Notes

Note for: Ann De Courtnay, 1253 - Index

From The Baronetage of England by Rev Betham (1803)

"Anne daughter of Courtenay, Earl of Devonshire (by his wife Blanch, daugh ter of Lewis, King of France)"

I can find no evidence apart from Blanch Capet was daughter of Louis IX.

In the Family Tree in the same book, Anne is daughter of Courtenay, Ea rl of Devonshire and Florence.

Notes

Note for: John Champneys, 1396 - Index

Called John de Orleigh or de Orcherlei

Notes

Note for: Henry Champneys, UNKNOWN - 1570 Index

CHAMPNEYS
Henry
Esq.

1570
Orchardleigh
W
9 Holney
see also CHAMPNEYS, Elizabeth 1580

Henry may be the son of Thomas (died 1506) and Margaret (died 1491) accord ing to Monument Inscription, Orchardleigh

Notes

Note for: Elizabeth De Horrey, UNKNOWN - 1580 Index

CHAMPNEYS
Elizabeth

Relict of Henry CHAMPNEYS of Orchardley, esq. Also of Willington (“Wllmyn gton”, Probate Act) and Priston, Somerset
1580
Frome Swd
W
32 Arundell

Notes

Note for: Henry Champneys, UNKNOWN - 1506 Index

Henry Champneys died August 1506 and his wife Jane. They are buried in Fro me

According to his will, he had the following children

Christofer
John
Henri
Elizabeth
Grace

Notes

Note for: Eadnoth "the Staller", ABT 1030 - 1068 Index

Eadnoth the Staller

Eadnoth, father of Harding, and grandfather of Robert FitzHarding from wh om the modern lords of Berkeley in Gloucestershire are descended, di ed in 1068, whilst leading the western fyrd against the sons of Harold. Ea dnoth, formerly King Harold's master-of-the-horse, put himself at the he ad of the forces which resisted Harold's sons attack on Bristol. The atta ck was beaten off by its citizens and when Godwine's fleet moved into Some rset, it was met by the English levies commanded by Eadnoth. A battle ensu ed at Bleadon in which Eadnoth was killed and It is also possible that Mag nus Haroldson also died in the battle as well. Although the fleet was repu lsed, they ravaged the coasts of Devonshire and Cornwall, returning to Ire land loaded with the plunder of the two counties.

Eadnoth's title indicates that he was a king's thegn with a seat and speci al office in the king's hall, playing a part in government as royal justic e. His skill in litigation made him a prominent administrator and royal of ficial of the south west. Eadnoth, a West country magnate, was of an ancie nt and noble family of Saxons in the days of Edward the Confessor, and w as married to the daughter of the King of Denmark. Eadnoth and his son Har ding together held the sixteenth largest non-earlish estate in Engla nd in 1066, having estates in Wiltshire, Dorset, Somerset, Gloucestershi re and Berkshire.

Eadnoth served three kings, Edward, Harold and William

http://crash.ihug.co.nz/~battle/text/people/eadnoth.htm

The name of Merriott derives from "Maergeat", meaning boundary gate. T he boundary was the line of the River Parrett, along which Saxon invade rs were halted in 658 AD. The triangle of roads - Broadway, Lower Stre et and Church Street, enclose about 30 acres of land which was communal ly cultivated from before the Norman Conquest in 1066. Merriott belong ed to an Anglo-Saxon family with large holdings in Somerset, Wiltshire & D evon. The head of the family in 1066 was Eadnoth the Staller - Mast er of the King's Horse - Sheriff, and Commander of the Men of Somerse t. He died in 1068, fighting the sons of King Harold, and William the Co nqueror confiscated his lands and divided them up - part of Merriott goi ng to the Count de Mortain, and the Manor later to Eadnoth's son, Heardi nc (or Harding). Heardinc founded the de Meriet family, following the pre vailing fashion of taking the name of the manor as a surname. The villa ge of Merriott is noted in the Domesday Book - a survey of England dra wn up by order of William the Conqueror in 1086.

The following paragraph of information is from: The Domesday Book - Engla nd's Heritage, Then & Now.

Meriet: Main Landholders: Dodman from Count of Mortain; Harding from the k ing. (Some holdings were granted by the king to his thanes). 4 mill s. 10 cattle. A village. Once a centre for flax and canvas.
Somerset was known to the Saxons as Somer Shire and its inhabitants were c alled Sumersetas. There was much valuable pasture and cultivated la nd in the county. After the Conquest the king either retained these holdi ngs for himself or allocated them to his Norman barons, in particular to R obert, Count of Mortain, who ruled over 86 manors with a greedy and iron h and from his castle at Montacute.

Heardinc's eldest son was Nicholas FitzHarding de Meriet (d by 1171; the p refix "Fitz" meaning son of), and his second was Robert FitzHarding of Bri stol. The FitzHardings were Anglo-Saxon, surrounded by areas in the char ge of Norman Knights. Merriott and its people flourished for 300 years, w ith aristocratic English Lords of the Manor.

On Nicholas' death, the manor passed to his son Henry de Meriet (d. by 11 92). Then followed Nicholas de Meriet (d. by 1229), Hugh de Meriet (d. ab out 1236), Nicholas (d. 1258), and John (d. 1285). This Sir John de Meri et began the building of the present Church - his infant son John being t he first to be baptised there in 1276. The young John was eventually acc laimed by the title "Great Warrior" after fighting in the Scottish W ar at age 21. He was rewarded by the King with permission to hunt in t he royal forests, an honour never lightly bestowed. For the people of Me rriott, an even greater reward was the permission given by the King to ho ld fairs and markets in the Manors of Merriott & Lopen, allowing the commu nity to prosper.

The manor was passed down through the de Meriet family until the last S ir John de Meriet died in 1391, and no male heirs remained. The Manor r everted to the Crown, and in 1397 the King bestowed Merriott upon Sir Will iam Bonville (d 1408), who had married Margaret, a de Meriet girl. Unfor tunately this brought Merriott into the sphere of the Wars of the Rose s. William, Lord Bonville, was a Yorkist, and there was bitter enmity be tween the Bonvilles and the Earls of Devonshire, the Courtenays, who espou sed the Lancastrian cause. Within a few years the Bonvilles had been defe ated and the direct male line was extinct, although the Manor continu ed in the Bonville family for a number of years.

The heiress to all the Bonville estates was a ten year old girl, Cicily Bo nville. She married Sir Thomas Grey, and her Grandson Henry eventually be came the father of Lady Jane Grey, born in 1537, who was also granddaught er of Mary, sister of Henry VIII. Edward VI died in July 1553, and pow er politics saw Lady Jane Grey, at age 16, become Queen of England for le ss than 2 weeks before being imprisoned and executed in 1554, a year aft er her father had met the same fate. Mary I became the rightful Queen und er her father Henry VIII's will. In the same year, 1554, the estate in M erriott was seized by the Crown and granted to William & Barbara Rice. Th eir lease fell to Sir Jerome Bowes in 1575, and stayed in the Bowes fami ly until sold to James Hooper in 1587. James' nephew Henry Hooper inherit ed in 1598, and he enfranchised much of the estate and granted parts of t he manor by three conveyances. The manor was heavily mortgaged by the Ho opers. It was eventually sold in 1686 to Thomas Rodbard, a London fishm onger, who left it to a succession of Rodbards, including the illegitima te children of Mary Butcher. See: Butcher Family Page. Eventually t he Whitley family inherited the lordship into the 20th century. Queen Ma ry bestowed the Manor of Merriott on one family; her successor Queen Eliza beth I on another. Since then the lordship of the manor changed hands ma ny times; eventually no title remained.

http://www.merriottfamiliesgenealogy.net/earliest_history.htm