CHAMPNOIES, Justinian (c.1562-1622), of Wrotham, Kent.

Champnoies was the grandson of Sir John Champnoies, a former lord mayor of London, who built Hall Place in Bexley, which passed on Sir John’s death to his youngest son, Champnoies’ father. He, in turn, left it by will in 1596 to his youngest son, a child of his second marriage, whom he declared to be ‘both by the law of God and of this realm my son and heir’. Champnoies himself received only a £30 annuity.

It is not clear how Champnoies came to know the 3rd Earl of Huntingdon, who was the borough patron of Christchurch and must have been responsible for his return to Parliament in 1589. Possibly his father’s executor and influential friend (Sir) Thomas Walsingham was the connecting link.

Champnoies made his will at Wrotham on 2 Apr. 1621, leaving £100, his house and some other property to his wife, with remainder to his eldest son John. After minor bequests to his younger children and to his ‘loving brother’ Richard, who had inherited the family property, he appointed his wife, his eldest son and his most faithful friend Thomas Comfort, as executors, and his wife’s relatives, John and Sir Robert Darell, as overseers. He died nearly a year later and was buried on 2 Mar. 1622 at Wrotham. His widow married Richard Camden of London.

W. Berry, Co. Geneaologies, Kent, 40; Registrum Roffense, ed. Thorpe, 924-5; Arch. Cant. lxxi. 153-61; PCC 87 Drake, 38 Savile.