Mauncel

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

ADDITIONAL NAMES GIVEN BY LELAND.

Prepared by Michael A. Linton
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Mauncel : This name is frequently found in the Norman Exchequer Rolls of the twelfth century, and certainly remained in Normandy for upwards of six hundred years. The Du Moncels bore Gules, three lozenges Or. Robert du Moncel in 1571 was Sire de St. Christophe; Henri Jacques du Moncel, Marquis de Torcy, is mentioned in 1740; and five gentlemen of the name (one of them the Comte du Moncel) sat in the assembly of the Ordre de la Noblesse of Normandy in 1789. The first who came to England was Philip Mansel, said to have been in the Conqueror's army, who received from Philip Harley (called in the pedigree his grandfather) the manor of Oxmuth or Ormuch in Glamorgan, which long remained the dwelling place of his family. From him descended the celebrated ecclesiastic John Mancel, who in the time of Henry III. ranked among the first men in the land. He was reputed to be the richest clerk in the world, and as a proof of "the enormities of the principles of plurality and non-residence which prevailed in those days," it is computed that he held seven hundred livings at one and the same time! "In addition to his church preferment, he was provost of Beverley, treasurer of York, Chief Justice of England, one of the privy council, chaplain to the King, his ambassador to Spain; a worthy soldier, in armis strenuus anima, imperatorius; with his own hands, in a battle betwixt the French and English near to Tailborge in France, he took prisoner one Peter Orige, a gentleman of eminent place and quality. He was crossed, to go to Jerusalem. He feasted at his house at Tote Hill fields two kings and two queens, with their dependencies: seven hundred messes of meat scarce serving for the first dinner. About 31 Hen. III., at the instance of the said King, he was made Keeper of the Great Seal as vice chancellor. For, saith Paris, custodiam sigilli accepit cancellarii vices acturus et officium: and afterwards Lord Keeper in plenary office and authority; yet for all this glorious pomp and great promotions, his end was poor, wretched, and miserable, beyond seas; the place of his burial unknown."—Barn's Lancashire. Not the least remarkable feature of Sir John's career is the undoubted fact that this privileged pluralist, in addition to his seven hundred ecclesiastical benefices, had a wife; and one who, as her father's only child, must have brought him a considerable inheritance. He married Joan de Beauchamp, daughter of Simon Baron of Bedford; and left a son, Sir Thomas, who was a Banneret, and lost his life at Northampton in the Barons' War, 48 Hen. III. Other successors widened their patrimony by marrying various Glamorganshire heiresses; one of them was killed in the wars of York and Lancaster; another lost his head at Chepstowe "upon some of the various Turns in those disputes." Sir Edmund Mansel, "a Man of Eminence in Queen Elizabeth's Reign, and Chamberlain (or Chancellor) of the Co. Palatine of Chester," was the father of two sons who were both created Baronets; Thomas, the eldest, in 1611; and Francis, the second, who held Muddlescombe in right of his wife, in 1621.

Sir Thomas of Margam, the elder son and senior baronet, was ancestor, in the fourth degree, of another Sir Thomas, who was created Lord Mansell by Queen Anne in 1711. He had been the Comptroller of her Household, a Commissioner of the Treasury, and a teller—as it was then termed—of the Exchequer. He survived his eldest son, who had married a daughter of the celebrated Sir Cloudesley Shovel, and the grandson who succeeded him dying unmarried, his next two sons, Christopher and Bussy, became the third and fourth Lords Mansell. The title expired with Bussy in 1750. His only child, Louisa Lady Vernon, had but one surviving daughter, who was never married, and thus the inheritance reverted to the descendants of the last Lord's youngest sister, Mary. She was the wife of John Talbot of Lacock in Wiltshire, and is now represented by Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot of Margam.

The second son, Sir Francis of Muddlescombe, was the progenitor of the existing family. He lost his heir in the Civil War, and two grandsons were his successors, one of whom, Sir Richard, third Baronet, had inherited from his mother Iscoed in Carmarthenshire, which became the family seat. Another of Sir Francis' descendants, Edward Mansel, who married the heiress of Trimsaran in the same county, received in 1696 a baronetcy which ended with his great-grandson in 1798.

: This name is frequently found in the Norman Exchequer Rolls of the twelfth century, and certainly remained in Normandy for upwards of six hundred years. The Du Moncels bore Gules, three lozenges Or. Robert du Moncel in 1571 was Sire de St. Christophe; Henri Jacques du Moncel, Marquis de Torcy, is mentioned in 1740; and five gentlemen of the name (one of them the Comte du Moncel) sat in the assembly of the Ordre de la Noblesse of Normandy in 1789. The first who came to England was Philip Mansel, said to have been in the Conqueror's army, who received from Philip Harley (called in the pedigree his grandfather) the manor of Oxmuth or Ormuch in Glamorgan, which long remained the dwelling place of his family. From him descended the celebrated ecclesiastic John Mancel, who in the time of Henry III. ranked among the first men in the land. He was reputed to be the richest clerk in the world, and as a proof of "the enormities of the principles of plurality and non-residence which prevailed in those days," it is computed that he held seven hundred livings at one and the same time! "In addition to his church preferment, he was provost of Beverley, treasurer of York, Chief Justice of England, one of the privy council, chaplain to the King, his ambassador to Spain; a worthy soldier, in armis strenuus anima, imperatorius; with his own hands, in a battle betwixt the French and English near to Tailborge in France, he took prisoner one Peter Orige, a gentleman of eminent place and quality. He was crossed, to go to Jerusalem. He feasted at his house at Tote Hill fields two kings and two queens, with their dependencies: seven hundred messes of meat scarce serving for the first dinner. About 31 Hen. III., at the instance of the said King, he was made Keeper of the Great Seal as vice chancellor. For, saith Paris, custodiam sigilli accepit cancellarii vices acturus et officium: and afterwards Lord Keeper in plenary office and authority; yet for all this glorious pomp and great promotions, his end was poor, wretched, and miserable, beyond seas; the place of his burial unknown."—Barn's Lancashire. Not the least remarkable feature of Sir John's career is the undoubted fact that this privileged pluralist, in addition to his seven hundred ecclesiastical benefices, had a wife; and one who, as her father's only child, must have brought him a considerable inheritance. He married Joan de Beauchamp, daughter of Simon Baron of Bedford; and left a son, Sir Thomas, who was a Banneret, and lost his life at Northampton in the Barons' War, 48 Hen. III. Other successors widened their patrimony by marrying various Glamorganshire heiresses; one of them was killed in the wars of York and Lancaster; another lost his head at Chepstowe "upon some of the various Turns in those disputes." Sir Edmund Mansel, "a Man of Eminence in Queen Elizabeth's Reign, and Chamberlain (or Chancellor) of the Co. Palatine of Chester," was the father of two sons who were both created Baronets; Thomas, the eldest, in 1611; and Francis, the second, who held Muddlescombe in right of his wife, in 1621.