Valenges : or, as Leland gives it, Vallonis.

From Valognes in the Cotentin. Peter de Valognes or Vallonis received from the Conqueror fifty-seven lordships in the counties of Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk, Hertford, Cambridge, and Lincoln, and built his castle at Orford in Suffolk. He was Viscount of Essex 1087; and with his wife Albreda, the daughter of Hubert de Rie, founded Binham Priory in Norfolk "for the welfare of the souls of William the Conqueror and Maud his Queen, and for the good estate of Henry I." His son Roger was an adherent of the Empress Maud, and left six sons: 1. Peter, d. s. p.; 2. Robert, who had only a daughter, Gunnora, married to Lord Fitzwalter; 3. Geoffrey, Lord of Burton in Yorkshire, d. s. p.; 4. John, a priest; 5. Philip; 6. Roger, who obtained from William the Lion, King of Scotland, Kilbride in Clydesdale, with other lands in the west of Scotland, that passed to his daughter Isabel, the wife of David Comyn.

"Philip de Valoniis, the fifth son, also came into Scotland, towards the end of the reign of Malcolm IV. He was a constant attendant on William the Lion, and was one of the hostages for his liberation. In recompence, the King made him a grant of the manors of Panmure and Benvie, and appointed him High Chamberlain of Scotland about 1180. He witnessed the agreement betwixt King William I. and King John in 1209; was continued Chamberlain by Alexander II. on his accession, 1214: and dying on the 5th of November 1215, was interred with great solemnity in the chapter-house of Melrose."—Wood's Douglas. His son William succeeded him as High Chamberlain, but only survived him by four years, leaving an only daughter, Christian, his sole heiress, who was married about 1224 to Sir Peter de Maule.

"Of this Family," says Dugdale, "was also Alan de Valoines, who in 32, 33, and 34 Henry II. was Sheriff of Kent. So likewise in 1 Richard I." He had considerable grants in Kent from the latter, "with liberty to keep Greyhounds and Braches, to hunt and take the Hare and Fox in any of the King's Forests:" but left no heir save his brother Robert, whose line ended with two grand-daughters. "Another Branch of this Stock" was Theobald de Valoines, Lord of Perham in Norfolk whose daughter Berta married Ranulph de Glanville, Justice of England; he had also a son named Thomas, who took part in the Baron's War. There is no further mention of his descendants, but in Coeur de Lion's reign we find another Philip de Valoines, whose heiress, Sybilla, married one of the Stutevilles. Their son, Eustace, probably died s. p., as her lands were inherited by her kinswoman Christian de Maule.

-- Cleveland