ESTRANGE

Of this family (in Latin Extraneus) Dugdale says, "At a great joust or tournament held at Castle Peverel, in the Peak of Derbyshire, where, amongst divers other persons of note, Owen, Prince of Wales, and a son of the King of the Scots were present; there were also two sons of the Duke of Brettaign, and the youngest of them being named Guy, was called Guy L'Estrange, from whom the several-families of the L'Estranges do descend." How far this statement can be reconciled with the entry of the name on the Battle Abbey Roll, it is difficult to determine. GUY LE STRANGE was father of three sons, Guy, Hamon, and John, of whom the youngest, Lord of Ness, and Chesewardine, in Shropshire, obtained, 3 Henry III., the King's precept to the sheriff of that county for aid to rebuild part of his castle at Knockyn. He had four sons, John, Hamon, Robert, and Roger; of these, the second was ancestor of the Barons Strange, of Blackmere, and the eldest, of the Lords of Knockyn. The latter, John de Strange, Deputy Governor of Winchester Castle, and governor of the Castle of Montgomery, married Joan, daughter of Roger de Somery by Nicola, his wife, sister and co-heir of Hugh de Albini, 4th Earl of Arundel, and died in 1276, leaving a son and successor, John Lord Strange of Knockyn, distinguished in the wars of Gascony and Scotland. This potent noble married the heiress of D'Eiville, and had three sons. 1, JOHN, Lord Strange, whose last male heir, John, Lord Strange of Knockyn, left at his decease in 1477, by Jaquetta Wydeville, his wife, sister-in-law of King Edward IV., an only child Johanna, married to Sir George Stanley, K.G. eldest son of Thomas, first Earl of Derby; 2, EUBOLO, husband of Alice, daughter and heir of Henry de Laci, Earl of Lincoln, in whose right he bore that title, he d.s.p.; and 3, HAMON, who was enfeoffed of HUNTSANTON co. Norfolk, 3 EDWARD II., by his brother John, Lord Strange of Koockyn, and founded the great and distinguished house of L'ESTRANGE of HUNSTANTON, now represented by HENRY L'ESTRANGE STYLEMAN LE STRANGE, Esq. of that place, who previously to the termination of the abeyances, was declared by the House of Lords to be one of the coheirs of the Barony of Camoys, and also of the Barony of Hastings. Referring to Hunstanton, Camden says; "It is the place where King Edmund resided nearly a whole year, endeavouring to get by heart David's Psalms, with Saxon language. The very book was religiously preserved by the monks of St. Edmundsbury till the dissolution of the monasteries. But neither is the place to be omitted upon this account, that it has been the seat of the famous family of L'Estrange, knights, ever since John, Baron le Strange of Knockyn, bestowed it upon his younger brother, Hamon, which was in the reign of Edward II." Of the Hunstanton line was the celebrated writer, Sir Roger L'Estrange. A younger branch settled in Ireland, and is now represented by HENRY PEISLEY L'ESTRANGE, Esq., of Moystown, King's County.

--(This name appears on the Battle Abbey Roll).