Here, again, I am disposed to adopt Leland’s rendering, and read Cheinel—a name of very ancient date in this country. It was probably taken from Quesnel, in Normandy. By a curious coincidence (if it be nothing more) the English Chenels had almost precisely the same coat of arms as the Norman Du Quesnays. The latter bore “Palé d’argent et de gueules, au chef d’azur, chargé d’une molette d’éperon d’or, accosté de deux merlettes de même;" and the former, Paly of six, Argent and Azure; on a chief Or three martlets Gules.

I first met with them in Leicestershire, where “I find,” says Nichol (quoting Mr. Burton), “by an old deed, that in the latter end of the reign of Henry III. Walter Cheynell was Lord of Cat-thorpe; and in the time of Edward L, Peter Chaynel and Simon Mallore held the town between them. Peter, in 1279, held of the honour of Verdon. Their ancestor, Roger de Cheinel, and others, gave the manor of Pentling-Parva to Merevalle Abbey in Warwickshire (founded by Robert Earl of Ferrers in 1148) which this house enjoyed in the reign of King Henry II., as is vouched by the Register of that Abbey. Sutton Cheynell” (again in Leicestershire) “took its name from a rich farmer who in the time of Henry II. was tenant to the Abbey of Croyland.”

The name existed in several other counties. Robert Keinel was living 1184-99 (Rot. Curiæ Regis). William Cheynell was of Oxfordshire, temp. Ed. I. (Rot. Hundred). John Chainel was several times Clerk of the Council to Parliament (1311-1324); and in 1314 was one of the Judges of Assize for the county of Lincoln.—Palgrave’s Parliamentary Writs. Gatton-Keynell, in Wiltshire, bears the name of a family that was still to be found there in 1433, when Richard Caynell appears on a list of the resident gentry. The first mention of them in the county is as early as the twelfth century, for Gervase Chaisnel is entered on the Great Roll of the Pipe of 1155-1158.

Lower (somewhat unaccountably) includes in his Worthies of Sussex Dr. Francis Cheynell, one of the sour Puritan divines of the seventeenth century, who was presented by the Parliament to the valuable living of Petworth. When, in 1644, Chillingworth, author of the once famous work, The Religion of Protestants a safe way to Salvation, was taken prisoner among Lord Hopton’s followers at Arundel Castle, lodged in the Bishop’s palace at Chichester, and there died, Cheynell, who had shown him some attention while living, was asked to perform the funeral service. He positively declined; “but though he refused to bury his body, he thought it very fitting to bury the book. For this purpose he met Chillingworth’s friends at the grave, with the Religion of Protestants in his hand, and after a short preamble, uttered the following passionate tirade: ‘Get thee gone, thou cursed book, which hast seduced so many precious souls; get thee gone, thou corrupt, rotten book—earth to earth, and dust to dust! Get thee gone into the place of rottenness, that you mayest rot with thine author, and see corruption!’ He then withdrew to his own congregation, and preached from the text ‘Let the dead bury their dead.’”—Lower.

A Norman name: From the Domesday Book, Chenesis. Chênée and Chiny, Flanders. Chaignes, Le Chesne, local name, French