The Battle Abbey Roll. Vol. III.
by
The Duchess of Cleveland.
Prepared by Michael A. Linton
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Vanay : evidently intended for Vancy; the second a should by rights be a c. This name, twice written in Domesday, is supposed to have been derived from Vanci, or Wanchy, near Neufchatel, in Normandy. Hugh and Osbern "de Wanceio" each held fiefs in Suffolk in 1086: and Hugh was likewise the mesne-tenant of Earl Warrenne at West Barsham in Norfolk. Either by accident or design, his name is joined to his suzerain's in Leland's Roll, which gives
"Warenne et Wauncy
Chauvent et Chauncy."
In 1085 he appears as a witness to one of the Earl's charters to Castle Acre Priory, of which both he and his descendants were munificent benefactors. They continued in Norfolk about three hundred years. A Dominus de Wanci, whose Christian name is not given, is said by Roger Hoveden to have fallen at the siege of Acre in 1191. One Sir William de Waunci received a writ of military summons in 1292: and two others were successively knights of the shire in 1332 and 1341. The last was the father of Sir Edmund, who served in the retinue of the Black Prince in Gascony, and had the good-fortune to take prisoner Philip of France, afterwards Duke of Burgundy, at Poitiers. He died in 1372, leaving an only son of his own name, then seven years old, who did not long survive him. The succession then passed to Sir Edmund's two sisters, Joan, wife of Sir Nicholas Damory, and Katherine, wife of Edmund de Gournay; but, as Joan was childless, West Barsham devolved on the Gournays. They quarter Gules a falcon displayed Argent as the coat of the Wancys; and it is certainly so given on the seal affixed by the last Sir William to one of his deeds, while a Roll of Arms of the time of Edward III. transforms the falcon into an eagle, and changes the tinctures:—
"Monsire de Wancy port d'argent a une egle espanie d'asur, beke et peds gueules."
Yet it seems incontestable that they usually bore the three gaunts, or gloves, that appear in the chancel window of West Barsham Church, and which Blomfield mistakes for "dexter hands couped at the wrist;" though hands are always erect in armory, and these are pendant. In another and earlier Roll of Arms (temp. Ed. II.), their number is increased to six:
"Sire William de Wauncy de goules a vj. gauns de argent."
The Northamptonshire branch bore tasselled falconer's gloves, as shown on the shield of their successor and representative, Sir Arthur Brooke of Oakley.[104]
Of this latter family the first on record is Robert de Wancy of Astwell, who appears among the feudatories of Robert de Pinkeny in the certificates of baronies 14 Hen. II. "He occurs with Walter de Ely as conducting the daughter of the Count of Bretagne and the daughter of the Emperor of Cyprus, from Rouen to Chinon, temp. Richard I. In 1198 he witnessed two charters of King Richard, dated at Chateau Gaillard, to the abbey of Stratford Langthorne in Essex, and he subsequently witnessed the charter of King John for the exchange of the Andelys."—Herald and Genealogist, vol. 4. p. 332. In 1314 "another Robert died seized of the manor of Astwell, held of the King as of the barony of Pinkeny by service of one fee, and 20s. yearly to the castle-guard of Windsor, leaving Robert de Wauncy his son and heir."—Baker's Northamptonshire. The son of the latter (again Robert), who was living in 1371, is the last of the name found at Astwell; and the estate passed, "either by direct or mesne inheritance" to the Brookes.
The Wancys, from early times, had spread into other counties. Nicholas de Wancy was Sheriff of Surrey and Sussex in 1249. In Wiltshire, Ralph de Wancy witnesses King John's charter to Ambresbury, and a second Ralph, in 1246, that of Henry III. to Ivychurch Priory. Clyve-Wauncy (now Clevancy) in the parish of Kilmerton and hundred of Kingsbridge, North Wilts, owes its name to Sir William and Sir Geoffrey de Wancy, who were lords of the manor in the reigns of Henry III. and Edward I. under the fee of the Earl Marshal. Sir Geoffrey appears in St. George's Roil of Arms as "Gefrai de Vaunci," with the old coat of Gules three gaunts Argent, and, besides his Wiltshire estate, held land in Oxfordshire and other places.
"There is still a family of Wansey, which has been settled at Warminster in Wiltshire from the reign of Henry VIII. Henry Wansey, F.S.A., was a well-known antiquary of the last generation, author of a work on Stonehenge, and a coadjutor of Sir Richard Colt Hoare, who placed his name on that portion of the History of Modern Wiltshire which contains the hundred of Warminster, folio, 1831."—Herald and Genealogist, vol. 4. p. 333.