James VIII of Scotland & III of England
"The Pretender." Exiled to France
Charles Edward Stuart (Charles III), "Bonnie Prince Charlie"
Led the Scots in the Jacobite Rising of 1745, but was defeated by the English at the Battle of Culloden in 1746.
On page 28 of the History of Newport Pagnell we find the following:
Ralph Paganel, his [Fulk Paynell]son and heir, Who in 5th Stephen [in the reign of King Stephen], taking part with Maud, the Empress, was by her made Governor of Nottingham Castle ( William Peverill, then Lord thereof, being taken prisoner at the Battle of Lincoln fighting for Stephen). He instigated Robert, Earl of Gloucester to enter the town, the inhabitants being practically unarmed, and it was first plundered and then burnt by the soldiers."
Founded Drax Priory, Yorkshire.
Fulk ("Fulcodius") Paynell (Paganell)
"A History of Newport Pagnell" by Frederick William Bull, Kettering 1900, contains the following information:
On page 28 of the History of Newport Pagnell we find the following: "The Paganells were a wealthy family. At the time of the Domesday Survey Ralph Paganell held ten Lordships in Devon, five in Somersetshire, fifteen in Lincolnshire and fifteen in Yorkshire, and in 1089 founded the Priory of the Holy Trinity York, for nuns, in a place where formerly stood a House of Canons, which was destroyed by William I. In the time of that King, too, he was sheriff of Yorkshire.""It was his son Fulk, or Fulcodius, Paganell who is said to have married Beatrix Ansculf, and who, at any rate, came into possession of a great part of Fritz Ansculf’s lands."
"It was Fulk Paganel , too, who founded Tickford Priory ..... in the reign of William Rufus."
Hugone Paganell (Hugues de Payens)
From "Origins of Pannell name since William the Conquerer, 1066", by John J. Pannell:
Family tradition has it that the Pannells are of Norman descent, having arrived in England with William the Conqueror (1066). The original name was variously spelt Paganel, Paganell, Paynel, Paynell or Paynelle, all derived from "pagan", or sometimes Pownall (see below). Names like L'Epagniol, and Pagnol seem to be modern french versions. The modern french word for "pagan" is "païen". There is reference in french archives to one "Hugues de Payens" who lived at around the time of the Norman Conquest. It seems possible that he is the same person as the Hugone Paganel mentioned below and there may be modern derivatives based on this spelling. Considering that the Normans also conquered parts of southern Italy, names like Paganelli, Paganini and Panelli have obvious connections. Does the name "Parnell" mean that they had land in Ireland too? The "family village" is said to be Newport Pagnell in Buckinghamshire, England, (home of the Aston-Martin!). The family crest features a Blackamoor's head above a crown, which indicates some involvement with the Crusades. The family motto is "Fiat Dei Voluntas" - "God's Will be Done".
A document "Pownall of Pownall" obtained from the Library in Newport Pagnell in Buckinghamshire states: "In the writings of Ordericus Vitalis we find enumerated in the train of the Conqueror who came into England from Normandy, Radulphus Fulco, Johannes and Hugone Paganel, and those people appear subsequently to have seated themselves at Newport Pagnell, co. Buckingham, at Dudley Castle in Worcestershire, At Drax, co. York and at Bampton in Oxfordshire. Vitalis, too, in alluding to the names of those men styled "Illustrious", who had died, to the great grief of their Norman countrymen, in the same year with their victorious chief, mentions Gulielmus Paganellus."
"According to a more modern authority, Brooke, Somerset Herald, the family of Pownall is of great antiquity in co. Chester, the mention of the name connecting them with that shire occurring so early as the time of King Stephen when Avicia de Romelli, dau. And co-heir of William de Meschines, Lord of Copeland and cousin of Randolph de Meschines, third Earl of Chester, m. for her second husband, William Paganel, Lord of Were. This William, with his kinsmen Rafe and Gervase Paganell are afterwards described amongst the most active of the adherents of Earl Randle and his barons in sustaining the interests of the Empress Maud and her son Henry against King Stephen, which services were rewarded by the earl with grants of land in fee out of his demesnes in Cheshire and elsewhere."
"Although (says Brooke) from the seat of their property in Cheshire, the Pownalls were denominated according to the true British orthography of the name, and were styled, after the Norman custom, as "de Pownall", yet they were at the same time styled in the records, written in Norman, Paiinel, Payanell and Paynel, and in those written in Latin, Paganell. It appears on the register, that they repeatedly held the high office of chamberlayne to the kings, as Earls of Chester in the 10th Edward II., in the 1st, 5th and 10th Edward III., on which account, in allusion to their office and their name, they bore for a crest a lion’s paw holding a golden key. In the register of rectors of Rostherne parish, anno 1322, occurs the name of Johannis Paignell, subdiac. "
"Place Names in Buckinghamshire" contains the following. "....the Borough is called Newport Paynelle in 1220. It was part of the Barony of Dudley which belonged to the Paynel family. Paynel or Pain(n)el is the common form of the name in the 13th and 14th centuries. Panell first appears in 1367 and Pannell in Elizabethan times. The form Pagnell is from the Latinised form of the name, Paganellus.
"A History of Newport Pagnell" by Frederick William Bull, Kettering 1900, contains the following information:
Page 3. Leland in his "Itinerary" of about the middle of the sixteenth century writes: "Tho the Paynelles were Lordes of the Castel of Newport Painel in Buckinghamshire, yet they had a great mynde to lye at Boutheby wher they had a praty Stone House withyn a mote."
Page 4. Camden in his "Britannia", written about the same time, states "The Ouse runs by Newport Pagnell so called from the lord of it, Fulk Paganel from whom it descended to the Barons Somerie of Dudley who had their castle here."
There is no obvious evidence of a castle in Newport Pagnell today. I have a page from an unidentified book in the library at Newport Pagnell which says: "The Church of SS Peter and Paul is on a slight ridge above the High Street, between the later and the River Lovat or Ouzel. Its graveyard has a long yew-lined terrace stretching north across a little iron bridge to a low tree covered mound at the junction of the rivers, all that is left of the Paganell’s castle."
On page 28 of the History of Newport Pagnell we find the following: "The Paganells were a wealthy family. At the time of the Domesday Survey Ralph Paganell held ten Lordships in Devon, five in Somersetshire, fifteen in Lincolnshire and fifteen in Yorkshire, and in 1089 founded the Priory of the Holy Trinity York, for nuns, in a place where formerly stood a House of Canons, which was destroyed by William I. In the time of that King, too, he was sheriff of Yorkshire."
"It was his son Fulk, or Fulcodius, Paganell who is said to have married Beatrix Ansculf, and who, at any rate, came into possession of a great part of Fritz Ansculf’s lands."
"It was Fulk Paganel , too, who founded Tickford Priory ..... in the reign of William Rufus."
"To him succeeded, the Empress, Ralph Paganel, his son and heir, Who in 5th Stephen, taking part with Maud, the Empress, was by her made Governor of Nottingham Castle ( William Peverill, then Lord thereof, being taken prisoner at the Battle of Lincoln fighting for Stephen). He instigated Robert, Earl of Gloucester to enter the town, the inhabitants being practically unarmed, and it was first plundered and then burnt by the soldiers."
"Ralph Paganel left issue Gervase, William (who founded Drax Priory, Yorkshire), Hugh, Adam, Jordan and Alexander." Gervase is an interesting character who attracts a good deal of attention.
"Gervase in 1138 adhering, like his father to the Empress Maud, held Dudley Castle for her, and in 12th Henry II., upon the assessment of the aid for marrying the King’s daughter (and being then resident at Dudley, certified his Knight’s fees De Vetteri, Feoffamento to be 50 and those De Novo to be 6a. In 20th Henry II., however, he took part in the Rebellion of the King’s eldest son, Henry, and as a result the Castle of Dudley was demolished the year after. A little later, however, 22nd Henry II., Gervase reconciled himself to the King by giving him, as a peace-offering for his transgression, 500 marks."
"In 1189 he was one of the Barons who attended Richard I. at his coronation, and it was Gervase Pagnel who, in accordance with his father’s desire, founded Dudley Priory."
"Gervase married Isabel, daughter of Robert Earl of Leicester and widow of Simon St Liz Earl of Northampton, by whom he had issue of one son Robert, who predeceased him leaving no issue. His sister Hawyse survived him, however, and became his heiress."
"By her first marriage with John de Somery the Barony of Dudley, of which Newport was a member, passed into the hands of the Somery family, who appear to have anciently had a Barony in Cambridgeshire."
"Ralph, the son of John and Hawyse, succeeded, and in 6th Richard I. accounted 300 marks for livery of the Barony of Gervase Paganel, his mother’s brother, until the King’s return from Almaine and in the same year, on the collection of the ransom of Richard I., paid fifty pounds for the fees of Gervase Paganel."
On page 62 we find: "The Manor (of Tickford), with that of Newport, passed to the Paynels and, in the reign of William Rufus, Fulc Paynel founded there a priory or cell of Cluniac monks, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary ....."
"Several early gifts are referred to by Dugdale in his Monasticon. Amongst them was a gift of land of Bernard Segm in Tykford from Hawis Paynel, sister of Gervase Paynel..."
Page 63. In 1187 Gervase Paganell granted to the monks a confirmatory charter of their various possessions. In it he uses the words "... my wife Isabella, Countess of Northampton ... Fulcodius Paganell, my grandfather, and Ralph Paganell, my father...".
It would appear that the line of Gervase ran out.
If the assumption that these are the ancestors of the Pannells is correct then we must be descended from another line, of which there were many; or perhaps the family of Hawyse took on the name together with the lands.
I have a family tree labelled " the Heirs of Richard fitz Baldwin which covers the period roughly between the Norman Conquest and 1300 AD. The last entry is "Philip Paynel of Drax and W Rasen: b 10 Aug. 1269: d. 10 May 1299 = Elizabeth d 16 Nov. 1344. They are shown as having issue but the details are not included. The paternal lineage reads: William d’Avranches, avunculus of Fulk Paynel: d. about 1087 (whose daughter married) — William Paynell, of Moutiers-Hubert and Hambye (no dates given) — Hugh Paynel, of Moutiers-Hubert: dead 1180 — Pierre Paynel, of Moutiers-Hubert and W. Rasen: d. 1184 — Hugh Paynel, aged 4 in 1185: lost his lands in Normandy: of Drax and W Rasen: d. 1244 — John Paynel, of Drax and W. Rasen: died shortly before 28 Dec. 1275 — Philip Paynel, of Drax and W. Rasen: b.10 Aug. 1269: d. 10 May 1299.