Their ancestor was Richard Ladde, grandfather of the Lord Chief Justice Sir Edward, who changed his name to Montagu around 1447.

A case has been made out for the possibility that the Ladde alias came from a division among coheirs about 1420 of the remaining small inheritance of a line of Montagus at Spratton and Little Creton, also in Northamptonshire.

[4] However, the form of the creation makes it clear that the title refers to what is now the city of Manchester (at the time a town in Lancashire, formally known as the County of Lancaster).

His son, the 2nd Earl, was a prominent Parliamentary General during the Civil War, but later supported the restoration of Charles II.

The 2nd Duke notably served as Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard in the administration of Sir Robert Walpole.

Alexander Montagu, the oldest son of the 12th Duke, succeeded his father as the 13th Duke in July 2002; a British and Australian citizen who lives in the United States, he had been known by the courtesy title of the heir apparent, Viscount Mandeville, since his father's succession to the peerage in 1985.

It was sold in 1955, and the remaining estate in 1975, and is now the headquarters of Tayto (NI) Ltd.[5] The arms of the Duke of Manchester have the following blazon: Quarterly, 1st & 4th: Argent, 3 fusils conjoined in fess gules (Montagu); 2nd & 3rd: Or an eagle displayed vert beaked and membered gules (Monthermer).

[12] The fusils or diamond shapes in the Montagu arms were originally intended to represent a range of mountains,[13] as the name comes from the old French mont agu meaning "pointed hill".

[14] The arms represent a claim to be a cadet of the medieval Montagu (Montacute) family, earls of Salisbury, for which there is no proof (see above origins).

The Montagu Vault is accessed from the churchyard via a doorway surmounted by heraldic beasts, which was added to the building in 1893.