Manor of Bradwall

Richard de Bradwall (living before 1232^{[John was long dead by then]} in the time of King John) was a member of the first of two families to settle in the manor of Bradwall, becoming the mesne lord of a moiety of the manor.

He was succeeded by Reginald de Bradwall, followed by a line of three Richards, until Richard de Bradwall who married Elizabeth (daughter of Thomas de Sandbach) had three daughters, and his male line became extinct.

At one time, Richard^[which?] owned the Elworth Estate located partly in Bradwall, which he passed to his son Thomas de Helleworth, in about the time of Edward I (1272–1307). The family coat of arms is not certain.

The second of the two families who settled in the manor of Bradwall included Sir William Venables (living in 1312). He is well noted for a skirmish with the abbot of the Monastery of St Mary or Vale Royal, on behalf of his older brother Sir Hugh Venables, Baron of Kinderton, in which the abbot's attendant was killed with an arrow; he also served as High Sheriff of Cheshire.^[2]

The second son, Sir William Venables (living in 1362),^[3] succeeded to the family estates; the estate was divided between his three daughters (Joan, Katherine, and Ellen), passing to the Beryingtons through marriage.^[4]

The Venables' coat of arms features a dragon-like wyvern devouring a child (see illustration for details).^[1]

William de Beryngton of Moorsborough and Bradwall acquired the title from his mother, Joan Venables of Bradwall, who married Thomas de Beryngton. The title remained in the family for about six generations, until Helen Berington, the only daughter and heiress of William and Elizabeth, married Philip Oldfield in about 1569. The family coat of arms features three greyhounds below a crest depicting a greyhound's head (see illustration for details).^[1]

Philip Oldfield succeeded to Bradwall at the time of his marriage to Joan Berington around 1869^{[What should this date be?]}. A notable barrister who practised at Chester, a recumbent alabaster effigy in his memory remains in the Church of St Mary-on-the-Hill, Chester. The estate passed through six generations, until one William Oldfield, an unmarried only son, sold the estate in 1719. The Oldfield coat of arms features three crosses pattées, and a wyvern on a coronet (see illustration for details).^[1]

William Oldfield sold the Bradwall estate to Charles Ward, a Dubliner, who five years later in 1725, conveyed it to his son-in-law, John Jervis (who died in Bradwall),^[5] who in turn passed the title to his son, John Jervis, a Welsh circuit judge, who held the title until his death in 1802. On 9 June 1802, the trustees conveyed the estate to John Latham MD.