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Lyons family

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For the unrelated Scottish Crime Family, see Lyons Crime Family.
For the unrelated Scottish Clan, whose descent from this Norman family is dubious (see below), see Clan Lyon.
House of Lyons
(de Lyons, de Leonne, Lyonne, Lyon)
Country
Founded1066 (in England); 1622 (in Ireland); <1700 (in Antigua).
Founder
Titles

The Lyons family (originally styled de Lyons, also spelled de Leonne, and also spelled Lyon) is an Anglo-Norman landed gentry family descended from Ingelram de Lyons The Elder, who arrived in England with the Norman Conquest of 1066 and fought at the Battle of Hastings. His son Nicholas de Lyons, who, with his son Sir John de Lyons, emigrated from Normandy to England in 1080, was granted lands at Warkworth, Northamptonshire, by William.

The Norman family surname was 'de Lyons' ('of [the Castle and Forest of] Lyons'): but the 'de' was eventually omitted from the surname of the emigrant family. Subsequently (as a consequence of the lack, before the 18th century, of standardised spelling for the French pronunciation of the surname) some English branches removed the 's' from the end of the surname, producing 'Lyon'. For example, the 16th century Lord Mayor of London Sir John Lyon used the spelling 'Lyon', despite that his father, Thomas Lyons [sic] of Perivale, used the spelling 'Lyons'.

The English line of the Norman Warkworth family had ceased to reside at Warkworth by the 16th century, after which they resided predominantly in Middlesex. Its descendants included Sir John Lyon or Lyons (1514 - 1564), who was Lord Mayor of London, and the yeoman landowner John Lyon (d. 1592), who was the founder of Harrow School, after whom The John Lyon School, and The John Lyon's Charity, and a Harrow School house, Lyon's, are named.

In 1622, a branch of the family settled in Ireland, where, as members of the Protestant Ascendancy, they established a seat at King's County that was named River Lyons, and a seat at County Westmeath that was named Ledestown/Ledistown Hall. This Irish branch of the family owned 563 acres of sugar plantations in Antigua and was famous within the Royal Navy during the 19th-century peak of Britain's imperial power: three of its members attained the rank of Admiral and five others were senior officers.

Its descendants include Vice-Admiral John Lyons, who fought on HMS Victory at Battle of Trafalgar; Admiral Edmund Lyons, 1st Baron Lyons, who led the Royal Navy to victory during the Crimean War; Richard Lyons, 1st Viscount Lyons, the British Ambassador to France and to the USA who resolved the Trent Affair; and Sir Algernon Lyons, Admiral of the Fleet.

Norman Origin

The family derives its name from the district of the Forest of Lyons, north of the town of Lyons-la-Forêt in Haute Normandie, where their seat was the Castle of Lyons. During the first decades of the 12th century, Henry I of England built a new castle in the district, the Château de Lyons-la-Forêt, where he died in 1135.[1][2][3]

The Norman family surname was 'de Lyons' ('of [the Castle and Forest of] Lyons'): but the 'de' was eventually omitted from the surname of the emigrant family. Subsequently (as a consequence of the lack, before the 18th century, of standardised spelling for the French pronunciation of the surname) some English branches removed the 's' from the end of the surname, producing 'Lyon'.[4] For example, the 16th century Lord Mayor of London Sir John Lyon used the spelling 'Lyon',[5] despite that his father, Thomas Lyons [sic] of Perivale, used the spelling 'Lyons'.[6]

Warkworth Northamptonshire Line

In 1066, Ingelram de Lyons The Elder arrived in England with the Norman Conquest to fight at the Battle of Hastings, after which he was granted lands in Corsham and Culington.[4] He is listed as a companion of William the Conqueror in the Battle Abbey Roll.[7] His son Nicholas de Lyons, who with his son Sir John de Lyons[8] emigrated from Normandy to England in 1080, was granted lands at Warkworth, Northamptonshire, by William the Conqueror.[9] Nicholas's grandson, who was also named John (b. 1100), travelled to the Holy Land.[8]

Nicholas de Lyons's descendants subsequently bought Warkworth Castle, Northamptonshire, which was the English seat of the Lyons family until 1412. It was a castellated mansion that consisted of a body with two wings, forming three sides of a quadrangle, with a large gatehouse and semi-circular towers.[10][8] It was converted into a spectacular house by subsequent owners, during the Jacobean period, but was demolished c.1805.[4][10]

Some amateur genealogies incorrectly state that the seat of the Lyons was Warkworth Castle in Northumberland: this is incorrect, Warkworth Castle in Northumberland belonged to the Percy family. The English seat of the Lyons family was the identically named Warkworth Castle in Northamptonshire.[10][11][8]

Notable members of the Warkworth family include Sir John de Lyons (c. 1268–1313) and his son Sir John de Lyons (c. 1289-1371), who was Lord of Warkworth in 1322 and fought at the Battle of Crecy and the Battle of Poitiers, both of whom are interred in tombs with effigies at the Church of St. Mary, Warkworth, Northamptonshire. Other notable members of the Warkworth family were William Lyons, Governor of Bordeaux during the reign of Henry V of England (c. 1420),[12] and Sir Richard Lyons, Governor of Calais during the reign of Henry VIII.[12] Elizabeth, the daughter and heir of the aforementioned Sir John Lyons (d. c. 1371),[11] married Sir John Chetwode,[13] to whom the Lyons estate at Warkworth passed when she died without male siblings, after which Chetwode adopted the older Lyons coat-of-arms and the title 'Lord of Warkworth'.[14]

Alleged Scottish Line

It dubiously has been asserted that Sir John Lyon (1289–1348), Baron of Forteviot, Forgandenny, and Drumgawan (whose ancestors emigrated to Scotland the end of the eleventh century, in the retinue of Edgar, to fight against Donald Bane, and were granted lands in Perthshire that were later called Glen Lyon)[15][16][17] was a descendant of the Norman family.[16][17][15]

His son was Sir John Lyon, Thane of Glamis (1340–1382), who married a daughter of Robert II of Scotland, for whom he served as Chamberlain of Scotland: this Sir John Lyon was known as 'The White Lyon' due to his pale complexion.[15]

However, the usually reliable genealogist Sir Iain Moncreiffe stated that the Scottish Clan Lyon were of Celtic, not Norman, origin and that they were descended from a younger son of the Clan Lamont, not from this nor any French family.[15]

Irish Protestant Ascendancy

The grandson of Sir Richard Lyons, Governor of Calais during the reign of Henry VIII, was Captain William Lyons,[12] who was a Huguenot supporter of Henry of Navarre, and who fled to England after the Massacre of St. Bartholomew in 1572,[12] entered the army of Elizabeth I, and, in 1599, commanded a company of cavalry, under the Earl of Essex, in the Tudor conquest of Ireland.[12] William was consequently granted the estate of Clonarrow, subsequently known as River Lyons,[18] in King's County, the transfer of which to him occurred in 1622,[12] after which his family settled in Ireland.[12][19] William also bought the lands of Mullalough, Casement, Killeen, and Killowen, together constituting over 3000 acres, in the same County.[20]

The Irish seat of the Protestant Lyons family was Ledestown/Ledistown Hall, Mullingar, County Westmeath.[19][20] Several members of the Irish family served as High Sheriff of Westmeath and High Sheriff of King’s County during the 17th and 18th centuries.[18]

Major John Charles Lyons JP DL (1792 - 1874) was the son of Charles John Lyons and Mary Anne Levinge, and the grandson of John Lyons, who was High Sheriff of Westmeath in 1778.[19] He was High Sheriff of Westmeath in 1816,[21] and his son Charles Lyons JP DL was later High Sheriff of Westmeath.[18]

Antigua and Hampshire Line

Major Henry Lyons was the grandson of Captain William Lyons of River Lyons (d. 1633) and Margaret, who was the daughter of Sir Thomas Moore of Crogham.[18] He married Lady Anne Rochfort who was the sister of the 1st Earl of Belvedere, and emigrated from River Lyons, King's County, Ireland and Ledestown/Ledistown Hall, County Westmeath, to the 563 acre Lyons estate of sugar plantations in Antigua that had been founded by Major John Lyons of Westmeath.[18] Henry served as a member of the Council of Antigua in 1710. His son and grandson and great-grandson served as members of the Council of Antigua.[18]

The great-grandson of Henry Lyons was Captain John Lyons (1760 - 1816) who, as the eldest of 11 children, inherited the 563 acre Lyons estate of sugar plantations in Antigua. He was sworn in as a member of the Council of Antigua in 1782. He married Catherine Walrond, who was the daughter of the 5th Marquis de Vallado and of the same's wife Sarah Lyons (1731-1764),[18] by whom he had 15 children, including Vice-Admiral John Lyons, who fought on HMS Victory at Battle of Trafalgar, and Admiral Edmund Lyons, 1st Baron Lyons, who led the Royal Navy to victory during the Crimean War and served as Ambassador to Sweden, and to Switzerland, and to the court of King Otto of Greece. Three of his descendants attained the rank of Admiral[22] and five others were senior officers[18][23][24] within the Royal Navy during the 19th-century peak of Britain's imperial power.

Captain John Lyons's grandchildren included Richard Lyons, 1st Viscount Lyons, who was Queen Victoria's favourite diplomat, who served as British Ambassador to the United States during the American Civil War, during which he resolved the Trent Affair, and as British Ambassador to France, and who founded a "Lyons School" of British international diplomacy.[25] Captain John Lyons's grandchildren also included Augusta Minna Lyons, Duchess of Norfolk and Sir Algernon Lyons, Admiral of the Fleet.[18]

Middlesex Line

Sir John Lyon (b.1353) owned lands in Middlesex in addition to lands in Norfolk and Suffolk. Sir Henry Lyon (b. 1355) moved to Middlesex.[8] From the this English line of the Lyons family descended[6][5] Sir John Lyon or Lyons (1514-1564), who was Lord Mayor of London from 1554 to 1555,[26][27] and the yeoman landowner John Lyon (d.1592), who was the founder of Harrow School,,[5][28][29] after whom The John Lyon School, The John Lyon's Charity, and a Harrow School house, Lyon's,[29] are named.[28][30]

The Middlesex line owned substantial estates at Harrow-on-the-Hill[5][30][31] where John Lyon (d.1592) resided at Preston Hall in Harrow, Middlesex, and, in 1564, had the largest land-rental income in Harrow.[5] There are memorials to this John Lyon (d. 1592) and his wife, Joan Lyon, at St Mary's, Harrow on the Hill.

American Emigrants

During the 17th century members of the English family emigrated to New England.[4][8] William Lyon (1620 -1692) was the first Lyon to emigrate to America, in September 1635.[4][8]

Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon, the first Union General to be killed in the American Civil War, was a descendant of the family's emigrants to New England.[32][33] He received the Thanks of Congress[32] and 15,000 people attended his funeral.[32] The 24th Missouri Volunteer Infantry was recruited as "The Lyon Legion" in his honour, and carried a unique regimental colour that depicted a lion beneath a constellation of six stars.[32]

Lyon County, Iowa, Lyon County, Kansas, Lyon County, Minnesota, Lyon County, Nevada, and the Lyons valley in Jamul, California, are named after him.[32][34] Fort Lyon in Colorado, Fort Lyon in Virginia, Lyon Park in St. Louis, Missouri, Lyon Street in San Francisco, and Lyon Lane in Carson City, Nevada, are also named after him.[32]

Notable members

Norman Emigrants

Warkworth Northamptonshire Line

Middlesex Line (Descended from Warkworth Northamptonshire Line)

Irish Protestant Ascendancy and Antiguan Immigrants

American Immigrants

References

  1. ↑ Base Mérimée: Château fort, Ministère français de la Culture. (in French)
  2. ↑ Judith A. Green Henry I: King of England and Duke of Normandy, Cambridge University Press, 2006. The introduction is online: "Introduction: A surfeit of lampreys"
  3. ↑ Office de Tourisme du Pays de Lyons-la-Forêt: Le pays de Lyons à travers l'histoire Archived 23 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine. This site also contains further historical detail concerning the castle and its royal connections. (in French)
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Miller, Robert, ed. (1907). The Lyon Memorial: New York Families Descended from the Immigrant, Thomas Lyon of Rye. Press William Graham Printing Co.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Hunt, William. Entry for Lyon, John (1514? - 1592), in Dictionary of National Biography, 1885 - 1900, Volume 34.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 "Entries for John Lyon (1514 - 1564), All About History Online".
  7. ↑ Powlett, Catherine Lucy Wilhelmina (1889). The Battle Abbey Roll: With Some Account of the Norman Lineages. J. Murray. p. 216.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 Hewitt, Michael (2014). A Most Remarkable Family: A History of the Lyon Family from 1066 to 2014. AuthorHouse.
  9. ↑ Charles Manners, Duke of Rutland, John James Robert Manners, Duke of Rutland, Sir H. C. Maxwell Lyte, Richard Ward, Esq. Robert Campbell, John Horace Round (1894). The Manuscripts of His Grace the Duke of Rutland. H.M. Stationery Office. pp. 174–175.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Pevsner, Nikolaus. The Buildings of England: Northamptonshire (2nd edition, revised by Cherry, Bridget. Yale University Press. p. 444.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Rutherford-Edge, Shana. "The Ancient and Noble Seat: The History of the Villages of Overthorpe and Warkworth in Northamptonshire" (PDF). pp. 11–23.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 12.5 12.6 Lyons, John Charles, JP DP, of Ledestown (1853). Grand Juries of Westmeath, 1727–1853. Ledestown Press.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  13. ↑ Kimberley, E.; Johnson, R. (1771). The Baronetage of England, Vol. 2. G. Woodhall. p. 536.
  14. ↑ "History of Parliament Online: Sir John Chetwode".
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 Way, George and Squire, Romily. Collins Scottish Clan & Family Encyclopedia. (Foreword by The Rt Hon. The Earl of Elgin KT, Convenor, The Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs). Published in 1994. Pages 202 - 203.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Ross, Andrew (1901). The Lyons of Cossins and Wester Ogil. Edinburgh: G. Waterston & Sons. pp. 4–8.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Herald, Ross (1911). "Lyon, Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne". Scotts Peerage: 1.
  18. ↑ 18.00 18.01 18.02 18.03 18.04 18.05 18.06 18.07 18.08 18.09 Langford Vere, Oliver. History of the Island of Antigua, Vol. 2. Mitchell and Hughes, London, 1894. pp. 214–217.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 Reynell, William Alexander. Entry for Lyons, John Charles (1792 - 1874) in Dictionary of National Biography, 1885 - 1900, Vol. 34.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Woods, James (1907). Annals of Westmeath, Ancient and Modern. Sealy, Bryers, and Walker. p. 68.
  21. ↑ Walford, E. (1882). The County Families of the United Kingdom. p. 405.
  22. ↑ South Wales, Historical, Biographical, And Pictorial, Allan North, London, 1908
  23. ↑ "Entry for 5 March 1918". Naval History. Retrieved 7 October 2020.
  24. ↑ "Entry for Algernon Edmund Penrice Lyons, The Dreadnought Project". The Dreadnought Project. Retrieved 14 June 2021.
  25. ↑ Jenkins, Brian. Lord Lyons: A Diplomat in an Age of Nationalism and War. McGill-Queen's Press, 2014.
  26. ↑ A.B. Beavan, The Aldermen of the City of London Temp. Henry III to 1912 (Corporation of the City of London, 1913), II, p. 32 (Internet Archive).
  27. ↑ Thornbury, Walter. "The Temple: Church and Precinct (Part 3 of 3)". British History Online.
  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 "John Lyon's Charity: History".
  29. ↑ 29.0 29.1 Tyerman, Christopher (2000). A History of Harrow School. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-822796-5.
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 Cockburn, J. S.; King, H. P. F.; McDonnell, K. G. T., eds. (1969). "Schools: Harrow School". A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 1, Physique, Archaeology, Domesday, Ecclesiastical Organization, the Jews, Religious Houses, Education of Working Classes To 1870, Private Education From Sixteenth Century. London: Victoria County History. pp. 299–302 – via British History Online.
  31. ↑ "'Harrow, including Pinner: Other estates', in A History of the County of Middlesex, Vol. 4 [...], (ed. T. F. T. Baker, J. S. Cockburn, and R. B. Pugh". British History Online. pp. 211–218.
  32. ↑ 32.0 32.1 32.2 32.3 32.4 32.5 Hewitt, Michael (2014). A Most Remarkable Family: A History of the Lyon Family from 1066 to 2014. AuthorHouse. p. 163.
  33. ↑ Hewitt, Michael (2014). A Most Remarkable Family: A History of the Lyon Family from 1066 to 2014. AuthorHouse. p. 154.
  34. ↑ Gannett, Henry (1905). The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 193.
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