Page:The house of Cecil.djvu/16

 2 THE CECILS

side the suspicion that inconvenient fact has been suppressed." 1

According to the official pedigree, David Cyssell was the younger son of Richard Cicell of Allt yr Ynys in Herefordshire, and his descent is traced back through fifteen generations to one Robert Sytsylt, who, in the year 1091, assisted Robert Fitz- Hamon in the conquest of Glamorganshire, and was the father of Sir James Sitsilt, baron of Beauport.

In the course of four centuries the family is said to have become allied by marriage to many of the most ancient and eminent families in the county of Hereford, such as the Frenes, Pembridges, Basker- villes, De la Beres, and others, yet it is a surprising fact that throughout this long period its name does not once appear among the sheriffs of the county, nor among its representatives in Parliament, nor even in the list of the gentry of Herefordshire drawn up in the reign of Henry VI., though that list contains many of the names which are enumerated among the Cecil alliances. 2

To add further verisimilitude to the record, a picturesque story is told of a great contention between Sir John Sitsilt and Sir William Fakenham, which took place in 1333 at Halidon Hill, near Berwick. Each disputant claimed a certain coat of arms 3 as his right, and offered to maintain the

1 Northamptonshire Families (Victoria County Histories), p. 21. Mr. Barren's researches have rendered all other writers on the subject obsolete.

a Blore, History of Rutland (1811), p. 76.

8 Viz., Barry of ten, argent and azure, over all six escutcheons, 3.2.1. each charged with a lion rampant of the field. The present arms of the Cecils.

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