General Notes

The Plecys, Plesses, Plays, whose name is perhaps derived from the Village of Plesses, situated in the diocese of Bayeux, France, or another place of the same name in Normandy, and they seem to have been one of many foreign families indebted for their advancement to the partiality of King Henry III. John de Plessetis, the most distinguished man of this family, was a Norman by birth, who having become a domestic attendant to Henry III, rose into high favour with that monarch, and was appointed Governor of Denizes. There was a family of this name in Somerset as early as King John.