The Battle Abbey Roll. Vol. I.
by
The Duchess of Cleveland.
Prepared by Michael A. Linton
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Champney : Here we have a choice of derivations. According to Playfair, the name is that of the Norman Sires de Champnee; according to Bardsley, it signifies a native of Champagne,[1] and in The Norman People we find it assigned to Champigne or Champigny in Normandy. I think the first suggestion may be safely dismissed on the ground that no Sires de Champnee are discoverable in the Duchy. The second may very probably be correct when the name is given—as it was during the thirteenth century in Shropshire—Le Champeneys; or when it was counter-changed with Champaine, which, from the identity of some of the coats of arms, must not unfrequently have been the case. See Champaine. But there is every reason to believe that the Norman De Champignys were represented by some of the numerous English families of Champneys. They belonged to a very ancient stock. Geoffrey de Champigne' held a knight's fee in the Bailifry of Pont-Audemer in 1165; and two De Champignys appear on the roll of the Norman nobles assembled in 1789.
That the name was of frequent occurrence in this country can admit of no question. Five different coats of arms are appropriated to it in Devonshire alone. The principal house—that of Yamscombe—"continued for about six descents, and became extinct in 1681. The heiress married Cottle."—Lyson's Devon. The parish church contains the monuments of the two last John Champneys; the son, who died in 1680; and the father, who survived a year more. In the adjoining county of Somerset, the family was seated for a long succession of generations, and inter-married with some of the greatest West country families. Two of the name—Henry and Thomas—are among the Somersetshire gentlemen certified (as qualified) to be Knights of the Bath in the time of Henry VII. This Henry Champneys, who succeeded his father in 1505, and married a Seymour heiress, is the first of the family styled of Orchardleigh, where his descendants were to be found for nearly three centuries and a half. Three of them served as Sheriffs of Somerset, in 1695, 1728, and 1775; and the last of these was created a baronet in 1767. The title and the line ended together in 1840 with his son Sir Thomas Swymmer, who had married the heiress of Sir Roger Mostyn and adopted her name. The Champneys of Orchardleigh had for their supporters two lions, the one charged with the arms of France, the other with those of Navarre, by special grant of Louis XIV. An offset, descended from Sir John Champneys, Lord Mayor of London in 1534, that was seated at Ostenhanger in Kent, had already become extinct in the previous century. Another existed at Boxley in Suffolk, where, according to Hasted, Walter Champneis first settled in 1582. "They resided at a seat called Winters, which continued in their possession till very lately."—Davy's Suffolk Collections.
In Shropshire the name, as Le Champeneys, is several times recorded by Eyton in the thirteenth century. Robert Champneys of Dorrington was the successor of Reginald de Dodinton, who held of Robert Fitz Hugh, Forester of Bolas, in the commencement of that century; and William Champneis of Wildesley is mentioned in 1253. The son of the former, also William, "paid the Chief Forester a rent of twenty dishes and cups, and was to take charge of the Cover of Stapelwood, a part of the Royal Forests; or—as otherwise stated—to have the custody of Vert and Venison from the Quake Wendebruge to Egeforde." No descendants of his are mentioned. The other William certainly had a son named John; and Thomas Champneys occurs in 1290.