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THE ANCESTOR John son of Sir Thomas Ardern, the occasion on which he gave his age as fifty.^ By a second marriage with Joan, the heiress of Pulford, he considerably improved the position of the family, securing with her a title to the manor of Pulford, an estate in Dunham Massey, and other lands besides ; but, in consequence of subsisting life interests, the bulk of this pro- perty was first enjoyed by their son Sir Thomas Grosvenor, who was born in 1377.^ Joan had previously been married to Thomas Belgrave, and had children by him, whose fate is somewhat of a mystery.^ Sir Robert was sheriff in 1389 and again in 1394-5, and died April 22, 1396.* Upon his grand- son's death, the estate was divided among coheirs ; but through Ralph Grosvenor of Eaton, a younger brother of the last Grosvenor of Hulme, the male line has since been continued. It will be convenient here to tabulate the probable pedigree, which is therefore set out on the next page. Here then are the two versions of the story : one based upon documentary evidence, such as we have, the other pure tradi- tion. Placing them side by side, it is not hard, I think, to trace the genesis of the fable. A grant by Earl Hugh to Robert Grosvenor admittedly laid the foundation of the family fortunes. The fact lived in their memory ; and in the course of time the beginning of their own history became associated with the beginning of all local history — the epoch of the Conquest, the creation of the palatinate ; and their recollec- tion of Hugh Kevelioc was lost in the overshadowing personality of Hugh Lupus. What could be more natural ? But further, the great earl himself is depicted, in history and legend, as a gros veneur — at once a mighty hunter and a man of huge bulk, Hugh Vras, as the Welshmen called him. The conclusion is inevitable : he and no other was the original Grossovenator ; and the man who took that surname, since he could not well have been a son, must have been at least a nephew.^ True, ^ Ches. Inq. 1 5 Ric. 11. No. 7. It would appear that he was in England in the spring of 1370. ^ Jbi^j^ 22 Ric. II. No. 14, 8 Hen. VI. No. 5. 3 I have discussed this subject in a paper on the * Representation of the Barons of Dunham' in the Genealogist, n.s. xvi. 16. Joan Pulford's grand- mother, Katherine Dutton, was a granddaughter and one of the coheirs of the last Sir Hamon de Mascy. ^ Ches. Inq. 19 Ric. II. No. 9. ^ Where so much is obscure, there is always a possibility of some actual affinity between Robert Grosvenor, or his unknown wife, and Hugh Kevelioc. The same earl very likely was grantor of Lostock as well as of Budworth.