Late 14th century effigy of a knight in All Saints Church, Poyntington, possibly of Edmund Cheney (died 1374/83)Arms of Cheyne/Cheney: Gules, four fusils in fess argent on each an escallop sable
The Cheney family (alias Cheyney, Cheyne, etc.) Latinized to de Caineto, possibly from the French chêne, an oak-tree, was an ancient family, branches of which were scattered throughout southern England, from Kent to Cornwall, and in the Midlands. Their name survives attached to several of their former manors. The family which inherited Brook was seated at Upottery in Devon from the time of King Henry III (1216-1272).
He married a certain Katherine (d.1422), step-mother of the Devonshire heiress Cecily Stretche (c. 1371 – 1430), the wife of his nephew Sir William Cheyne (1374-1420) of Brook, MP for Dorset in 1402, and younger daughter and co-heiress of Sir John Stretch, of Pinhoe and Hempston Arundel in Devon, three times MP for Devon. The marriage was without progeny.
He had at least one daughter, Ann Cheney, who was coheir of his holdings. She was the wife of Sir John Willoughby, Knight.
Death and succession
He died in 1374 or 1383, leaving as his heir his younger half-brother Sir Ralph Cheyne of Brook. His daughter, Ann Willoughby, was coheir.
References
↑Gerard, Thomas, The Particular Description of the County of Somerset, Vol. 15, London, 1900, pp. 168–9 Archived 2016-04-21 at the Wayback Machine
↑Woodger, who states that his younger half-brother and heir Ralph Cheyne inherited "some thime between 1374 and 1383"
↑Constituency unknown, his entry in the on-line edition of History of Parliament has "not been entered yet". His name is shown as a blue link (indicating he was an MP), in the HoP biography of his nephew Sir William Cheyne (d.1420)
↑Rogers, Strife of the Roses; Pole, Sir William (d.1635), Collections Towards a Description of the County of Devon, Sir John-William de la Pole (ed.), London, 1791, p.126, complete descent of Cheney of Upotery
↑Woodger, L. S., biography of Cheyne, Sir Ralph (c. 1337 – 1400), of Brooke in Westbury, Wilts., published in History of Parliament: House of Commons 1386-1421, ed. J.S. Roskell, L. Clark, C. Rawcliffe., 1993
↑Joseph Edmondson, An Historical and Genealogical Account of the Noble Family of Greville: To the Time of Francis, the Present Earl Brooke, and Earl of Warwick: Including the History and Succession of the Several Earls of Warwick Since the Norman Conquest; and Some Account of Warwick Castle (London: [s.n.], 1766), 68. https://archive.org/details/historicalgeneal00edmo/page/68/mode/2up.
↑Woodger, who states that his younger half-brother and heir Ralph Cheyne inherited "some thime between 1374 and 1383"
↑Joseph Edmondson, An Historical and Genealogical Account of the Noble Family of Greville: To the Time of Francis, the Present Earl Brooke, and Earl of Warwick: Including the History and Succession of the Several Earls of Warwick Since the Norman Conquest; and Some Account of Warwick Castle (London: [s.n.], 1766), 68. https://archive.org/details/historicalgeneal00edmo/page/68/mode/2up.