Middlemore Family Genealogy

Edgbaston - In Domesday Book Edgbaston appears as part of the Warwickshire fee of William Fitz Ausculf, under whose tenant Richard, it was held by one Drogo or Drew. As Drew also held from Fitz Ausculf, in Staffordshire, estates in Pirie, now Perry Barr, in Barr, now Little Barr, and in Handsworth, and as the two former, or perhaps all of these, are subsequently found in the possession of the Birminghams of Birmingham, that family most probably descended from Drew, either paternally, or through an heiress, and it is not unlikely that the Edgbastons also were a junior branch of the Birminghams, for the similarity between the arms of Edgbaston and Birmingham indicates a close feudal connection if not actual kinship. Dugdale begins the pedigree of the family with Henry de Egebaston, mentioned on the Patent Rolls in 30 Henry II, 1183-.4, and, without stating his authority, gives him a son, Richard de Egebaston, who had three children: Richard de Egebaston, William de Egebaston, lord of Egebaston in 1276-7, and Sibill, wife of John de Parles. Dugdale assigns to the above-mentioned William de Egebaston a son and successor, Henry de Egebaston, who in 12 Edward I [1283-4], brought an action against the Dean and Chapter of Lichfield to recover the right of presentation to the parish church of Egebaston; but in the same year "he quitted to them all his right therein in consideration whereof they gave him xxli." Some further notes with regard to the Egebaston family will be found in W. F. Carter's "Notes and additions to Dugdale's account of Birmingham and Aston," but it will be sufficient to state here that the most important member of the family seems to have been Sir Richard de Egebaston (probably son of the above-mentioned Henry), who resided at Swinford in Leicestershire, and flourished in the reigns of Edward II and Edward III. He was several times member of parliament for the county, and once for the borough of Leicester, and was, says Dugdale, "intrusted with sundry great imployments." He fought for Edward II at the battle of Boroughbridge, and his arms are therefore entered on the Boroughbridge Roll. According to Dugdale this Richard was father of another Richard, who left a daughter and heiress, Isabel, the wife of Thomas Middlemore. The arms borne by the Edgbastons and quartered by the Middlemores in right of their descent from Isabella Edgbaston are, Per pale indented or and azure. L L