General Notes

Davenport, of Davenport, co. Chester, descended from Ormus de Davenport,temp. Conquest. The direct male line became extinct in 1577, whenDavenport passed, in marriage, with Elizabeth, elder dau. and co-heir ofJohn Davenport, Esq., to Robert Davies, Esq., of Manley. The blazon --argent, a chevron between three crosses crosslet fitchée sable; the crest-- a man's head, couped at the shoulders and side head, ppr. with a roperound the neck, or. This singular crest is supposed to have been borne onthe helmets of the Master Sergeants in their perambulations through thePeke Hills and the forests of Leek and Macclesfield, to the terror of thenumerous gangs of banditti which infested in former times those wilddistricts. There is in the possession of the Capesthorne family a longand very ancient roll, containing the names of the master robbers whowere taken and beheaded in the times of Koran, Roger, and Thomas deDavenport, and of their companions. [Sir Bernard Burke, The GeneralArmory, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1884]