The De Lancies were decreed to belong to the ancient nobility of France in the fourteenth century. Under Louis do Bourbon, Bishop and Duke of Laon, they held the hereditary fief of the Four banier of Laval ;•* they were also the lords of other lands, such as Rarai, Nouvian, D'Haramont, Ribecoupt, Pimpre, St. Germain et Ruy, and hereditary castellans of the castle and domains of Bothizv and Verberie.^

* The French members of this family spelt the last syllable of the surname with an i, in place of the ey.

b This fief was probably holden by the feudal service of the banner or lance -- hence the surname De Lanci. The ancient coat armor (borne by the Huguenot in 1687) was a shield of gold, bearing thereon a black eagle with its wings expanded, charged upon the breast with a blue escutcheon, containing three lances in pale. This coat was subsequently changed by the second English branch.

« L'armorial general d'France ; 2d Register, 2 vol. : King's Library, Paris. In front of the altar at the Church of Verberie, (department of Oise, France,) ther^ is a tombstone erected to a member of this family, inscribed

D. O. M.

Ici repose

Haute et puissante Dame

Madame FRANqoisE de Lanci Rarai, dame

des Terres et Seigneuries, d'Haramont, Ribecoupt,

Pimpre, St. Germain et Ruy, en partie Chatelaine

Hereditaire et engagiste des Domaines de Bothizy

et Verberie, possides par ses peres depuis plus

decent aus veuve de Messire Barth61emi de

Vol. 1. 38