i86 THE ANCESTOR since no Robert appears there, was thus impressed to do duty as founder of the family. Put baldly thus, after what has gone before, the assumption may not sound very convincing. But it is one that modern writers have evidently made ; for instance, the anonymous author of the Norman People in England^ and the Duchess of Cleveland in her Roll of Battle Abbey. Collins, not content with embracing also Radulphus Venator of Domesday and the foundation charter of St. Werburgh's (known to be the brother of Hugh son of Norman, and ancestor of the barons of Mohaut) and Ranulphus Venator of Earl Richard's charter, invades a neighbouring county to lay violent hands on Ulger le Grosvenor, as he calls him, who was in command at Bridg- north Castle in 1102. This turns out to be Ulger Venator oi Bolas, of whose family an account may be found in Eyton's History of Shropshire. But Collins followed Wotton ; Wotton relied upon information supplied by the Sir Robert Grosvenor of his time ; and Grosvenor, in all probability, upon the work of the earlier Cheshire collectors and genealogists, one of whom. Sir Peter Leycester, we know, had access to the Hulme muniments, and largely availed himself of them.^ The as- sumption, it would thus seem, is one of respectable antiquity and some persistence. Nor would it necessarily be always wrong. If not a family surname, Venator must designate an office, and one which some of the Grosvenors held. A Stephanus Venator^ said to be also called le Grosvenor, occurs in the Arley Charters and elsewhere, and seems to be the same person as Stephen de Merton. Now the Mertons too appear as foresters (or perhaps deputies) in Mara ; they had interests, as we have seen, in Lostock ; and their arms were azure with three bends silver — highly sugges- tive of Grosvenors' coat, differenced for a cadet.^ A wholesale ^ Comparing the account in Wotton with that in Ormerod, there can be little doubt that Sir Peter's collections are the source of both narratives. Which of them is to blame for so embroidering the abbot's plain tale, I am not in a position to say : for the present the burden of suspicion must be shared be- tween Wotton, his informant, and Sir Peter. 2 Their history begins with a deed of Earl Randle (de Blundeville), inaccur- ately copied in MS. Harl, 2074, f. 170. By this the earl grants (or confirms) Merton and the office of usher in his household {host'tarlus in domo meo) to Ran' de Mereton filio Ranul', fostiario fideli meo. Ormerod printed this word forestario ; but the context suggests that hostiario is the correct reading. Merton was subsequently given up to Vale Royal, in exchange for Gayton in Wirral
