Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/255

 10* S.V.MARCH 17, 1906.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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Lloyd nor in the same talented ladies' still more exhaustive issue (1900).

The sundial at Dartford is of metal, fixed upon a stone foundation on the splay of the cill of the south-east window, and measures about 2 ft. 9 in. by 1 ft. 6 in. There is no motto upon it, but the simple engraved inscription :

1820. The Rev d. John Currey, A.M., Vicar. Mr. James Colyer ) ra, u j Mr. Thos. Sears j Churchwardens.

As the window in question contains stained glass, not much light comes through, but the dial records the time accurately from 2 P.M. till 7 P.M, when there is daylight until the latter hour. HARRY HEMS.

WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct.

MONTFORT ARMS. No genealogist has yet succeeded (Genealogist, x. 1 ff.) in establishing the exact connexion between the family of {Simon, Earl of Leicester, and that of Peter, Baron Montfort, who was after the battle of Lewes in 1264 one of the nine commissioners for the government of England (Dugdale, 4 Warwickshire,' p. 801). Certain associa- tions are ascertained, but no more. Simon's grandmother was Amicia de Beaumont, daughter of Robert, Earl of Leicester (d. 1190), whose aunt Adilen de Beaumont married Hugh de Montfort, great-great- grandfather of Peter. Presumably, since both families bore the same surname without attempting to make a distinction, they were akin paternally, and the two alliances with the house of Beaumont confirm this view, when it is borne in mind how frequent intermarriages between once united families were in those ages. The arms of Montfort, however, were Bendy of six pieces or and azure till Peter's son changed them to Bendy of ten ; Simon's arms were Arg., a lion rampant gules.

Simon's family died out utterly, with the possible exception of two daughters born to his third son Guy, which daughters are said to have married Italian noblemen (Campanile, ' Armi dei Nobili,' p. 46) and to have left descendants. Yet in spite of this incontro- vertible fact there are several families in England to-day who claim descent from Simon, Earl of Leicester, e.g., according to burke fifty years ago, Henry Mountfort, i^sq., of Beamhurst Hall, Staffs, whose arms

however, were those of Peter. It is possible they derive from one of Simon's brothers. But what I specially wish to invite attention to is the curious circumstance that some of Peter's descendants bear Simon's arms, rightly or wrongly. In Lancashire, at the Visitation of 1533, Thomas Butler, of Beau- sea, bore arms quarterly, and second and third Argent, a lion rampant gules, double queued ('Visit, of Lancashire,' Chetham Society, p. 96). These quarterings have greatly exercised the heralds. But Matilda, eventual coheiress of her father John de Montford (Dugdale, p. 799), married Bartholomew de Sudeley, whose granddaughter Joan was again coheiress (id., p. 1073) of her father, and married William le Boteler (d. 1368). She is said but her name is wrongly given as Elizabeth to have sealed with the quar- tered arms ('Visit, of Lancashire,' p. 99).

Again, in Box Church, Wilts, the arms of Mountford occur as Lion rampant double queued ; and once more it is interesting to note, in view of the custom to intermarry, that Margaret Pers, daughter of Elizabeth, sister and heiress of Thomas* Mountford, of Ashley, in Box, Wilts, married Wm. Buttler, of Badmynton, co. Gloucester ('Visitation of Wilts, 1623,' ed. Marshall, p. 47).

The Warwick and Stafford family, how- ever, have consistently retained their arms of bendy, and by marriage with Joane, daughter and heiress of John Clinton, of Coleshill, have the quartering Argent, on a chief azure two fleurs-de-lis of the field. The Booths of Dunham Massey, Chester, married an heiress of this family, and Burke ('Heraldic Illustrations,' 1846, plate cxvi.), in giving the arms of George Booth Tyndale, Esq., of Westfield Lodge, Hayling, Hants, attributes the Clinton arms to Montfort of Coleshill, as if they were a distinct branch of the family.

The representatives of Montfort in the male line are now by no means numerous, though there are many who derive through females. One branch to-day bears as its coat a lion rampant sable surrounded by Maltese crosses. With this should be compared the arms of

" de Montfort" in one of the earliest

rolls of arms, viz, "De arg., Crusules de goules e un lion ramp, de azure."

This brings me to the suggestion which I invite any reader interested in the subject to help me in verifying. The arms of Beau-

Lawrence de Montfort, of Lincoln, son of Alexander (temp. Edw. JIL), sued Margaret, late wife of Sir Ralph Boteler, in De Banco, Hillary, 7 Hen. V., for Emmeberwe, Somerset.
 * A Thomas de Montfort, great-grandson of Sir