Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex
Walter Devereux was the eldest son of Sir Richard Devereux, who was created a Knight of the Bath on 20 February 1547 and died that same year, in the lifetime of his father, The 1st Viscount Hereford. Walter Devereux's mother was Lady Dorothy Hastings, daughter of The 1st Earl of Huntingdon and Anne Stafford, said to have been a mistress of Henry VIII. Through his paternal ancestry he was related to the Bourchier family, to which previous Earls of Essex had belonged: John Devereux, son of Walter Devereux who died at the Battle of Bosworth, married Cecily Bourchier, sister of Henry Bourchier, 2nd Earl of Essex.
Sir Edward Devereux, 1st Baronet of Castle Bromwich
Edward Devereux was born about 1544, and was the son of Walter Devereux, 1st Viscount Hereford by his second wife, Margaret Garneys, daughter of Robert Garneys of Kenton, Suffolk. His father established him at Castle Bromwich upon his marriage to Catherine Arden of Park Hall, Warwickshire. He inherited little property on the death of his father, but purchased in 1572 from his half-nephew, Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex, the reversion of the Warwickshire manor of Castle Bromwich, which formed part of the jointure of his mother Margaret, the Dowager Viscountess of Hereford. Sir Edward then built Castle Bromwich Hall in 1599, a mansion built in the Jacobean style.