NOERS

This name should, we think, be written Noels, and must Apply to the patriarch of the eminent family of Noel. Be this, however, as it may, evident it is, from the foundation of the Priory of Raunton, in Staffordshire, that Noel came into England with the Conqueror; and, for his services, obtained the manors of Ellenhall, Wiverstone, Podmore, and Milnese. His eldest son, Robert Noel, Lord of Ellenhall, was further enriched, temp. Henry I., by a grant of the greater part of Gamsborough, from the Prior of Coventry. This potent Lord founded the monastery of Raunton, in Staffordshire. From him derived the Noels of Hilcote, and the Noels of the counties of Rutland and Leicester. Sir Andrew Noel, Knight, of Dalby, in the last-named shire, was a person of great note in the reign of Elizabeth, living in such magnificence as to vie with noblemen of the largest fortune. Fuller, in his "Worthies," saith that this Andrew, "for person, parentage, grace, gesture, valour, and many other excellent parts (amongst which skill in music), was of the first rank in the Court." He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth, and became a great favorite; but the expenses in which he was involved, obliged him to sell his seat and manor of Dalby, a circumstance which elicited from the Queen the following distich upon the imprudent knight's name

" The word of denial and letter of fifty, Is that gentleman's name who will never be thrifty."

Sir Andrew's son and successor, Edward, Lord Noel, of Ridlington, succeeded his father-in-law, Baptist Hickes, in the Viscountcy of Campden, and died in the garrison of Oxford, 10th March, 1643, leaving a son and heir, Baptist Noel, Viscount Campden, a devoted adherent of the royal cause, and a severe sufferer in consequence, his princely seat in Gloucestershire having been burnt down by the King's forces to prevent its becoming a garrison to the Parliamentarians. His Lordship's eldest son, Edward Noel, Viscount Campden, was raised, in 1682, to the Earldom of Gainsborough, a dignity that expired in 1798, at the death of Henry Noel, sixth Earl, whose grand-nephew, Charles Noel Noel, Lord Barham, had the old title of his maternal ancestors revived in his person, and is the present Earl of Gainsborough. The Noels of Kerby Mallory, co. Leicester, were a younger branch of the Ridlington Noels. Their senior representative is Anna Isabella, the Dowager Lady Byron.

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