For Monceaux (v. Leland): the “Sire de Monceals” of the Roman de Ron. He “descended from the ancient lords of Maers and Monceaux, Counts of Nevers. Landric IV. became Count of Nevers c. 990 by marriage, and had a younger son Landric of Nevers, Baron of Monceaux, grandfather of William de Monceaux, who is mentioned by Wace in 1066. He appears as William de Moncellis in the Eastern Domesday, and as William de Nevers in Norfolk 1086. His descendants occur in Sussex, but chiefly in Yorkshire and Lincoln.”—The Norman People. There are several communes of this name in Normandy; but Monceaux, near Bayeux, is probably the one meant. This name is frequently to be found in the earlier muniments of Battle Abbey; for a branch of the family, soon after the Conquest, settled at Bodiham, in its immediate neighbourhood. Part of his estate there was granted by William de Monceaux to the Abbey, at some date previous to 1200. In 1278, the Lord of Bodiham was Henry Wardedu, a cadet of the De Monceaux, who, having been placed under the guardianship of the Earl of Eu (Anglicized Ou) was thence called Ward de Ou, and transmitted this singular appellation to his children. He held four knight’s fees at Bodiham, Penhurst, &c., and was a knight of the shire in 1302. He, too, was a benefactor of the Abbey; and his eldest son, Sir Nicholas, who succeeded in 1315, assumed the cowl and joined the community. The inheritance thus passed to his brother Richard, and at Richard’s death in 1343 to his daughter and sole heir Elizabeth Wardedu, married to Sir Edward Dalingruge—the same Sir Edward who, by licence of Richard II., built Bodiham Castle in 1386.

According to the Battle chartulary, the De Monceaux who gave their name to Hurstmonceux in the same county, had themselves derived it from a Hampshire heiress. Her ancestor, “William de Monceaux, held three knight’s fees of ancient enfeoffment at Compton-Monceaux. The tenure was by serjeanty under Thomas Maudut, who held immediately of the King. Walter de Monceaux also held land in Compton by service of marshalry.” —Woodward's Hampshire. This line had ended in a “distaff,” or female heir, married to a Sussex land- owner, Hurst or Herste, of Hurst. He adopted her name both for himself and his homestead, which was destined to become the site of the magnificent castle of the Fiennes.’ It was, for some considerable time, the seat of his descendants, one of whom, Waleran de Monceaux, entertained Henry III. there in 1264. A great hunting party was held in the park in honour of this Royal visit, at which a noble of the Kings train, Roger de Tournay, accidentally lost his life. About the time of Edward III., Maud de Monceaux brought Hurstmonceaux to the Fiennes’. Quarum-Monceaux, in Somersetshire, must have formed part of the original estate. Dru de Monceaux, who, in the beginning of the twelfth century, married Edith, daughter of Earl Warren and the mysterious Gundreda, long believed to have been the Conqueror’s daughter, probably belonged to this Hampshire house. Edith had been first married to Gerard de Gournay, whom she followed on the pilgrimage to Palestine from which he never lived to return; and Dm possessed the Honour of Gournay during the minority of her son Hugh.

In Lincolnshire, Sir Alan de Monceaux, at about the same date, founded Nun Coton Priory, “more especially for the souls of Stephen Earl of Albemarle and of Hawise his wife, and endowed it with the whole town of Coton. He followed the fortunes of the Earl, and shared his possessions in Yorkshire as well as Lincolnshire.”—Poulson's Holderness. In the former county, his descendants were mesne-lords of Barmston for three hundred years; their tombs were to be found in the church, and a stained glass window bearing their red cross still remained in 1620: but all have now disappeared. Thomas de Monceaux received a writ of military summons 4 Ed. III. He was the grandson of a Sir Robert, whose wife, Hawyse de Monceaux, Lady of Lisset, had been an heiress and a kinswoman; and the second son of a Sir Ingram who, dying in 1291, left the eldest in ward to the King. But the boy lived only a few years, and Thomas then succeeded. He himself died in 1345, and was followed by three genera­tions of John, and lastly, by William de Monceaux, with whom the direct line ended in 1446. He, again, had married an heiress, Margaret Fauconberg, then the widow of John Constable, but had no children: and his sister Maud carried Bramston to Sir Brian de la See. Two uncles, Robert and Alexander, were living 1420-29; another, William, was a priest.

After the loss of their Yorkshire fief, I find no other notices of them in that county; but it has been plausibly suggested that the name survives in Lincolnshire under the modernised form of Monson. “Thomas de Monceaux d. 1345, seized amongst others of the manors of Killingholm, Keleby, &c., Lincoln (Inq. p. Mort.). His son, Sir John de Monceaux (or Monson) d. 1363, seized of Burton and Keleby, Lincolnshire, which continued in this family t. Elizabeth. John Monceaux or Monson was of Lincoln 1378: sixth in descent from whom was Sir John Monson, who was possessed of Burton and Keleby at his death in 1593. From him descended the Lords Monson, Viscounts Castlemaine, and Lords Sondes.”—The Norman People. No hint of this descent is, however, afforded us by the genealogy of the Monsons. Nor does the coat of De Mon­ceaux, Or, a cross moline Gules, in the slightest degree resemble theirs, though the tinctures coincide. Lord Monson (now Viscount Oxenbridge) bears Gules two chevronels Or, and is derived from “John Munson, denominated of East Reson, co. Lincoln, and living in 1378.” This would be the John de Monceaux of that date (see p. 337), who was the grandson of Thomas, and died in 1381; but the subsequent descent, as given by Collins, in no wise corresponds with Poulson’s account. The heiress Maud is passed over in silence; and the regular succession of John Monsons is carried on for three more generations, all seated at Carlton, near Lincoln. Many of them lie buried in South Carlton Church; and on one of their monuments (date 1593) the crest given is a pun on the name, “a Moon griping the Sun Or,” with the motto, Prest pour mon pais, which they still use. Yet, in spite of these discrepancies, I am inclined to endorse the opinion I have above quoted, as to the true origin of the family. It is at least more easy to accept than the suggestion of “some antiquaries”—I would rather term them humourists—who pretend to derive Monson from the German Münzen (coins). The regicide Viscount Castlemaine, who was the sole bearer of the title, belonged to the house of Carlton. Earl Sondes descends from Lewis, second son of the John Monson who was created Baron Monson of Burton in 1728, by his wife Lady Margaret Watson. She was the youngest of the four daughters of Lewis, first Earl of Rockingham, who had married Catherine, eventually sole heiress of Sir George Sondes of Lees Court, Kent, and received the title of Viscount Sondes in 1714. His eldest son, who bore it, died before him, and both his two grandsons were childless. The last of them, Thomas, third Earl, who survived his brother but a few months, devised his whole estate to his cousin Lewis Monson, on condition that he assumed the name and arms of Watson. This he accordingly did in 1745; and in 1760 he was created Lord Sondes. The fifth Lord was promoted to an Earldom in 1880.

One other brief notice of the De Monceaux occurs in Cumberland. Amand de Monceaux, during the reign of Richard II., was three times Sheriff and three times knight of the shire: but, after this, the name is never met with again.

A Norman name: From the Domesday Book, de Marci. Marsous; a local name