De Trafford baronets

de Trafford baronets
Arms of Trafford: Argent, a griffin segreant gules
Creation date	7 September 1841
Monarch	Queen Victoria
Peerage	Baronetage of the United Kingdom
First holder	Sir Thomas de Trafford
Present holder	Sir John de Trafford
Heir apparent	Alexander Humphrey de Trafford
Remainder to	Heirs male of the body

The de Trafford Baronetcy, of Trafford Park in the County Palatine of Lancaster is a title in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom,.

The de Trafford family can trace their ancestry back to the 11th century. The main branch was founded by Randolphus, who owned several manors in Lancashire and Cheshire. He died around 1050, sixteen years before the Norman Conquest. As with the bulk of the Anglo-Saxon lords, the family initially resisted the Norman invaders, and they defeated Hamon de Massey near Mobberley in Cheshire. However, they afterwards made peace with the Normans, and were granted a pardon. They later took the Norman-style name "de Trafford" in reference to their manor of Trafford, now part of Greater Manchester.

The 14th century was important for these manorial lords, in receiving acclaim from the Crown. Henry Trafford died in 1395, holding the manors of Trafford and Stretford, together with part of the manor of Edgeworth, and leaving a son and heir Henry, six years of age. This son died in 1408, the manors going to his brother Edmund, known as the Alchemist, from his having procured a licence from the king in 1446 authorizing him to transmute metals. Sir Edmund, at Eccles in 1411, married Alice daughter and co-heir of Sir William Venables of Bollin, and thus acquired a considerable estate in Cheshire, which descended in the Trafford family for many generations.

Cecil Trafford was made a knight at Hoghton Tower in 1617. He was at first, like his grandfather, a Protestant and a persecutor, but afterwards, about 1632, became a Catholic. As a recusant family, they faced persecution and, in 1638, accordingly, the king seized a third of his estates and granted them on lease to farmers. Siding with the king on the outbreak of the English Civil War, he was seized and imprisoned by Roundheads and his estates were sequestered. His sons are mentioned as serving some of the English Interregnum at Rome and Douay. In 1653 Sir Cecil begged leave to transact under the Recusants Act relating to the sequestered two-thirds of his estates.