The Aguillon family, of French origin, were feudal landowners in England who held estates in several southern counties from before 1135 to 1312. Surviving records suggest various branches which all ended without male heirs, the lands going to daughters or sisters and their husbands. The family seems to have been initially associated, perhaps as under-tenants and maybe through marriage, with the Marmion family, witnessing charters alongside them in Normandy in 1106 and later occupying their land in England.
The English branches may spring from William Aguillon (died after 1147), a descendant of the viscounts of Chaumont, who was seigneur of Trie near the French border with Normandy around 1119 and died on the Second Crusade. He married Margaret of Gisors and their son and heir was Enguerrand (died about 1196). Manser may have been a younger son.
In England, family members can be found in four apparent groups but establishing definite connections between the four groups may be impossible.
Aguillons in West Sussex and Hampshire
Manser (died after 1172), who before 1135 received two knight's fees in the honour of Arundel. and held a knight's fee from Robert Marmion of Tamworth in 1167. In 1172 he was liable by knight-service for castle-guard at Falaise. He had one known son and may have had two others: Robert I inherited lands in West Sussex William I Richard I Robert I (died before 1195), son of Manser, in 1180 paid 15 marks to have seisin of Nutbourne in West Sussex and for leave to come to an agreement with his unnamed brother, who may have been William I.
William I (died before 1226), possibly another son of Manser, in 1195 was claiming a knight's fee in Nutbourne against a later Manser and a Richard, He married Mary, daughter of Eustace de Valle Pironis, an otherwise unknown family name, and their sons were: Reginald probably, John. It may be this John who in 1221 had land at Maltby in Lincolnshire, or else it was his contemporary, the son of Richard I and Margery. Reginald I (died before 1240), son of William I and Mary, from 1220 to 1226 was bailiff of the honour of Arundel, being ordered by King Henry III in 1225 to arrest all ships carrying corn in various Sussex ports. In 1223 he bought land in Offham and in 1227 was given the manor of Up Marden by his mother, who had inherited it from her father. By 1240 his lands had been divided between his four daughters: Mary, who married William Covert Cecily, who married Peter Gatesden and later gave her part to the Knights Hospitaller Godeheut, who married Ralph St Owen Alice, who married first William Russell and secondly Robert Hackett. Richard I (died after 1228), possibly another son of Manser and possibly the Richard who asserted his right to a knight's fee in Nutbourne in 1206, married Margery, daughter of William Thorney, lord of Thorney, and his wife Mabel. Their sons were; William II John, whose daughter and heiress Sarah married William Whateman.
William II (died after 1242), son of Richard I and Margery, before 1215 acquired the manor of Warblington which, together with lands in Emsworth, was confirmed to him in 1230. In 1242 he held three fees in Nutbourne, Up Marden, and Burpham and one-third of West Thorney. His son was: Richard II. Richard II (died before 1308), son of William II, married Eleanor, who in 1308 held the three fees of Nutbourne, Up Marden and Burpham as his widow. She died before 1312, leaving them to her granddaughter Juliana, daughter of her deceased son Thomas, who herself died in 1312.
William III (died before 1308), possibly a childless younger son of William II, in 1259 was made Keeper of Guildford Castle and was Sheriff of Surrey in 1261. In 1265 he had one-third of the advowson of West Thorney and in 1278 he held half the manor of Nutbourne.