Michael Linton's Bayeux Tapestry: 1066 - A Medieval Mosaic and Puzzles

Chaunduit :

or Chenduit. This family gave its name to Middleton Chenduit (now corrupted into Cheney) Northamptonshire. "Ralph, the Domesday mes-ne lord under the Earl of Mortaine, held also of the Earl lands in (Hanging) Houghton, (West) Farndon, Tiffield, Furtho, Welton, Charwelton, Charlton, Foxley, Siresham, Heyford, and Preston (Capes), most of which being subsequently included in the barony of Chenduit, there can be little hesitation in pronouncing him the founder of that family, and the father of the Ralph de Chenduit, whose widow Adeliza, with the consent of her two sons, Simon and Hugh, gave the church of Charwelton to St. Nostell's Priory, Yorkshire, in the reign of Henry I. In the hydarium of Henry II., Simon de Chenduit was certified to hold two hides in Middleton of the fee of Berkhempstead.^[108] In 1215, Ralph, probably grandson of Simon, having incurred forfeiture of his lands by joining the barons against the King, the Constable of Berkhampstead was directed to deliver them to Sonakin de Poperod; but in 1217 he was restored to them on returning to his fealty. He was dead in 1229, at which time his son Ralph de Chenduit paid fifty-five marks for his relief, for eleven fees of the small fees of Berkhamstead. His son Stephen de Chenduit granted all his lands in the manor of Middleton, between Banbury and Brackley in Northants, to Walter de Merton, Bishop of Rochester."—Baker's Northamptonshire, Stephen was apparently the heir of two elder brothers, Sir William, and John de Chenduit. "In 1256, a grand dissension arose between this Sir William and John Boyver, who, meeting at the vesper hour in the principal street of Charlton, John by a sudden blow struck the knight to the ground, and left him severely bruised."—Ibid, Stephen was still living in 1281, and with him ends Baker's pedigrees. But in Lipscomb's History of Buckinghamshire I find mention of Richard de Chenduit in 1285, who "was the father of Ralph, whose daughter Joan married a Hawtrey." A manor in that county still bears their name; but their seat was at Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire, where Ralph de Chenduit, about 1235, had a suit with the Abbot of St. Albans respecting free warren. Sir Richard Hoare tells us that William de Chenduit (no date is given) exchanged Hemel Hempstead for Barford St. Martin in Wiltshire, which Thomas his son disposed of by grant.

The Ralph de Chenduit who held one fee of William de Albini in 1165 (Liber Niger) cannot be identified with any of his namesakes on the pedigree, as the dates are altogether different. Chenduit-Langley in Hertfordshire retains their name, and was held by barony.

In Cornwall "the manor of Bodannan or Bodannon was formerly a seat of the ancient family of Chenduit, corruptly called Cheyney. Sir John Chenduit, of this family, was one of the representatives of the county in the reigns of Henry IV. and Henry V. His son William left two daughters co-heiresses, married into the families of Trejago and Roscarrock. An ancient uninscribed tomb in the chancel is said to have belonged to one of this family, and is, by a vulgar but groundless tradition, said to be that of a Lord Cheyney... Strickstenton or Triggstenton, parcel of the manor of Bodannan, is said to have been a seat of the Cheynduits. There are no remains of any mansion."—Lyson's Cornwall. They gave their name to the manor of Cheiny in St. Endyllyon's. Carew tells us that "the arms of the Cheneys of Bodanon were Gules on a fesse of four lozenges Argent, as many escallops Sable, in memory (as tradition says) that one of this family going into the Holy Land with Richard or Edward carried such shells for taking up water in the hotter climate of Asia."

These same arms were borne by the Cheneys of Up-Ottery in Devonshire, first mentioned there in the time of Edward IV., according to Lysons, though it is evident they were of much earlier date in the county. The manor of Cheyneys in Hertfordshire, "antiently held of the Honour of Bologne," bears their name. Sir Nicholas occurs in 1298: Sir William was Sheriff of Devon in 1409, and married the heiress of Pinho, "wherein," says Westcote, "stood Pincourt, a fair mansion house, now utterly demolished or ruinated, I know not which. It was the seat of Stretch, of which progeny was Sir John Stretch in Edward II.'s days; and another of the same name in Richard II.'s time, one of whose coheirs brought it to Cheney, whose race lived in great estimation for some few descents, and then his patrimony was divided among four distaffs." The last of the name was John Cheney, the father of the four "distaffs:" of whom Isabel, the eldest, married Edward Waldegrave; Helena, George Babington; Elizabeth, William Clopton; and Ann, Robert Hussey.

John Cheney's elder brother, Sir Edmund, who was seated at Broke in Wiltshire, had married a great heiress, Alice, only child of Sir Humphrey Stafford of the silver hand, and his wife Elizabeth Maltravers, who had brought him Hooke in Dorsetshire; but he, again, left only daughters. Elizabeth, the eldest and the wife of Sir John Coleshill, had no children; and the whole inheritance centered on her sister Anne, who married Sir John Willoughby, and was the mother of the first Lord Willoughby de Broke.

A branch of this family (bearing identical arms) held Little Cheney, Dorsetshire, for the first forty years of the fifteenth century. The earliest possessor was Sir Ralph Cheyne, and the last, Sir Edmund, one of whose heirs, Cecilia Cheyne, is mentioned in 1440.