[Illustration] 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.+