From Chanceaux, in Touraine, and settled in Devonshire from the time of the Conquest. “In 1086 Milton, with Lideton, Devon, belonged to Tavistock Abbey. Goisfrid then held them, from whom descended Reginald de Lideton, who 1165 held two fees of Tavistock (Liber Niger). It appears that the Lidetons and Chanceaux, who were Lords of Lideton, were the same. Geoffrey, Giles, and John de Cancellis or Chanceaux are mentioned, of whom the last named surrendered. Lideton to Edward I. (Pole’s Devon.).” - The Norman People. It was at that period they removed from the county, and we next find them in Sussex, where Emeric de Chanceux or de Cancellis served as Sheriff, 7 & 8 Ed. I.; and in the following century in Northamptonshire, when Robert de Chanceaux acquired Upton in right of his wife Margaret, the widow of Robert Bellew. They continued there for three descents, and their heiress married Richard Knightley. - Baker's Northants. Nicholas de Chanceus in 13x6 had been certified Lord of the Hundred of Nobottle-Grove, in that county, in addition to the township of Upton. Giles de Chanceaux, two years before, received a writ of military summons; and John de Chanceux was summoned from the Hundred of Rochford in Essex to serve against the Scots in 1322. - Palgrave's Parl. Writs. Giles was the son of John de Chanceux, who in 1289 held the manor of Canewdon of the King in capite of his Honour of Rayleigh. “Sir John Chanceux, the heir of Sir Giles, was possessed of this estate, and of a marsh here called Le Norde, and of lands in Paklesham, Rochford, Wakering, and Hockley. We have no account of the time of his death, or of his issue. But it still continued in the Chanceaux family. For Alianor, daughter of Margery Chanceaux, that died in 1370, held part of this manor, and John de Chanceaux, her uncle, was her heir. Margery, wife of Sir John de Chanceaux at the time of her decease in 1389, held this manor. She had no issue by Chanceaux, unless it was Alianor above-mentioned.” - Morant. I have copied this account verbatim, in hopes that some of my readers may find it easier than, I own, I have done, to understand the exact relationship of Alianor and the two Johns. Guimer de Chancells, in 1212, had the custody of the lands of William de Beauchamp of Elmley, and “paid thirty-two marks for those sixteen knight’s fees which this William then held.”

Chanceux: Perhaps from St. Quesney, near St. Saëns. In Wace we have Cahagnes; either a place of that name in the arrondissement of Vire, or another of the same name in that of the Andelys. The name has gone through many changes, as Keynes, Chesney, Cheyney.