Sir John (son of Wise Piers) of Warburton and Arley was also a seneschal of Halton and was Sheriff of Cheshire 10 Henry VII. (1494-5), and was afterwards appointed for a life term. He was also Knight of the body to that King. He contributed to the building of the tower of Budworth church, where his name and arms appear. There is a deed in the Chester Plea Rolls dated 1510-11 between this Sir John and Bishop William Smith, one of the founders of Brasenose College, contracting his son Piers to Elizabeth Wynington, with a settlement of land; and to this deed Mr. Helsby has annexed some valuable comments. Sir John fought on the field of Flodden, 1513; and a ballad mentions a Savage, a Dutton, a Kinderton, a Fitton, and other local squires.

The Royal Ratcliffe that rude was never,

And trustye Trafforde kene to try,
And Wighty Warburtone out of Chesshire,
All came with the Earle of Derbye.

A signed bill in the Welsh Records, dated Chester, 8 April, 15 Henry VIII. (1524), appoints Thomas Warburton, gentleman, to be sheriff of the county of Chester vice Sir John Warburton deceased.

Sir Piers Warburton, Knt., succeeded in 1523. One of his deeds mentions that the " Cock" Inn in Budworth was held by his tenants Ralph and Margaret French. John Leland, when making his Itinerary, says that this Piers of Arley was one of the principal gentlemen of Cheshire. He witnessed the wreck and dispersion of the ecclesiastical property; and he died 5 June, 1550. His manors and numerous lands are enumerated in his Inquisition post mortem. From his brother, according to Foss, was descended the Commonwealth judge, Sir Peter Warburton.

Sir John Warburton, Knt., son of Sir Piers, succeeded at the age of 27. On 2 Oct., 1553, he, with Sir Thomas Gerard,

Sir Rauf Egerton, Sir Richard Molineux, Sir Edward Fitton, and Sir William Warren, were dubbed Knights of the Carpet, the occasion being the day after the Queen's Coronation, at the Palace at Westminster. In the year 1557, when Edward, third Earl of Derby, the High Constable of England, was ordered, as Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire and Cheshire, to muster the forces of those two counties to oppose a Scotch invasion, Sir John Warburton and Sir Edward Warren were in command of 150 men each (Strype's Eccles. Mem. III. ii. 91, 181-2). In his time was drawn up an elaborate Rent roll of his estates, still preserved at Arley Hall. It is formed of skins of parchment stitched together, making it ten yards long; and it is about a foot wide. At the top are the family arms emblazoned, and the heading is as follows: "Rentale d'ni Joh'is Warburton Militis pro festo Sti Joh'is Baptiste [24 June] de o'ib's man'ijs terr' ten'nt' messuagijs villis et alijs Reddit' infra Com' Cestr' & Lancastr' factu' & Renovať' decimo. die Julij anno regni d'ne Elizabeth dei grac' Anglie ffraunc' et hib'ni' regine fidei defensor &c. decimo quarto [1572]." The names of the tenants are written in a neat character under the heads of the several manors; at the sides is a running ornamental border about two inches wide.

Sir John died in 1575. The only old monument remaining in the South or Arley Chancel of Budworth Church, appropriated to the Warburtons of Arley, relates to this Knight, who is represented in a recumbent posture. His portrait at full length hangs on the walls of Arley Hall.

His son Peter, an esquire, took the estates, being then 31 years of age. He appears to be the Peter Warburton who is referred to in some ccclesiastical enquiries made concerning Budworth in February, 1569-70. Sir Richard Eaton, the vicar, being sworn and examined, said “that Thomas Starke esquier hath not rec' at his hands but he

thinks he is not obstinate and yet he is a favorer of the Romish religion. The Roade loft yet standeth. He saieth that one John Warburton useth to praic upon a Latin primer and this depont hath undertaken to bringe in the same &c.-Peter Warburton thilder and his wicf are asonder.-They had no sermon sithence the visitac'on.-S' Ran' Antrobus an old papist priest and doth not mynister.-Homfrey Hall, Wm foxley, and Pier Ricson gard' sworne and exa'i'ed saie and the said foxley saieth that he hath div'se old Latin bokes remayninge in his hands wch he is enjoyned to bringe in to the Sinode at Warington the Towesdaie after lowe Sondaie next. Brought in. The Rode lofte standeth."

In the time of Squire Peter the Pedigree of the Warburtons, a long and elaborate parchment roll, still extant at Arley, was drawn up. It was prepared by Robert Cooke, who signs as "Clarencieux Roy D'armes." This personage was Chester Herald in 1562; he was Clarencieux King-atArms in 1567; and he died in 1592; before which latter year, therefore, his attestation of the Warburton genealogy belongs. About the same time there was a grant of arms to one Peter Warburton of Northwich, a copy of which has been preserved in Ashm. MS. No. 844, fo. 230. It is described as Cooke's grant to "Messire Pierre Warburton de Northwich fils de Thomas fils de John quatriesme fils de Mons' Geoffrey Warburton de Arley Chevalier," dated "le ncuficsme iour de Septembre l'an de n're seigneur Jesu Christ mil cinq cens huictante." The coat is thus emblazoned: Qtly. I and 4, arg. and gu., a crescent sable; in the 2nd and 3rd a fret or. 2, ar. a chevron sable between three cormorants of the second. 3, argent two chevronels gules, on a canton of the second a mullet or. Crest, the Saracen's head as in the Arley coat.