The Battle Abbey Roll. Vol. I.
by
The Duchess of Cleveland.
Prepared by Michael A. Linton
-------*--------
Return to Index
Durange : This must, I think, be intended for De Orenge, a name we find written in Domesday. William de Orenge held of Hugh de Belchamp at Lathbury, Bucks, in 1086; and another William de Orenge of Simon de Beauchamp in Bedford in 1165.—Liber Niger. In neither of the county histories is there any account of this family; but I find in the Monasticon that the second William granted some land at Stotfold to the Priory at Nuneham that had been founded by his suzerain, Simon de Beauchamp. He may have been the same William de Orenge that occurs in the Norman Exchequer Rolls of 1198-12 03, with a Philip de Orenge. In 1416, Jean d'Orenge did homage to Charles VI. of France for his seigneurie d'Orenge (Anselme, ii., 408).
At about the same date, the name re-appears in Devonshire, where Richard Orenge was Mayor of Exeter in 1454. He was a leper, "contented," says Izacke, "to say his orisons and aves, and dwell among the brothers and sisters of lazar-people, in St. Mary Magdalen's hospital, without the S. gate of the said city, where he finished his days, and lies buried in the chancel of the chapel belonging to that house." He further informs us that "the family came over with Sir John Fastolfe, the governor of the provinces of Anjou and Maine;" and that "his armorials were those of Sir Guillam his ancestor" (or more probably his sire, as Sir John returned from France only fourteen years before his mayoralty), viz.: Argent, three smiths' barnacles or compasses in pale Gules[1] The only branch I can trace of these Orenges is that which was seated, in later days, at Foscott, Somerset, "whose arms were identical with those of the leprous mayor."—Archaeological Journal, 1855. But the name was to be found in Somersetshire for many generations before his time, for "Remundus Arang'," 28 Ed. I., held land there of Sir Hugh Poyntz. According to Collinson, the manor of Foscott or Foxcote was acquired in 1601 by James Orenge of Marston-Bigot, and sold by his descendant, Humphrey, about ninety years afterwards.