by considerable grants of land in Yorkshire, part of which called Rawdon gave the surname which the family assumed. The successors of this Norman maintained their position in the county, and to the present day his representative, Lord Loudoun, has portions of the Conqueror's original grant in his possession[1].
Nineteenth in direct descent from Paulyn, George Rawdon settled in Ireland, where he took a prominent part in the rebellion of 1641 as an officer of merit, and afterwards in the affairs of that country; he was created a Baronet of England in 1665, being denominated of Moira, Co. Down, where his Irish estates lay. His son, Sir Arthur, was distinguished in the troubles of 1688-89, siding with William; and his great-grandson, Sir John Rawdon, was elevated to the peerage of Ireland in 1750, as Baron Rawdon of Rawdon, Co. Down, and eleven
1 The lands appertaining to the Manor of Rawdon are held by a very curious old rhyming Title-deed which is supposed by some to date from the Conqueror, and which runs as follows: —
I William Kyng, the thurd yere of my reign Give to the Pawlyn Roydon, Hope and Hopetowne With all the bounds both up and downe; From Heven to Yerthe, from Yerthe to Hel For the and thyn, ther to dwel, As truly as this Kyng right is myn; For a crosse bow and an arrow When I sal come to hunt on Yarrow. And in token that this thing is sooth, I bit the whyt wax with my tooth, Before Meg, Mawd, and Margery, And my thurd sonne, Henry
- ↑ 1
