The Noble and Gentle Men of England / or, notes touching the arms and descents of the ancient knightly and gentle houses of England, arranged in their respective counties.

by Evelyn Philip Shirley

Present Representative, Sir Thomas Edward Winnington, M.P. for Bewdley, 4th Baronet.

Noel of Bell-Hall.

This is the only remaining branch in the male line of the very ancient family of Noel; of which the Earls of Gainsborough, created 1681, extinct 1798, represented a junior line. William, the ancestor of all the Noels, was living in the reign of Henry I., and was at that period Lord of Ellenhall, in the county of Stafford. In the time of Henry II., either he or his son founded the Priory of Raunton, in the same county.

From the Noels of Ellenhall descended a branch of the family seated at Hilcote, in Staffordshire; an estate which remained with them until recent times; the father of the present representative, who was son of Walter Noel, of Hilcote, Esq., having removed to Bell-Hall, in the parish of Bell-Broughton, in this county.

The Noels of Rutlandshire and Leicestershire were also descended from the house of Ellenhall.

See Harwood's edition of Erdeswick's Staffordshire, 1844, p. 132 and Blore's Rutlandshire.

Arms.—Or, fretty gules, a canton ermine.

Present Representative, Charles Noel, Esq.

Gentle.