The curious poetical history of this family, preserved in "Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica," claims one "Saher," there written "Sier, the syer of us all," as their ancestor: he is stated to have been the son of Ralph Maunsel, who was living in Buckinghamshire in the 14th of Henry II. (1167). Thickthornes in Chicheley in that county appears to have been the residence of the Maunsells, and also Turvey in Bedfordshire. These lands were sold by William the son of Sampson le Maunsel of Turvey to William Mordaunt in 1287. The Maunsells afterwards settled at Bury-End in Chicheley, and in 1622 at Thorpe-Malsor.
Elder Branches. 1. Maunsell of Muddlescombe, co. Carmarthen, Baronet 1621-2. 2. The extinct Barons Maunsell, created 1711, extinct 1744.
Younger Branch. Maunsell of Cosgrave in this county, which came from the coheiress of Furtho.
See Coll. Topog. et Genealog. i. p. 389; Baker's Northamptonshire, ii. p. 132; and Memoirs of the family, an unfinished work privately printed in 1850 by William W. Maunsell, esq.
Arms.—Argent, a chevron between three maunches sable.
Present Representative, Thomas Philip Maunsell, Esq. late M. P. for North Northamptonshire.
Gentle.
Isham of Lamport, Baronet 1627.
The name is local, from Isham in the hundred of Orlingbury in this county, where an elder branch of the family was seated soon after the Conquest. Robert Isham, who died in 1424, is however the first ancestor from whom the pedigree can with certainty be deduced. He was Escheator of the county of Northampton, and was of Picheley (a lordship contiguous to Isham) in the first of Henry V. Lamport was purchased by John Isham, the immediate ancestor of the present family, fourth son of Sir Euseby Isham, of Picheley, Knight, in the year 1559. He was an eminent merchant of London.