[Illustration] The family of Villers or Villiers is ancient in Leicestershire, Alexander de Villiers being lord of Brokesby in that county early in the thirteenth century. The present coat of arms is said to have been assumed in the reign of Edward I., as a badge of Sir Richard de Villers' services in the crusades. "Villiers of Brokesby" occurs among the gentlemen of Leicestershire, "that be there most of reputation," in the Itinerary of Leland the antiquary in the reign of Henry VIII. But the great rise of the family was in the reign of James I., when the favourite Sir George Villiers became Duke of Buckingham in 1623, extinct 1687. The Earls of Jersey are sprung from the second but elder brother of the first duke. Their connection with Oxfordshire appears not to have been before the middle of the last century. Brokesby was sold by Sir William Villiers, who died s. p. 1711. Younger Branch. The Earl of Clarendon (1776), descended from the second son of the second Earl of Jersey. Extinct branch. The Earl of Grandison in Ireland, 1721; extinct 1766; descended from the elder brother of Sir Edward Villiers, who died 1689, ancestor of the Earl of Jersey. See Leland's Itinerary, i. fol. 23, and vi. fol. 65; Nichols's Leicestershire, iii. pt. i. p. 197; and Brydges's Collins, iii. 762. ARMS.--_Argent, on a cross gules five escallops or_. The ancient arms founded on those of the Bellemonts Earls of Leicester were _Sable, three cinquefoils argent_. Present Representative, Victor Albert George Villiers, 7th Earl of Jersey. +Gentle.+ COKER OF BICESTER. [Illustration] The younger, but I believe now the only remaining, line of a family formerly seated at Coker in the county of Somerset, where it can be traced to the time of Edward I. Mapouder in Dorsetshire, derived from the heiress of Veale in the reign of Henry V., became afterwards the family seat. In 1554, John Coker, who appears to have been second son of Thomas Coker, of Mapouder, purchased the Manor of "Nuns' Place or King's End in Biscester," which has since remained the residence of this ancient family. See Coker's Survey of Dorsetshire, p. 98; Hutchins's History of Dorsetshire, vol. iii. p. 273; Kennett's Parochial Antiquities, 1st. ed. p. 109; and Burke's Commoners, 2nd ed. vol. iii. p. 347. ARMS.--_Argent, on a bend gules three leopard's heads or_. The Mapouder line bore the arms within a border engrailed sable; but the elder branch of the family, who are represented by the Seymours Dukes of Somerset, omitted the border. Present Representative, Lewis Coker, Esq. PARKER OF SHIRBURN CASTLE, EARL OF MACCLESFIELD 1721, BARON PARKER 1716.