of Bromfield, of royal Welsh extraction.[475]

Sir John de Arderne at the tournament at Stepney, 2 Edward II., in the
retinue of the Earl of Lancaster, bore "Gules, 10 crosses crosslet, and
a chief or."[476]

But it is said that after his marriage the Arden arms were temporarily
varied to gules, crusule or, and a chief or.[477]

In 9 Edward II. he purchased part of Haselover from Geoffrey
Salveyn.[478]

In that year the "Nomina de Villarum" gives the name of "Sir Henry de
Ardena" as Lord of Elford. John's name, however, is given in the list by
the Lieutenant of the Knights and men-at-arms of the county, 17 Edward
II., 1324; and he was one of the Knights summoned to attend the great
council at Westminster, 17 Edward II. John and Margaret had two
sons--John, who succeeded to Aldford, Alderley, Alvanley, and Elford, 19
Edward III., and Peter, afterwards of Over Alderley. John married,
first, Alice, daughter of Hugh de Venables, and had by her two sons,
John and Peter, and a daughter Margaret. His second wife was Joane,
daughter and heiress of Sir Richard de Stokeport, by whom he had no
issue; and his third wife was Ellen Wasteneys, by whom he had two sons,
Thomas and Walkelyn, born before marriage, and two daughters, Isabel,
wife of Sir Hugh Wrottesley, and Maud, wife of Robert Leigh, of
Adlington, and a son, born after marriage (about 1341), who evidently
died soon.

Then occurred an extraordinary hitch in the history of primogeniture.
His eldest son, John, had died without issue before his father. Peter,
the second son, and natural heir of his brother and father, then aged
twenty-four, on his father's death found by the inquisition[479] that he
died possessed of "no lands,"[480] all his vast possessions being
settled on himself and his wife Ellen only for life, and secured by a
deed of gift, in reversion to Thomas, the elder illegitimate son of
Ellen Wasteneys. By an appeal, however, to the courts, based on the
previous settlement on his great-grandfather, Peter, the legitimate heir
recovered Alvanley. He married Cicely,[481] daughter and heiress of Adam
de Bredbury, who inherited Hawarden from her father, and henceforward
Alvanley and Hawarden were the chief seats of the Cheshire Ardens. It is
evident, therefore, that the root-meaning of Hawarden, or Harden, has no
relation to the family name.

The favoured Thomas received Aldford, Etchells, and Nether Alderley,
Cheshire; and Elford, Staffordshire. He was knight