• General Notes

  From the website http://cruwys.blogspot.com/search/label/Fraunceys
  
  "The Fraunceys family are of French origin. In earlier records their name is often spelt Fraunceis, which is the Old French word for a Frenchman or Frank. The Franceis spelling is preserved in later generations in some branches of the family.  Some time in the early part of the fourteenth century the Fraunceys acquired the manor of Killerington, later known as Killerton Franceis, in the parish of Broad Clyst.  The family home in Killerington was known as Franceis Court.  The house remained in the family until the beginning of the seventeenth century when it was purchased, along with the manor of Killerton, by Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, Baronet.  Today there is a farmhouse on the estate but nothing remains of the old Fraunceis mansion.
  
  Some time in the late 1300s William Fraunceys of Fraunceis Court made an advantageous marriage to Alice, the daughter of Nicholas Hele and Alice Florey of Hele in the parish of Bradninch, Devon.  Alice brought to the marriage a considerable estate which she had inherited from her father.  She subsequently received a substantial inheritance from her mother which included the manors of Combe Florey in Somerset and Tallaton in Devon.  Later generations of the Fraunceys family moved to Combe Florey, and they reputedly held the manor for some twelve generations."
  
  
  The document "NOTES ON THE SURNAMES OF FRANCUS, FRANCEIS, FRENCH, ETC., IN SCOTLAND" by A. D. Weld French, 1893, available on the webpage http://www.archive.org/stream/notesonsurnameso00frenrich/notesonsurnameso00frenrich_djvu.txt
  suggests that the Fraunceis family were of noble origin in Normandy, and first start appearing in records in England & Scotland around 1100 AD.
  
  According to "Magna Britannia, being a concise topographical account of the several counties of Great Britain. Containing Devonshire, volume 6" by Samuel Lysons, 1822, page cxcvi (available for viewing at Google Books) "FRAUNCEIS, of Fraunceis Court, in Broad Clyst, settled in this place in or about the reign of Edward II, married the heiress of Hele.  They removed to Combe Florey, in Somersetshire: one of the heiresses married Prideaux; the descendants bore the name of Fraunceis, and were ancestors of John Fraunceis Gwynn, Esq., now of Forde Abbey.
  Arms - Argent, a chevron engrailed, between 3 mullets, Gules."
  Note that King Edward II reigned 1307 to 1327.
  
  

Details of John's family with Florence Ashford