General Notes

Name Prefix:<NPFX> Count Palatine
Note: Ancient Name as Manning, Manningham, Mannington, Mann
, Manningtree, Mannon, Manon
(Research):10240 Ranulph Manning.
"Manning is from an old Norse word - manningi - meaning a b
rave or valiant
man, and one of the first forms of the name was Mannin: ano
ther orthography
was Manning". The above is quoted from the Journal of Ameri
can Genealogy,
1922, published by the National Historical Society as print
ed in "The Manning
Manse Messenger", March 9, 1925. This article begins its hi
story of the
Mannings 'with Ranulph or Rudolph de Manning, Count Palatin
e, who having
married Elgida, aunt to King Harold I, of England, had a gr
ant of land in
Kent.".[90]
?Halstead?s Kent (1797) states that the Mannings came ?fro
m an ancient and
noble family? which took its name from the town Mannheim i
n Saxony. They
came to England before the Conquest from the Roman Villa Ma
nnheim (now
Manheim, Germany) that was in the 8th centure Monastery o
f Larsch, and a
residence of the Elector of the Palatinate. Here Ranulph d
e Mannheim was
Count Palatine in 940. He married Elgida, the aunt of Kin
g Harold,
(1037-1040), was granted in England the site of Downs and o
ther towns in Kent
about St. Mary?s Cray?s where is Manning Hall and the Churc
h in which repose
many Mannings of the past. From Downs, his grandson, Simo
n de Manning was
knighted as he ?was the first of the English Barons to tak
e up the Cross and
go with King Richard (1189-1199), to the Holy Wars? agains
t the Saracens.
His grandson Stephen de Manning was of King Edward?s time (
1272-1302), when
Mannings are recorded in twenty-two English counties. Of th
ese William de
Manning died 1343, and there was Hugh, John, Richard, Edwar
d, Thomas, Peter,
Ranulph, Elizabeth, Anne, and a John, of King Henry?s tim
e (1399-1423). The
towns Manningham, Mannington, Manningtree record the famil
y activities in
England, as ten Manning or Mannington towns in ten of our U
nited States
record such activities here. . . Manning Coats of Arms wer
e granted and
confirmed by the Kent County ?Visitation? of 1577. Cardina
l Manning wrote
from England in 1884, that there were several branches of t
he family in Kent,
Suffolk, and Norfolk, each having a Coat with shield, cross
, and four tree
foild, but with variations in the crests; all but one beari
ng the motto ?Malo
mori quam foedari? (I would rather die than be disgraced) (
or dishonored or
debased). Other recorded Manning Mottoes are: ?Vive ut viva
s? (Live that
you may live) - ?Per ardua stabilis? (Steady in difficultie
s) - ?esse quam
viveri? (To be rather than seem to be).? [97]
?Cowdham, Downe, Orpington, St. Marys Cray, Pauls Cray an
d Foots Cray,
parishes in which these Mannings chiefly had their homes, a
re all in the
Hundred of Ruxley in the County of Kent. Among the places w
hich I have named
the earliest home to which this family can be traced was Co
wdham, in which
parish we are told (in Hasted?s History of Kent) Richard d
e Cherfholt had
anciently some property, in the hamlet of Bertrey, or Bettr
ed, as it was
afterwards called, and held the reeveship of the manor of B
ertrey under
Geoffrey de Say who discharged him from this office in th
e 15th year of K.
Edward II., anno 1321 &c. He died without issue male, and h
is daughter and
heir carried the estate which he held in it, in marriage, t
o William de
Manning, who died in the 17th year of K. Edward III., ann
o 1342.? [402]
Ranulph married Elgida.