ii s. in. FEB. 25, ion.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
151
MANSEL FAMILY (US. ii. 269, 533). MB.
A. C. JONAS' s lengthy reply on this " family "
prompts me to offer a word of warning to
your readers.
There is no family of Mansel, but there is a series of families of this name, between which under strict conditions of research no connexion can be traced.
The name occurs very early in our public records and very frequently in many counties, notably Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Glouces- ter, York, Hereford, Bedford, Buckingham, Leicester, where, and in other counties, we find distinct families bearing the name in the twelfth century and in the sixteenth, and covering all ranks of life.
In the early period the name is an " emi- grant " one, like " Scot " and " Fleming," and simply means an emigrant from Maine. Even in this period, however, there is at least one other source, for the Mantels of Little Missenden, Bucks, sometimes were spelt Mauncell and even Maunsell ; but it is possible to trace this family down to 1500, and all through it is distinct from the several families of Mansel and Maunsell in Bucks and Bedford.
In the case of the families we meet later (fifteenth and sixteenth centuries) the derivation is not so certain, as they are in several cases long associated with places called Malmeshull (Mansill) and Mannesle, Mansle, with the variants Mansfelt or Mans- field. This shows a pure Saxon origin a fact which has been hitherto overlooked by historians and students of patronymics, who never suspected a multiple origin for such a simple name with its clear and obvious interpretation as " a man from Maine."
We can say with fair certainty that the Maunsells of Buckingham and Northampton- shire (see the interesting article in Oswald Barron's ' Northamptonshire Families,' 1906, and G. E. Cokayne in Genealogist, N.S. xix.), who include the Mansels of Cosgrove (whence Dean Mansel of St. Paul's) and the Irish landed gentry of the name (cf. Burke's
- Irish Landed Gentry ' and R. G. Maunsell' s
history of Maunsell), have no ascertainable connexion with the Mansels of Gower (Glamorgan) in Wales, who probably were connected with the family of that name in Somerset.
For this Welsh family, which includes the Lords and Baronets Mansel, see W. W. Mansel's book, and the articles in the various volumes of Burke (' Extinct Peerage,' ' Baronetage,' ' Landed Gentry ' ) and R. G. Maunsell' s volume, all of which, however,
combine the various distinct families in
accordance with the old heraldic tradition.
The arms of most of the families are three manches (mancele, the old French for a sleeve or manch), which is merely canting heraldry, and in the case of the Bucking- ham family cannot be traced far back.
The most prominent bearer of the name was John Maunsell, Provost of Beverley, Chancellor of St. Paul's, Treasurer of York, Keeper of the Great Seal, the first Secretary of State, and the favourite of King Henry III. His life in the ' Dictionary of National Bio- graphy ' needs the following corrections and additions.
There were three John Mansells king's clerks to Henry III. :
1. John the Provost, &c.
2. His " kinsman " John, who was Pre- bendary of Fenton, Canon of Wells, and held the temporalities of York and Durham. See for him Patent Rolls under dates 1263, 8 March ; 1259, 11 Sept. ; 1260, 17 Aug. ; 1258, 1 Dec. ; 1264, 14 Dec. ; 1265, 16 Nov. ; 1266, 16 Jan. (contrasted with 1265, 12 and 24 Nov.). The Inq. Post-Mortem that is extant refers to him.
3. John, nephew of the Provost. Cf. Patent Roll 1259, 28 Oct. ; 1263, 10 Jan., &c.
John the Provost was the son of a deacon
by an irregular marriage with Amabel
(' Calendar of Papal Letters,' vol. i. p. 362, and Charter Rolls, 1268, 5 Dec.). This Amabel is not the Amabel of Ripon who in the Inq. P.-M. of John No. 2 is named as a relation (see Charter Roll cited and Pat. Rolls 1266, 11 Aug.). His sister Emma married AJard le Fleming, and subse- quently, Henry de Legh (see ' Calendar of Charter Rolls ').
John the Provost died about 20 Jan., 1265 (' Annals of London,' in Rolls Series, Chron. Ed. I. and II., and ' Register of Arch- bishop W. Giffard of York,' Surtees Society, pp. 78, 79). His name appears frequently in the patents of 1264 as that of an active politician, and in February, 1265, the grant- ing away of all his posts begins.
Books hitherto printed are full of errors concerning him. The most trustworthy guide is the ' Dictionary of National Bio- graphy ' with the above additions and corrections. In using the Patent (&c.) Rolls Calendars concerning him note that the com- pilers of the indexes have hopelessly con- fused the three Johns, who are now separated for the first time.
