The Battle Abbey Roll. Vol. III.
by
The Duchess of Cleveland.
Prepared by Michael A. Linton
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Rigny : The family of De Reiney, or Rigny, came from Champagne. Hagebert de Rigneio, in 1101, witnessed a charter of the Bishop of Tulle (Gall. Christ, xiii. 480 Instr.), and may have been the same that possessed lands in Essex in 1086 (Domesd.) Roger de Reigny witnessed a charter of Bishop Roger of Sarum, temp. Hen. I., and Robert de Reigny held five fees in Devon 1165 (Liber Niger).—The Norman People. I can find no further mention of the Reignys in Essex, but they were long of great account in Devonshire, where Ash-Reigny, Brixton-Reigny, and Anstey-Reigny have preserved their name. They also took root in the adjoining counties. John de Reiney, of Devon and Somerset, died in 1247 (Roberts, Excerpta): and Sir Richard de Reyney, who lived in the early years of the following century, acquired Stoke, in the latter county, through his wife Lucia. A little later, Sir John Paulet, the forefather of the Dukes of Bolton and Marquesses of Winchester, "made an addition to his estate by marriage with Elizabeth, daughter and heir of Thomas Reyney of Rowd in Wiltshire and Shyrston in Somerset. She was such a considerable heiress that Sir John Paulet, her son, sealed with the arms of Reyney 15 Ric. II."—Collins. She bore the Vol,[1] the bearing of the great house of St. Maur, but of other tincture; viz. two Wings conjoined in Lure Argent.
The family is to be met with in other parts of England. Newton-Reigny, in the Forest of Inglewood, was their seat in Cumberland. "In 33 Hen. II. William de Reigny was impleaded in a writ of right by one William de Lascelles, for a knight's fee in Newton Reigny, sed non prevaluit, for John Reigny succeeded after William his father, 4 King John, and William his son after him, who died 4 Ed. I. Then the inheritance fell to four sisters."—Hutchinson's Cumberland. A branch of far longer continuance derived from Thomas de Reigny or Reynes, who, about the middle of the twelfth century, married the great-granddaughter and heiress of Simon de Bosco-Roardo, Lord of Stathern in Leicestershire, Clifton in Buckinghamshire, and Oakley in Bedfordshire, at the time of the Conquest. The grant, by Ralph de Reynes and his brothers, of some land at Stathern to Belvoir Priory, is witnessed by William de Albini Brito II. "The monks, by way of forwarding this grant, presented to Ralph five marks of silver and a bridle, and undertook to give him annually the garment of a monk, with boots of 6d. value."—Nichol's Leicestershire. The other two manors continue to be known as Oakley-Reynes and Clifton-Reynes; and the latter was the residence of the family for more than three hundred years. A brass in the parish church commemorates Sir John Reynes, obt. 1428. Its last lord, Thomas Reignes, left three daughters, of whom Anne, the eldest, inherited the family place, and married Thomas Lowe, Esquire of the Body to Henry VIII.