General Notes

Sir Ralph Brereton of Brereton, Knight, through marriage to Ada de Huntington, gives the Breretons Royal Descent because she was decended of David, King of Scotland, and maternally the Earls of Chester were Royal Earls, who possessed jura regalis in the Palatinate of Chester. They also laid claim to royal descent from the Venables, who was a relation of Stephen of Blois and William, the Conqueror. At first the descent of the Breretons from the royal blood of Scotland was mentioned as a mere claim, which was found in Collins' Peerage and in Dugdale's British Peers, but a copy of the patent or grant of creation to Sir William Brereton, of the Barony of Brereton, has since been procured and in that instrument such royal descent in Scotland is expressly recited and recognized in the following terms: "We, considering with mature deliberation the free and true services of Sir William Brereton, and that he is sprung from an ancient, noble and most renowned family, inasmuch as he is descended, through many illustrious ancestors, from Ada, sister of John, surnamed le Scot, 7th Earl of Chester, and daughter of David, Earl of Huntingdon, Lord of Galloway, within our kingdom of Scotland." (This quotation is found in Archaeologia, or Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Antiquity, Vol. 33, p. 59.)