A name that, at the present day, is “far from uncommon in Normandy, although the greater part of the champaign country has been for centuries divided and enclosed. It is not necessary to conclude that those that bear it have come from the province of Champagne, since all our cultivated plains bore this designation in ancient times. In this sense it is still retained in England, where many Norman names that we have lost might be found if wanted.”—M. de Gerville.

This family was seated in Kent during the twelfth century. Sir Robert de Campania acquired the manor of Newenham through his wife Julian, daughter and heir of Fulk de Newenham (who founded the nunnery of Davington, in that neighbourhood, about 1253): and gave to his manor-house its present name of Champion’s Court. His son Sir Robert II. was one of the Kentish gentlemen that attended Coeur de Lion to the Holy Land, and were knighted at the siege of Acre. Another descendant, John de Champayne, was present at Carlaverock; and two years afterwards had a grant of a Thursday market and yearly fair at his manor of Newenham, and free warren there and at Norton. His wife Margery was the eldest of the six sisters who in 1341 became the co-heirs of Sir Peter de Rosceline. The name terminated in three co-heiresses.—v. Hasted's Kent. Shadwick-Champayne and Edmundeshampayne in Dorsetshire took their name from Peter de Champayne (perhaps the brother of John) who held part of a knight’s fee at Shadwick in 1296: “but of this family,” adds Hutchins, “little or no mention occurs in the history of the county.” Roger Champaigne was knight of the shire in 1350. The Champaynes also held some property in Hampshire: for, in the preceding reign, “Hugh de Campania had sided with the King’s enemies; and thereupon, by writ addressed to the Sheriff Nov. 23, 1315, his Hampshire lands were given to Robert de Scures.”—Woodward's Hants. We find Champayne of Champayne in Duffield of early date in Derbyshire. “The co-heiresses married Foucher and Daudelin in the fourteenth century.”—Lysons. Lastly, a branch, with an ambitious pedigree, occurs in Leicestershire. “William de Champaigne,” says Nichols, “was descended from the antient Earls of Cham­pagne, one of the peers of France, who, coming into England with King William the Conqueror, received from him great lands and possessions in this shire, and in the counties of Northampton, Oxford, Lincoln, and Salop. The heir general of Champaigne was married to Tourville.” Their original coat was Or fretty Sable; “but whether for that they vowed to take upon them the Cross, or to undertake some voyage to the Holy Land, or assumed some religious military Order, they added upon every joint a cross-crosslet Argent.” The arms of the Counts of Champagne were wholly different, for they bore a bend; and the Count Odo who accompanied the Conqueror, was, as we have seen, the ancestor of the Earls of Albemarle. Robert de Champaigne held Thurleston of the Honour of Winton in 1296; and Ralph in 1361. They were also sub-tenants of the Earl of Leicester at Norman ton and Croft. The Turvilles succeeded them at Thurleston. William and Ralph de Campania, temp. King John, are the first mentioned in the county.