not a common origin, then they who first assumed them, being third or fourth cousins, and holding lands in different parts of England, and under different feudal chiefs, must all have singularly hit upon the same devices; or, under the former supposition, they must have been borne by a common ancestor at or before the conquest.
The Echinghams and St. Legers, from their large possessions in Kent and Sussex, had not only a feudal, but probably a close family relationship to the Earls of Eu, whose arms, it may be presumed, they copied; Maltravers, a Domesday tenant of theirs, in Dorsetshire, bearing also the fret. In the Roll of Arms temp. Edward II, printed in the Parliamentary Writs (i, 410), the following arms are assigned to different members of these families:—
Sire William de Echingham—de azure fretty d'argent (13).
Sire Robert de Echingham—meisme les armes, od la bordure endente d'or (14).
Sire Rauf de St. Leger—od le chef d'or (19).
Sire Johan de St. Leger—od le chef de goules.
Sire Thomas de St. Leger—de azure frette de argent ove le chef d'or, od un molet de goules.
The Parkers of Ratton, who bore fretty a fess (16), derived their coat, undoubtedly, from the Echinghams: from whom they took the fess is unknown. The bend fretty (15) of Ore of Ore, is from Etchingham, and perhaps Mounceux, who bore or a bend sable, which latter seems to have been the basis of Shoyswell of Shoyswell, the super-addition being on the bend three horse shoes of the field. In the roll just mentioned, "Sire Alleyn de Boxhulle" who bore d'or et un lyon d'azure frette argent (17), occurs among the Sussex knights. The fretty here is of course from Echingham; and the lion perhaps from Burghersh of Burwash. The same coat is given to Ralph Boxhill amongst 700, in what is called "Charles's Roll" in the time of Henry III, the earliest roll of arms extant. This family, which still exists and is very numerous in Sussex, under the modern spelling of Boxall, took its name from a place near Salehurst, now called "Bugsill." The arms of Warnett[1] of Framfield fretty, over all a stag salient, are in
- ↑ This name is probably a corruption of Warrenwick, just as Smithett is corrupted from Smithwick, and Dennett from Dennewick (the street in the valley). Many names ending in ett or att, are said to be formed from the particle at as a suffix,
