The surname Champney is from the French chap(field) and ey (water); the wet Country. The surname Champney is derived from the ancient district of Champagne. Sir Henry Champney was in the train of William the Conqueror. It is on the list of the Conquerors of England as derived from a Charter in Battle Abbey. The Sieurde Champney is mentioned by Playfair as a younger son of the noble family of de Champnes in Normandy. From him descended the eminent Somersetshire house of Champneys of Orchardleigh, the last male representative of which the late Sir Thomas S. Mostyn Champneys Bart was the last. A branch of this line fixed its residence at Ostenhanger in Kent. The 1623 Visitation of Somerset lists Peter, John, William, George, Margaret, and Thomasine as the youngest generation descended from Henry Champneys.

John Champney is said to be a descendant of Sir Henry Champney. John may have been from Lincolnshire, as his brother Richard is said to have come from there. He married a woman named Joanna, last name unknown . Together they had the following children; Mary (abt 1635-1704) who married Theophilus Richardson, Sarah (-1696) who married Rev. John Russell Jr. of Woburn, a Baptist minister, and John who died on Feb. 20, 1665, and was unmarried. His estate was left to his mother and sisters.

John and his family emigrated to the New World in 1635. They were members of the Cambridge Church. Mary, Sarah, and John were all baptized in Cambridge. In the 1635 Cambridge inventory, Champney was shown to have owned a house in the "west end". In 1638 he was granted five acres "on the north side of the path to Charlestown". He also owned two other grants of seven acres each. In 1639 the Cambridge inventory showed that John owned four parcels of land. One of the parcels was purchased from Edmond Frost while two others from Richard Champnes.

John died before 1642. He died without making a will for on October 16, 1650 the General Court authorized "upon the request of Richard Champnyes & Goulden Moore, & Joane, his wife, the relict of John Champnyes, deceased, for power to dispose, by way of sale, of a certain house & lands, left her by her late husband, it is ordered, that power be hereby given to Richard Champnyes & John Bridge, of Cambridge, to make sale of the said house & lands mentioned in their petition, provided that they give cautiuon to the County Court of that shire to dispose of it to use & behoof of the woman and her children, according to the intent of John Champnyes, deceased."

Joanna, his widow married Golden Moore. She died Feb. 18, 1675 at Billerica.