 254. ARMS.--_A cross patonce voided gules_. The crest, "a mower of parti-colours argent and gules," is said by Fuller in his "Worthies of England" to have been assumed in memory of the ancestor of the family having so disguised himself in order to escape after _the Battle of Hastings. The Battle of Bosworth_ is the more probable scene of this event, where four knights of the family were in arms on the part of Richard III. Present Representative, Sir Lionel Milborne Swinnerton Pilkington, 11th Baronet. STOURTON OF ALLERTON, BARON STOURTON 1447.