The Battle Abbey Roll. Vol. I.
by
The Duchess of Cleveland.

Prepared by Michael A. Linton
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Daniell : "Rogerus Daniel" was an undertenant in Sussex 1086 (Domesday), but I have met with no account of his posterity. If, as is most likely, the old Cheshire family of Daniell is here indicated, this name cannot be admitted without an alteration in the last letter; for, down to the time of Edward II., and even after that, it was always Danyers or De Anyers. As Frezel was changed in Scotland to Frazer, so, by reversing the process, Danyers became Daniell.

I think there can be no doubt that it was derived from Asnieres, in the arrondissement of Bayeux. Gilbert le Viel of Asnieres is mentioned in the Roman de Rou as present at Hastings. "The Lord of Asnieres is found in a charter of 1082, in favour of the Abbaye-aux-Dames, of Caen: he was then Ralph, who possibly had suceeded Gilbert le Viel."—Taylor's Ware. The name was still represented at the great Assembly of the Norman nobles in 1789. But, during the two centuries that elapsed after the Norman Conquest, its history in England—at least as far as I am aware—remains unwritten. Ormerod begins the pedigree with William de Anyers or Danyers, "probably the son of Robert de Aanv" (this must surely be an abbreviation), "who granted lands in Limme" (now Lyme) "to Geoffrey de Dutton, temp. Henry III." He must have belonged to the family surnamed from that place, for the coats of Daniell and Lyme are identical except in the tinctures, then habitually varied to distinguish different branches of the same house. The Lymes, however, occur no earlier than the preceding reign: "I find," says Ormerod, "the first Geoffrey de Lyme to have lived in King John's time:" nor is he able to determine their lineage. A branch of the Daniells continued at Cherry-tree Hurst, Lyme, till the death of William Daniell in 1493, when the property was contested for thirty-eight years by the Daniells of Over-Tabley and the Daniells of Longdon in Staffordshire, and at last adjudged to the former.

William de Anyers, the undoubted progenitor of the race, bought lands in Daresbury of William le Norreys in 1291, and had two sons, each the founder of a family; Thomas, of Bradbury: and William, of Daresbury.

Thomas, the eldest son (though this is a disputed point) acquired Bradbury from Peter Dutton, Lord of Warburton, and was Sheriff of Cheshire in 1351 and 1353. He was twice married. His son and heir, who died in his lifetime, was the gallant Sir Thomas to whose exploits a monument is erected in Grossenhall Church. "When the flower of Cheshire chivalry were engaged under their Earl, the Black Prince, at the battle of Cressy, Sir Thomas Danyers was pre-eminently distinguished above the rest of that chosen phalanx; and in the most hazardous part of the battle, probably when King Edward refused his succour, and 'bade his boy win his spurs for himself,' the said Sir Thomas relieved the banner of his Earl, and took prisoner the Chamberlain of France, Tankerville."—Ibid. For this service the Black Prince settled upon him an annuity of forty marks. He left only a daughter named Margaret, three times married, with whom Bradbury and other lands pertaining to the family passed away.

His two next brothers also died without issue male; and thus old Sir Thomas's fourth son Thomas (the first-born of his second marriage) became the heir, and settled at Over-Tabley in the early part of Richard II.'s reign. He was then in the wars, serving under Sir Hugh Calveley of Lea, a famous soldier of that time. His wife Katherine, sole daughter and heir of William de Tabley of Over-Tabley, brought him the fair inheritance that remained vested in his posterity for the better part of three hundred and fifty years. Thirteen generations had dwelt, in prosperous and uninterrupted (though seemingly uneventful) succession at Over-Tabley, when, early in the last Century, Samuel Daniell found himself the last of his house. His two brothers had died s. p., and he had lost his only child—a daughter—in her infancy. At his death in 1726, his Cheshire estates were demised by will to his great-nephew Samuel Duckenfield; and he directed that his godson, Samuel Goldston of Essex, should take his name.

The line of William Daniell of Daresbury, on the other hand, has never failed. His grandson, who died in 1406, obtained the entire manor through his marriage with Clemence le Norreys, the Lady of Daresbury, and from that time till 1736 it was transmitted in direct line of descent. The last owner, John Daniell, then died; and having either no children, or else only daughters (for accounts differ), bequeathed his estate to his childless brother Edward, by whom it was mortgaged to the Astons, and finally sold, in or about 1756, to George Heron, by the next heir, John Daniell of Aldridge Lodge in Staffordshire. He is still represented in the male line, and there is a family bearing the same arms in Ireland. Here again, therefore, we may welcome among us one of the rare old names that have never died out.