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A Y-DNA project for males bearing the surname Dawtry/Dawtrey/Dealtry/Daltry/Daughtry/Dautry or similar, I am also looking at the surname Paisnel/Paisnel/Paganel owing to charters dating back to the early 1100s in Yorkshire which show various members of the de Alta Ripa family bearing witness to them for the Paynel family. Charters were closely guarded, and witnesses were usually members of that family, either directly, or through marriage to a female of that family.  Both families can  be found mentioned in Norman chronicles from France before the Norman conquest in 1066.  The family of Paisnel/Paisnel were the Seigneurs of Hauterive in Orne before 1066, this place was previously held by the family of Giroie, and the inheritance seems to have at some point then fallen to the Paynels . The Dawtry family were known as de Hauterive, with de Alta Ripa being the Latin form of this title. One Fulcho de Alta Ripa is the earliest recorded Dawtry found in Normandy, he was an officer of the house of Bellame and born around 980. This link on historic Branham reveals that a William Paynel de Alta Ripa held knights fees in Yorkshire in 1172, he also had land in Pace Normandy. This William is most likely one and the same as William de Alta Ripa who founded Gokewell Priory. He may well have been have been part of the larger Paynel family :-  (see page 42)

 http://www.historicbramham.org.uk/archive-images/26/26-g/26-G%20Extracts%20from%20Early%20Yorkshire%20Charters%20Vol%201.pdf

Norman Gentry and Noble families under feudal society held one or more Manors from an overlord, who himself held directly from the Duke of Normandy, the Sovereign. Such families took their surnames from the principal Manor on which they resided, and which formed their seat.


The coat of arms born by the Sussex and Yorkshire Dawtrys appear to be the same as those of Walter de Perci C1089.  One set of arms for our family in Craven, Yorkshire shows a red bend across the Fussils running from the top left corner to the bottom right of the shield.  This bend is possibly connected to the Paynels, as it appears on the arms of other families who married daughters of that line,  for example Robert de Brus who married Agnes de Paynel .  The Dawtrey arms below were silver diamonds (Fussils) on a blue background, and belonged to the Petworth, Sussex branch of the family. This image is taken from their tomb in Petworth church.  The sons of this original William de Percy all carried the same coat of arms, the five fussils en fesse, but with different different tinctures for each son. The Perci arms are said to be an ancient coat of arms from Flanders .




                                             
   
 
                                                 
The Hawtrey (de Hauterive)  coat of arms depicted in a stained glass window at Chequers, shows Four lions Passant guardant on a cotticed bend. The colours of these arms were Black on silver with gold Lions. These could have been a later set of arms adopted by a cadet branch of the family. See a Visitation of Britain, Buckinghamshire 1566.   They are unlike any other arms found for Dawtry/Dealtry . Some say these were the original arms, but they remain a mystery at this point in writing.