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Mans is often Dutch, Manns often German.
However, there were several people from Le Mans in France who settled in Hereford, England, and district, in the late 1100s, when the Plantagenet kings were fortifying the English/Welsh borderlands against the Welsh. Le Mans was in the French province of Maine, and figured prominently in English history at that time. Simon de Mans was lord of the manor of a place in nearby Worcestershire. His son Walter de Mans held land in Gloucester, in the same general area, but the lordship of the manor passed to a relative by marriage on Walter's son's death.
Some of these people from the 1100s and 1200s - Simon, William, Walter, Richard, and Matthew de Mans or de Mauns - are searchable on Google. Two (Simon and Matthew)were knights. It helps on Google to put the entire name you want to search between quotation marks.
The surname Mansel is also a person from Le Mans.
This origin for Mans/Manns shows we can't always rely on surname books. Often they just repeat each other!

This message was edited by the author on December 9, 2007 at 6:24:24 AM