Page:Lancashire Legends, Traditions, Pageants, Sports, Etc., with an Appendix Containing a Rare Tract.djvu/63

 usual walk, found the infant as if by accident. The old lady, considering it a gift from Heaven brought thither by the bird of prey and miraculously preserved, consented to adopt the boy as their heir.

The name of Oskatel was given to the little foundling, Mary Oskatel being the name of his mother. From this time the crest of the eagle and child was assumed; but as the old knight approached near the grave, his conscience smote him, and on his death-bed he bequeathed the principal part of his fortune to Isabel, his daughter, now become the lady of Sir John Stanley, leaving poor Oskatel, on whom the king had conferred the honour of knighthood, only the manors of IslamIrlam [sic] and Urmston, near Manchester, and some possessions in the county of Chester, in which county he settled, and became the founder of the family of Latham of Astbury. This story is an after-thought, adapted to that which had previously existed. In the Harleian MS. (cod. 2151, fol. 4) is an account of some painted windows in Astbury Church, near Congleton, on which a figure is represented, with a sword and spurs, habited in a white tabard, the hands clasped, over the head a shield placed angle-wise under a helmet and mantle, emblazoned or, on a chief indented, azure, three bezants, over all a bondlet, gules; crest, an eagle standing on an empty cradle, with wings displayed, regardant or, with the inscription, "Orate pro anima Philippi Dom. Roberti Lathom militis"—(Pray for the soul of Philip, son of Sir Robert Lathom, knight). This Philip Lathom