Ormerod, in his History of Cheshire, mentions Grosvenor, Davenport, and Brereton as “three grantees who can be proved by ancient deeds to have existed at or near the Conquest, though unnoticed in Domesday.” Of these the family least favoured by fortune in later times (the peerage and the baronetage in the Brereton family having both become extinct, and the heirship in lands and manors in all the principal English lines having descended to females), was, during the earliest centuries after the Conquest, among the most distinguished in the palatinate, and, by its fortunate and splendid marriages, became entitled to prefer for its issue the highest claims, even to ducal and regal descent. This state of the case, and a natural desire to uphold ancient valour and renown against the mere caprices of fortune, renders what can be collected of personal anecdote, local tradition, or the biography of the members of such a family (and not the mere bead-roll of its pedigree which is printed in local histories), a suitable subject of archæological inquiry, often suggestive of useful topics, and sometimes replete with interesting matter.
