Michael Linton's Bayeux Tapestry: 1066 - A Medieval Mosaic and Puzzles

Georges :

(Gorgeise in Leland's list) from Gaurges in the Cotentin. This family originally bore a whirlpool or gurges (as may be seen in their sepulchral chapel at Cliefden): but adopted the Lozengy Or and Azure of Morville on the marriage of Ralph de Gorges with the heiress of John de Morville, temp. Hen. III. This Ralph, the son of Ivo, seated at Tamworth in Warwickshire, "was a knight, and a great warrior, being one of those who in 1263 were blocked up with King Henry III. in the city of Bristol by the disaffected citizens. Soon after which he was appointed Constable of Sherborne and Exeter; and 50, 51 Hen. III. was Sheriff of Devonshire. 54 Hen. III. he attended Prince Edward to the Holy Land, and died soon after his return."—Collinson's Somerset. His son and namesake was Marshal of Edward I.'s army in Gascony in 1293, and the next year was taken prisoner and carried to Paris; but must have been speedily ransomed, for not long after we find him engaged in the Scottish wars. He was a baron by writ in 1309; but his son^[35] never was summoned to parliament, and left no children. Eleanor, his daughter, thus became his heir, and married Sir Theobald Russell of Kingston Russell in Dorsetshire (direct ancestor, by his second marriage with the heiress of John de la Tour, of the Dukes of Bedford). Their descendants all bore the name of Gorges.

One of them, Sir Thomas (the fifth son of Sir Edward Gorges of Wraxall), who was seated at Longford in Wiltshire in the time of Queen Elizabeth, married one of her maids of honour, Helena, daughter of Wolfangus, "a noble Swede." She had first come to England in the train of King Eric, who courted the Queen; and became a great favourite, for Elizabeth treated her with "all the intimacy of a friend, and often made her a bed-fellow:" and when her first husband, the Earl of Northampton, died, leaving her a young widow, it is believed that the Queen herself furthered Sir Thomas' suit. She proved an expensive wife. She had a fancy to have his house rebuilt on the plan of Tycho Brahe's Castle of Uraniberg, in Sweden; and Sir Thomas accordingly pulled down the old mansion of the Cervingtons at Longford, arid constructed the singular triangular house, crossing the river Avon, that is now the residence of the Earl of Radnor.^[36] "So great was the expense of driving piles, &c, that Sir Thomas nearly sunk his fortune in the foundation. During the threat of the Spanish Armada, he was made Governor of Hurst Castle; and a Spanish galleon having been wrecked near it, his wife begged the hull of the Queen, in which were found bars of silver and other treasure to an immense amount, which not only served to complete their pile at Longford, but also to enrich their steward Richard Grobham, who chiefly managed their business, procured a knighthood, and left a fortune almost equal to his master's. Their son Edward was created Baron of Dundalk in 1620."—Hoare's Wilts. The second Lord died s. p. in 1712: having involved himself in great debts, and been obliged to sell Longford to Lord Coleraine. It was bought by the Bouveries in 1717.

Samuel Georges, the last heir-male of the family of Wraxhall, died in 1699: but a branch remains in Ireland. Braunton-Gorges retains the name in Devonshire.