Froissart gives this as an Italian name. He tells us that Sir Aymery de Pavey, a Lombard, was appointed by Edward III. Governor of Calais; and that a French Lord, Geoffrey de Charney, “bethought him how lombards naturally be covetous; wherefore he thought to get the town of Calais***: and by reason of the truce they of St. Orneris might go to Calais, and they of Calais to St. Orneris, so that daily they resorted together to do their merchandises. Then Sir Geoffrey secretly fell in treaty with Sir Aymery of Pavy, so that he promised to deliver into the Frenchmen’s hands the town and castle of Calais for 20,000 crowns. This was not done so secretly but that the King of England had knowledge thereof; then the king sent for Aymery de Pavy to come into England to Westminster to speak with him, and so he came over, for he thought that the king had not had knowledge of that matter, he thought he had done it so secretly. When the king saw him, he took him apart, and said, Thou knowest well I have given thee in keeping the thing in this world that 1 love best, next my wife and children, that is to say, the town and castle of Calais; and thou hast sold it to the Frenchmen, wherefore thou well deservest to die. Then the Lombard knelt down, and said, Ah noble King, I cry you mercy; it is true that you say; but, Sir, the bargain may well be broken, for as yet I have received never a penny. The king had loved well the Lombard, and said, Aymery, I will that thou go forward on thy bargain, and the day that thou appointest to deliver the town, let me have knowledge thereof before: and on this condition I forgive thee thy trespass.” Sir Aymery thankfully agreed; and accordingly when, at the time appointed—the first night of the New Year—Sir Geoffrey presented himself with his “five hundred spears,” he found the King and Sir Walter Manny, with three hundred men-at-arms and six hundred archers, ready to receive him.

No doubt this double-dyed traitor came from Pavia. Yet the name is found in Normandy. Roger Pavé or de Pavia occurs there in the Exchequer Rolls of 1180-95: and two families of the name, Pavée de Provenchère, and Pavée de Vendeuvre, still continued at the end of the last century.—Nobiliaire de Normandie.

The name does not appear to have been very common in England. Walter Pavey is mentioned in 1222 in the Domesday of St. Paul's. Thomas Pavi and Alice his wife occur in Staffordshire in 1272, (Pedes Finium) and N. Pawei in the Hundred Rolls of the same date. Henry Pavey of Chippenham, and John Pavey, each again married to an Alice, are found in Kent in 1319.—Kent Fines. Richard Pavey was among the Esquires who were in the retinue of Thomas Earl of Arundel at Agincourt in 1415. The earliest mentioned is “Ricardo de Pavee,” who in 1183 witnesses Robert de Stafford’s charter to Bordesley Abbey. The Staffordshire Chartulary. They occur at a later date in several other counties. Two of the name, William Pavey, obt 1725, and Mary, wife of Robert Pavey, obt 1770, lie buried in Bruton churchyard.—Phelps' Somerset.

A small tablet of very ancient date, suspended in the centre arch of Stapleford Church, and inscribed with the old version of the first Psalm, bears the name of William Pavie. The two first lines of the translation run thus:— “The man is blest that hath not bent To wicked rede his eare.”

There was a family of the name seated at Plaitford in Wiltshire. Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Pavey of Plaitford, who, early in the last century, married William Fox of Farley, in the same county, was the grandmother of the first Lord Ilchester and the first Lord Holland. Pavey of Norfolk bore Sable a fesse crenellée Argent between three eagles displayed Or. Another coat assigned to the name is Ermine on a fesse Gules, three martlets Or.

A Norman name: Poey le Houn; a local name