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Bruce Breretons family history site:
Brereton DNA project: http://dna.brereton.org.uk/index.htm
Archeologia link confirming by Royal patent the descent of the Breretons from Ada de a Huntingdon: https://books.google.com/books?id=PzRFAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA60&lpg=PA60&dq=...
Archaeological reference on marriage of William Brereton to Elena Massy and Anilla Venables: https://books.google.com/books?id=PzRFAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA60&lpg=PA60&dq=...
Ada de Huntingdon coat of arms description matching John le Scot
https://books.google.com/books?id=jvdTAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA249&lpg=PA249&d...
Attestation background information: http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/GEN-MEDIEVAL/2002-02/...
The Breretons: https://archive.org/details/breretonsofchesh00brer
All information credit historian Craig Thornber, PhD.
http://www.thornber.net/cheshire/htmlfiles/brereton.html Stuart Raymond in Cheshire: A Genealogical Bibliography, quotes the following sources for Brereton genealogy:
1. On Handford Old Hall, in Cheshire, formerly the residence of the ancient family of Brereton, with an account of Cheadle Church, in that county, and of the monuments to the Breretons in it, by Richard Brooke, Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, 2, 1850, 41-54.
2. The Story of Brereton Hall, Cheshire by A. L. Moir, 2nd ed. published in Chester by Phillipson and Golder, 1949, includes brief pedigree from 12-18th century.
3. A Memoir of the Brereton Family, with occasional notices of certain other of the old Cheshire families, by Sir Fortunatus Dwarris, published by J. B. Nicholas and Son, 1848.
4. Observations upon the history of one of the old Cheshire families, by Fortunatus Dwarris, Archaeologica, 33, 1850, 55-83.
5. The Families of Brereton by John Hewitt, Cheshire Sheaf, 3rd series, 27, 1934, 12-150, and also 31, 1937, 61-92.
6. The manor of Bretune is listed in Domesday Book
7. Old Cheshire Churches, with a supplementary survey of the lesser old chapels of Cheshire, completely revised and enlarged by Raymond Richards, published by E. J. Morten, Didsbury, 1973, first published in 1947.
8. Beside the Bright Stream, The Background and History of St. Oswald's Church, Lower Peover, by the Rev. Canon J. C. Sladden, MA BD (Oxon), 1st edition 1968, 4th edition taking into account an architectural report by Mr. K. Moth, 1994, price £1.
9. Information displayed in st. Oswalds Church.
10. From historian Craig Thornber, of Cheshire WITH resources listed. For those not able to read through the material, 1) Thornbers resources, such as Archaeological are NOT discredited, 2) Astbury, where the remains of Lord Breretons ancestors, known as the " Knights Burials" ( Sir Ralph, Ada de Huntingdon and one of their sons) were moved to st. Oswalds. Sir Ralph d. 1285, buried at Astbury, would be the grandfather of the first Sir Ralph included in this genealogy, and one of the ancestors whose original remains were at Astbury.
11. AFTER 1410: Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study In Colonial And Medieval Families, 2nd Edition. By Douglas Richardson. Page 383.
Here is where Richardson requests more information regarding Ralph Brereton and Ada de Huntingdons marriage : http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/GEN-MEDIEVAL/2002-02/... This link includes the Attestation of Dame Mary Warburton and many others regarding the identities of the Knights burials found in the Windsor library. Richardson also agrees here that Ada was the widow of Henry Hastings, who died 1250. http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/GEN-MEDIEVAL/2002-02/...
That means she was alive after 1250. The date on the tomb at Astbury showing Sir Ralph and Ada is 1285. Their remains were transferred to St. Oswalds in Brereton in 1618.
12) Ormerod: History of the County Palatinate
13) Manuscripts of St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, page 409. J.n. Dalton, 1947.
14) Ormerod The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester: Comp. from ..., Volume 1
By George Ormerod, Daniel King, William Smith, William Webb (sheriff.), Sir Peter Leycester, page 44, states the lands held by Ada de Huntingdon:https://books.google.com/books?id=DYY1AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA201&lpg=PA201&d... This is the year 22 of Henry III, 1238. No Yardley is mentioned.
"Raymond Richards relates that there was a chapel at Brereton from the reign of Richard I (1189-99). Canon Sladden in Beside the Bright Stream relates that Sir William Brereton built a church at Brereton about 1200 to fulfill a promise he made while on the third crusade and dedicated it to St. Oswald of Northumberland.
Brereton was originally in the parish of Astbury and became a parish in its own right in the reign of Henry VIII (1509-47). The original chapel was probably made of wood as some is still visible at the junction of the nave and chancel. The church was rebuilt in the 15th century in the late Perpendicular style. Like many other churches in the area, St. Oswald's was restored in the 19th century by Gilbert Scott. Raymond Richards in his book Old Cheshire Churches, is very critical of Scott's work. In particular he disliked the removal of old oak and its replacement by pitch pine and imported wood, which he thought alien to a mediaeval church. Among the many features of interest inside the church are the 17th century altar rails and 16th century Flemish choir stalls. The font bears the date of 1660. Many decorated mediaeval fonts in Cheshire were destroyed by Puritans in the Civil War period. There is also a parish chest with three locks. On display near the south door is a bell of 1591. The church registers begin in 1538. The list of ministers goes back to Gilbert de Brereton in 1297. On the north side of the sanctuary is a Brereton memorial, the lower part of which is shown in my photograph. High on the wall above is displayed some armour which may have belonged to the Sir William Brereton who fought at the seige of Maynooth in Ireland in 1534. An information card nearby explains that the monument was installed in 1618 by Sir William Brereton, the 1st Lord Brereton (1550-1631) when the remains of his ancestors were brought from Astbury and reburied in the chancel at St. Oswald's. Immediately above, but not shown in the photograph, are the arms of the Breretons with the motto 'Opitulante Deo' - 'God be my helper'. The inscription on the monument in Latin is translated on the card and shown below. A donative chapel was a one presented by a patron without reference to the bishop. "In ancient times when this Church of Brereton was a donative chapel within the parish of Astbury, the ancestors of William Brereton, knight, Baron of Malpas, (who erected this monument in 1618 AD) had been buried in the churchyard of Asbury, where ancient monuments of some of them still remain to this date, marked in English with the words 'Knightes burialls'. But after the said chapel was made a parochial Church, the ancestors of the said William Brereton, knight, patron of this Chapel of Brereton were buried in the chancel, except those who died in kingdoms and counties abroad"
In the east corner of the south aisle is the monument of William Smethwick who died in 1643 and his wife of 58 years, Frances, daughter of Anthony Coleclough who was born in 1557 in the castle of Kildare in Ireland and died 1 May 1632. (The photograph was taken from below but perspective correction has been employed in Adobe Photoshop to give a fuller view of the figures.)
The photographs of the interior were taken at the beginning of the Brereton Bear Festival, in July in 2005 and at a similar festival on 17 July 2010. A large number of teddy bears of all sizes are displayed around the village with amusing captions. The church had a large display of bears in the north aisle. In the south aisle, a few can be seen on the window ledge behind the font and around the bell. The church now has its own site.
Ormerod describes the Parish of Brereton as having only one township - Brereton-cum-Smethwick - bounded by the parishes of Sandbach, Middlewich and Astbury. At the time of the Norman Conquest, Brereton came under Gilbert de Venables, Baron of Kinderton. It was granted to a family which assumed the local name but from the arms subsequently adopted it is likely that they were related to the Venables family. The Brereton family tree goes back to Ralph de Brereton who is known from being a witness to a charter by Gilbert Venables in the time of William II or Henry I. The manor and advowson continued in the male line of the Brereton family until Francis, 5th Lord Brereton died unmarried in 1722.
The connection with the Egertons of Malpas is shown in the first tree below leading to the Breretons of Malpas and Shocklach. The first five Breretons shown below were called William and following inheritance through a brother called Andrew the next three were called William also.
1. Sir William Brereton, Kt., heir to his grandfather, had a grant of free warren and market in 1369. +1st Ellen, dau. of Philip and the sister and eventually heiress of David de Egerton of Egerton, joint baron of Malpas. 2. Sir William de Brereton, born at Egerton on the feast of St. Valentine, 1350, baptised Malpas, a knight in 1385, died 1426. +1st wife Anyll or Anilla dau. of Hugh Venables, Baron of Kinderton married at Audley in 1386. Children were William, Nicholas, Hugh, Matthew, John, Henry, Elizabeth and Margery. 3. William de Brereton, known to be living in 1410 and 1417, died before his father, at Harfleur. + Alice, sister and heiress of Richard Corbet of Leghton in the barony of Caux. Children were William, Ralph, Alice, Joan. 4. Sir William Brereton of Brereton, Kt., heir to his grandfather, aged 12 in 1426 died about 1485. + Philippa, dau. of Sir Hugh Hulse. Children were William, Andrew, John, Hugh, Elizabeth, Jane, Eleanor, Matilda. See footnote. 5. Sir William Brereton of Brereton, son and heir. + Katherine, dau. of Sir John Byron, both living 1452. Children were Robert, Roger, Henry, Matthew, but succession went through William’s brother, Andrew to his nephew, William. 5. Sir Andrew Brereton, Kt., living 1460 and 1495. + Agnes alias Anne, dau. of Robert Legh of Adlington. They had William, John, Andrew, Matthew, Johanna, Ellen, Alice, Elizabeth, Catherine and Matilda. William the eldest son succeeded his uncle Sir William Brereton. 6. Sir William Brereton of Brereton, Kt., chief justice and lord high marshal of Ireland died 1541 in Ireland. +1st Alice the daughter of Sir John Savage. 7. Sir William Brereton, son and heir apparent. + Ann the daughter of Sir William Booth of Dunham Massey. This couple had six sons and three daughters. The eldest son was William. 8. Sir William Brereton of Brereton, Kt., Sheriff of Cheshire in reign of Edward VI, died 1559. + Jane, dau. of Peter Warburton. This couple had one son, William, whose family is shown in a separate tree below, and five daughters. +2nd wife Elenor, dau. of Sir Ralph Brereton of Ipstones. This couple had eight children. +2nd wife of Sir William was Ellen, dau. of Sir William Mascey of Tatton, Kt. Their son was Thomas de Brereton, rector of Brereton in 1433, who was heir to his mother. 3. Thomas de Brereton, rector, 1433 and heir to his mother, was 34 in 1445. + 2nd wife of Sir William was Margaret, dau. of Henry Done of Utkinton, widow of John de Davenport of Henbury, living in 1418. 2. Randle de Brereton, Esq., ancestor of the Breretons of Malpas and Shocklach. + Alice, daughter and heiress of William de Ipstones. 2. Elizabeth who married William de Cholmondeley. The family tree is continued below from the Sir William Brereton shown above in generation 8. Sir William in generation 1. below was born in 1550 and his father died in 1559. As a boy he lived with the Savage family and saw Rock Savage being built. Subsequently he married Alice Savage and built Brereton Hall in the style of Rock Savage. This tree shows the end of the Brereton male line at Brereton and the succession through the Holte and Bracebridge families. The 2nd Lord Brereton was a leading Royalist in the Civil War and after the surrender at Nantwich was taken prisoner, with his wife and son at Biddulph Hall in Staffordshire. His distant cousin, Sir William Brereton of Handforth, was a General in the Parliamentary Army. The 3rd Lord Brereton was one of the founders of the Royal Society.
In the Town Hall at Chester there is a tableau above one of the doors as shown below, entitled Sir W. Brereton before the Mayor's Court.
Here are some Brereton Family resources:
1. The Story of Brereton Hall Cheshire, by Arthur Lowndes Moir, 2nd Edition - January 1949.
2. Brereton, A Family History, by John Brereton, 1919. This is available on the www.archieve.org site. Click this link.
3. The Breretons of Carrigslaney, Co., by Patrick Montague-Smith, pages 10-26 in "The Irish Ancestor" magazine Issue No. I 1971.
4. The Brereton Story, Cheshire to Australia, 1852-1983, compiled by Elva Masters.
5. Anciente Whispers, A brief History of Thirty-one generations of the Breretons, A Great Landed Cheshire Family, by Anthony Salusbury Brereton, 1999.
6. A comparative study of the Brereton's of Wisconsin and the Brereton's of South Africa, a thesis by Anne Coltman, Sept 1977 - May 1979.
7. The Story of Brereton Hall, Cheshire by A. L. Moir, 2nd ed. published in Chester by Phillipson and Golder, 1949, includes brief pedigree from 12-18th century.
8. The Brereton's of Cheshire 1100-1904, by Robert Maitland Brereton M.I.C.E. of Woodstock, Oregon Published by the Irwin-Hudson Company Portland, Oregon 1904.
9. A Memoir of the Brereton Family, with occasional notices of certain other of the old Cheshire families, by Sir Fortunatus Dwarris, published by J. B. Nicholas and Son, 1848.
10. Observations upon the history of one of the old Cheshire families, by Fortunatus Dwarris, Archaeologica, 33, 1850, 55-83.
11. The Families of Brereton by John Hewitt, Cheshire Sheaf, 3rd series, 27, 1934, 12-150, and also 31, 1937, 61-92.
12. On Handford Old Hall, in Cheshire, formerly the residence of the ancient family of Brereton, with an account of Cheadle Church, in that county, and of the monuments to the Breretons in it, by Richard Brooke, Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, 2, 1850, 41-54.
13. The Brereton's of Cheshire 1100-1904, by Robert Maitland Brereton M.I.C.E. of Woodstock, Oregon Published by the Irwin-Hudson Company Portland, Oregon 1904. Here's a link to the book.
14. Old Cheshire Families and their Seats, by Angus-Butterworth.