ancestors of two of our oldest families, those of Shirley and of Curzon.
Apart from their exceptional antiquity the Gresleys are of much interest as a typical English knightly family taking part in local affairs and, when occasion came, in national warfare, generation after generation. Geoffrey de Gresley appears to have fought in an Irish expedition under King John, and to have acted for a time as constable of the famous castle of the Peak. Another Geoffrey 'took a full share in the Barons' war of 1261–5, and shared in the disasters which befell them after the battle of Evesham, Aug. 4, 1265.' Service abroad and service in Scotland fell later to the share of this 'Sir Geoffrey' (as he became), whose seal shows him 'on horseback, facing the dexter side, bearing a shield vaire in his left hand and in his right an uplifted sword,' the trappers of his horse also displaying the arms of his race. Yet he found time, in two Parliaments, to serve as knight of the shire for his county, though we can well believe that he 'seems to have found difficulty in settling down as a country squire.' Of his son Sir Peter we read that 'there is hardly a record of himself or his family which is not concerned either with hard fighting or other equally violent but less legitimate conduct.' We are tempted to quote this amazing record of the performances of Sir Robert Gresley, one of his younger sons; and incidentally we may observe that it illustrates the extraordinary care with which Mr. Madan has traced throughout the careers of the younger sons and of the daughters of the lords of Drakelowe.
The assizes record ten charges against him between 1320 and 1348: one of trespass, two of riot, three of robbery, and no less than four of murder. … His methods of evading the consequences of these misdeeds do honour to his ingenuity. In July, 1333, for his services with the king's army in Scotland, he obtained a general pardon for all felonies, and … flourished this useful document in the face of the judge and jury when accused of having six years earlier robbed the parson of Walton. On another occasion he remembered that he was a 'Clerk,' and said that he could not answer the charge without his Ordinary !
Turning from this catalogue of misdemeanours, we find Sir Robert representing Derbyshire in the Parliament of 1340; fighting in Scotland both in 1333 and 1335; summoned to Ipswich with his brothers Edmund and Roger for foreign service in November, 1338; and serving in Aquitaine under the Earl of Lancaster in 1346, when he probably took part in the siege of Calais (1346–7).
The wild old Norman blood seems to have had much to
