Thomas# Blanchard

  Notes:

Info from Blanchard Family History Society newsletter, supplied by Charles. This has him as Blancher, but also has others as Blancher who appear as Blanchard on familysearch, so I'm assuming he should also be Blanchard.

Later found marriage record, and this also says Blancher. Hhhhmmm.

From http://www.blanshard.org/origins.htm
INTRODUCTION
Some of you may remember an article in Volume 1 Issue 2 of AdversariA, entitled "Origins of our Name". In that article it was postulated that the name 'Blanchard' could have had a spontaneous origin in this country, as it did on mainland Europe, purely as a personal name, meaning one who had a white beard, or wore white clothes, or one who rode a white horse.
One of the foundations on which this hypothesis was founded, was the fact that in no published lists of the companions of William the Conqueror does the name appear, and it was theorised that perhaps the personal name 'Blanchard', for that is what it is, was bestowed on, or taken by, a vassal of a Norman Lord.
However, since then, further medieval research has shown that the name was almost certainly introduced into England during and subsequent to the Norman invasion. So what have we found?
DOMESDAY BOOK
In the Domesday Book, for Lincolnshire, we are told that Blancard (forename not given), who is described as 'Roger of Poitou's man', was granted land in Laughton, Audleby, and Nettleton.
It is possible that Robert Blancard, the monk, and the Blancard who was granted lands in Lincolnshire, were related. We may never know the truth of this, as all available records in English repositories for this period have been published, and no further references are available. However, it is possible that records may exist in France which may shed light on Robert Blancard, monk of Marmoutier, and Blancard, Roger of Poitou's man.
So who was Roger of Poitou? The Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, Volume 4, page 402, provides notes on the Domesday Tenants of Yorkshire, and provides a biographical sketch of Roger of Poitou, nicknamed Rogerius Pictavensis.
He was the younger son of Roger de Montgomery, the powerful Earl of Shrewsbury, by the notorious countess Mabel, heiress of Alençon (is this the same as Allazun below?). Robert, count of Mortain and Earl of Cornwall, the Conqueror's half-brother, was the husband of his sister Matilda. Roger was indeed powerful himself. He owned very large territories in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Essex and Suffolk, and almost all of what is now Lancashire.
END OF THE ESTATES IN LINCOLNSHIRE
After the Chronicle of Battel Abbey and the Domesday Book, the next reference we have is a Sixle Priory Charter of 1177, in which Richard Blaunchard of Nettleton and his wife, Agnes, give land to the Priory. From this point forward there are many Blanchard/Blaunchard references in the Laughton and Nettleton areas of Lincolnshire.
The Blanchard family of Laughton, Audleby, Nettleton, and Clixby were very prosperous, judging by the amount of land they were able to donate to various new Abbeys, Monasteries, Convents and Priories in Lincolnshire.
However, before 1280, William Blaunchard of Laughton died, the last in the male line of the owners of the main estates in Lincolnshire. His sister and heir, Matilda (sometimes referred to as Maud) widow of John de Allazun, was then wife of Ralph de Carrum. " John de Allazun, or Dallison, her son, succeeded to Laughton, Nettleton and Clixby, and was the ancestor of that family greatly advanced by this match ", ('Notes on the Visitation of Lincolnshire'). In these notes, the author speculates that the arms of the Dallinsons were originally those of the Blanchards, Gules 3 crescents azure. These arms can still be seen in Laughton church on the sarcophagus of William Dallinson, and on a funeral hatchment there. This is interesting, as several Blanchard families in France used the 3 crescents on their Coats of Arms (see the Heraldry section of this site). If any document signed and sealed by a Blanchard, prior to 1280, bears 3 crescents on the seal, then this hypothesis could well be proven.
A VIGOROUS BRANCH
Although the main land-owning branch of the Blanchard family had died out, other branches continued to flourish in this part of Lincolnshire, and had enough land to be still seen in various deeds and charters for more than 200 years afterwards.
The author of the supplementary notes to the Visitation of Yorkshire goes on to say that, " A vigorous branch of this family seems to have crossed the Humber and settled along the Derwent, all probably descended from Adam Blanchard of North Duffield, 1379 ."

Thomas# married Mary# Johnson on 13 Jan 1695 in Middle Rasen (Drakes), Lincs.