[Illustration] A family of great antiquity, and which is said to have been established at Gatacre by a grant from Edward the Confessor. The pedigree, however, is not traced beyond the reign of Henry III. Although very ancient, this family does not appear to have been distinguished except by "The fair maid of Gatacre," (see Blakeway, p. 169,) and by the eminent divine of this house noticed in "Fuller's Worthies," and who was the ancestor of the Gatacres of Mildenhall, in Suffolk. See Leland's Itinerary, v. p. 31; Eyton's Antiquities of Shropshire, vol. iii. p. 86; and Morris MSS. ARMS.--_Quarterly gules and ermine, on the second and third quarters three piles of the first, on a fess azure five bezants_. This coat, a remarkable exception to the simple heraldry of the period, is supposed to have been granted to Humphry Gatacre, Esquire of the Body to King Henry VI. The following coat, ascribed to this family, was about the end of the seventeenth century in the church of Claverley in this county: _Quarterly, first and fourth ermine, a chief indented gules; second and third gules, over all on a fess azure three bezants_. (Eyton's Shropshire, iii. p. 103.) Present Representative, Edward Lloyd Gatacre, Esq. EYTON OF EYTON. [Illustration] This family can also lay claim to great antiquity, being certainly resident at Eyton on the Wealdmoors as early as the reigns of Henry I. and II. They were in some way connected with the Pantulfs, Barons of Wem, who were Lords of Eyton at the period of the Domesday Survey, and, in consequence of this connection, not only quarter their arms, but were among the very few Shropshire gentry who were not dispossessed after the Rebellion of the third Norman Earl of Shrewsbury, in the time of Henry I. Robert de Eyton stands at the head of the pedigree. See Blakeway, pp. 56, 70, 71; Eyton's Shropshire, viii. p. 26; and Morris MSS. ARMS.--_Quarterly, first and fourth, or, a fret azure; second and third, gules two bars ermine_. Present Representative, Thomas Campbell Eyton, Esq. PLOWDEN OF PLOWDEN. [Illustration] When the ancestors of this family were first seated at Plowden is a matter of doubt, but it was at a very early period. In 1194 Roger de Plowden is said to have been at the siege of Acre with Richard I., and there to have acquired the fleurs-de-lis in the arms. The name occurs upon all the county records from the reign of Henry III. Edmund Plowden the lawyer, in the sixteenth century, was the great luminary of this family. See Baker's Northamptonshire, i. 470; Blakeway, pp. 132, 222, and Morris MSS. ARMS.--_Azure, a fess dancettée, the two upper points terminating in fleurs-de-lis or_. Present Representative, William Henry Francis Plowden, Esq. ACTON OF ALDENHAM, BARONET 1643-4.