The Champion de Crespigny family originated in
Normandy,
France. The name Crespigny is probably related to
Saint Crispin. The second part of the placename, igny, is common in the northwest of France: there are four places called simply Igny and many which include it in their name. It may be derived from the Latin ignis "fire," with the extended meaning of a hearth-fire and hence a place of settlement. On this basis, Crespigny first acquired its name as a settlement containing a church, a chapel or some form of a shrine to Saint Crispin. Claude Champion de Crespigny (1620–1697) settled in
England after the revocation of the
Edict of Nantes and his sons served in the
British Army. The title became extinct on the death of the eighth Baronet in 1952. The 8th and last member was Sir Vivian Tyrell de Crespigny, OBE (25 April 1907 – 3 March 1952), who married Helen in 1930 and had a daughter Fleur (later Horley) in 1937, divorced and married Monica Fleming; Helen married one Whitehead. Both couples divorced and De Crespigny and Helen Whitehead remarried in 1947. They divorced in 1951 and he died the following year of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. In 1775, Crespigny House was built for the first Baronet in
Aldeburgh,
Suffolk, where his brother,
Philip Champion de Crespigny (1738–1803), was the
member of parliament from 1780 to 1790. The family also lived at
Champion Lodge in
Camberwell,
London, which was built in 1715 and demolished in 1841, and later at Champion Lodge in
Maldon,
Essex. ==Champion de Crespigny baronets, of Champion Lodge (1805)==