ROBERT BANASTRE

This name, as we are told by Camden (Remains), was probably a title of office, which he latinizes Balneator. The derivation is not improbable, as we find an ancient coat assigned to the name in one of the Lancashire visitations, with the principal charge a water bouget. A pedigree of the chief line of this family, from its founder down to the time of Edward I., has been preserved in a petition on the rolls of parliament. It appears from this document and other historical evidence, that Robert Banastre who came over with King William, held the lordship of Prestatyn, one of the hundreds of Flintshire, under Robert of Rhudlan (de Rodelent), a kinsman of the Conqueror. Here a tower was built on the coast, whereof the foundations are still discoverable. It was destroyed by the Welsh in the time of Henry II., when they regained possession of that district. At this time Robert, the son of Robert Banastre, withdrew with all his people into Lancashire, where the clan appear to have been long known by the denomination of "Les Westrays" (v. Rot. Parl.), and where they are found holding extensive possessions under the Earls of Chester, whose Palatinate extended over the south of that county. Thurstan Banastre, son of the second Robert, inherited the barony of Newton, in Wakerfield, a district which in Domesday Survey ranks as a separate hundred, though it has since merged in that of West Derby. He also held the lordship of Walton in the Dale, under the Lacys, Lords of Mackburnshire, and Mollington-Banastre, near Chester, &c., &c. The latter estate passed by marriage of a daughter to the Hoghtons, the superiority remaining with the Banastres and their representatives. The barony of Newton and the lordship of Walton le Dale came to the Langtons by the marriage of Alice (daughter of James, and granddaughter and heir to Robert Banastre, the descendant of Thurstan), with John, son of Robert de Laugeton, in the county of Leicester, brother to John de Langeton, Lord Chancellor in the time of Edward I. The honours of the Banastres continued for about three hundred years in the family of Langton. The last baron of that name, who was a Knight of the Bath at the coronation of James I., ceded Walton to the Hoghtons of Hoghton Tower, in consequence of a fatal feud with that family, in which its head had fallen, and as he died without issue, the fee of Makerfeld went by heir female to the Fleetwoods, from whom it was inherited by the Leghs of Lyme. The representative of the family in the male line is Jos. Langton, Esq., of Liverpool. Mr. Beltz, in his "Memorials of the Order of the Garter," has traced the descent of a collateral branch of the Lancashire Banastres, from whom sprang one of the early knights of that order: but he falls into a singular mistake when relating the first settlement of the family at Prestatyn, in Englefield, by fixing Englefield in Berkshire, whereas it was the ancient name of that portion of the original earldom of Chester, now known as Flintshire. From the same division of the clan which furnished the Knight of the Garter, sprang the Banastres of Bank. They are now represented by R. Townley Parker, Esq., of Cuerden, but their manor of Bretherton is in other hands. These branches of the family bore for arms, a cross ,flory sable on a field argent, which cognizance was quartered by the Langtons (v. Visitation), along with argent three chevrons gules, a coat which they also inherited from their predecessors in the barony of Newton, as is proved by its use in sealing deeds by the last baron of the name of Banastre. The paternal coat of Langton was argent an eagle displayed with two heads vert.

--(This name appears on the Battle Abbey roll)