This surname is derived from an occupation. 'le Campion,' a fighter, a contester; Old French champion, campion,' Campyon, or champyon; athltta' (Promptorium Parvulorum); v. Champion.

Beatrix le Campiun, Cambridgeshire, 1273, Hundred Rolls.

John Campiown, Huntingdonshire, ibid.

Walter le Campion, Buckinghamshire, ibid.

Simon Campion, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

Ricardus Campion, 1179: ibid.

1553. Buried — Cecilie Campyon: St. Michael, Cornhill.

1569. Henry Campion and Elizabeth Lawrence: Marriage Lic. (London).

Nicholas Champion of Berwick rendered homage, 1291 (RR.), and again as Nicol Campyon of Berwickshire, 1296 (Bain, II, p. 206). Simon Campion witnessed a protest dated 1500 (Cawdor, p. 106). ME. OF. champiun, a champion, "originally one who took part in a contest, especially in single combat, to defend his own or another's honour, or to uphold a cause" (Wylde). The name occurs in English Hundred Bolls, 1273, as Campiun, Campyun, Campiown.

Apart from the English Jesuit historian, Edmund Campion, who came to Ireland in 1569, the first mention of the name in this country I have met is William Campyon, a soldier who obtained a pardon * in 1578. The particular Fiant in which he appears is of special interest because the first name in the list is that of Miler Magra (sic), Archbishop of Cashel. In 1590 William Campion (alias Champion) was appointed dean of Ferns and archdeacon in 1608. By 1659 the family had become so firmly established that Campian appears in Petty's “census” of that date as one of the principal Irish surnames in the barony of Ossory, Queen's County (Leix). Ossory is no longer a barony name: that territory is covered by Upper Woods and Clandonagh. When Griffith's Valuation was made in the 1850s there were 74 householders named Campion in Leix and 118 in Co. Kilkenny, and there are still mainly located in these counties.

On the other hand Thomas Campion given in the 1659 “census” as titulado of Leitrim near Fermoy, Co. Cork, is clearly regarded as English. In this connexion it must be noted that there are 21 Campions in the marriage license bonds for the three Co. Cork dioceses from 1639 to 1800.

As early as 1295 and 1297 several Champaynes and de Champagnes appear in law cases, and it is possible that this name may have become Campion in England, though it is normally Campain or Campen; but there is no reason to believe that it has survived here in the descendants of these mediaeval figures. The derivation of Campion given by Reaney is interesting: old Norman French campion “a combatant in the arena . . . In the ordeal by battle . . . in disputes about the ownership of land the actual parties to the suit were represented by ‘champions', in theory their free tenants, but in practice hired men, professional champions and very well paid”. In an early Ormond deed (c. 1275) I came across an isolated case of de Campione but there the de may be a mistake for le. I have met an isolated instance of an O'Kempan in Co. Kilkenny (in a Fiant of 1602): if further examples of this should be found it would suggest an alternative Gaelic origin, but it may well have been a clerk's error.

= Champion, q.v.

Walter le Campion.—Hundred Rolls For when I was into most need With that great campion, Sir Gray Steel.

Hist. of Sir Gray Steel, 2788-9.

This name, derived from a Norman—French word denoting a combatant in an arena (akin to champion) was well established in the midlands by the seventeenth century and by 1850 it was very numerous in Cos.

Leix and Kilkenny. SIF 28

A champion. Ital. campione. Old English, and Scottish, campioun. See Kemp. The C.'s of Danny were of Campion's Hall, co. Essex, temp. Edw. II. The forms of orthography in H.R. are Campion, Le Campioun, Campiown, Le Campiun, Campyun, &c.

William Campion was living in Normandy, 1184 (Mag. Rot. Scac.); Geoffry Campion in England, 1194; and Gregory C., 1199 (Palgr. Rot. Cur. Regis).

Campion was a common name in the adjacent county of Cambridge in the reign of Edward I. (H. R.).