THE DELAFORCE FAMILY HISTORY RESEARCH by Patrick Delaforce & Ken Baldry THE DELAFORCE FAMILY HISTORY RESEARCH by Patrick Delaforce & Ken Baldry This is a book designed and produced to interest and encourage readers to delve back into the centuries in search of their ancestry. Interest in Family History research has grown considerably and is now widespread. A hundred regional Family History Societies cover the U.K. with a total membership of over 50,000 families. Another hundred societies are to be found in America, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, with over 1,000,000 families as members. The romantic story of the Delaforces over the last sixteen hundred years has been carefully researched. Step by step the reader is shown how the research was accomplished using dozens of different sources. Genealogy is the construction of a family tree, but Family History research puts flesh on the bare bones. Delaforces were diplomats and fishmongers, Kings’ men and silk weavers, Secret Agents and wine shippers, French Huguenots and pawnbrokers. In earlier years, they were kings and religious leaders. A very detailed chapter lists 500 cross-indexed Sources in the U.K. for the reader and would-be Family Historian. Other chapters bring to life the discovery of American, Australian and Canadian families with appropriate local sources of family history research for readers interested in locating possible relatives in those countries.Many pages of old prints, certificates, wills and photographs illustrate the by-gone centuries. The book jacket cover depicts the dramatic landing of the French Huguenot refugees on the English beaches in 1685. THE DELAFORCE FAMILY HISTORY RESEARCH THE DELAFORCE FAMILY HISTORY RESEARCH Second Edition by Patrick Delaforce & Ken Baldry Copyright © Patrick Delaforce & Ken Baldry 1980-2006 The authors assert their moral rights under the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988 First edition part one published by the Regency Press (London & New York) Ltd This edition 2.1 published by Art & Science Ltd 2006 Contents Introduction to the First Edition 1 Introduction to the Second Edition 3 Part One - Certainties Chapter 1 - The Port Wine Shippers 9 Chapter 2 - The Fishmongers of London - the Delforce family 14 Chapter 3 - 19th & 20th Century Families 17 Chapter 4 - The Dullforces 22 Chapter 5 - 18th Century English Families 27 Chapter 6 - The Delaforces and Delforces in Australia 32 Chapter 7 - The Canadian Family 39 Chapter 8 - "Le beau Chevalier, the Card and the Philanthropist" 42 Chapter 9 - A short history of Pawn Broking 47 Chapter 10 - The Delaforces in 17th Century London 50 Chapter 11 - The Money Men and the London Guilds and Trades 53 Chapter 12 - The Silkweavers of London 57 Chapter 13 - The 16th century Huguenot families in London - first arrivals 67 Chapter 14 - The Reformation 71 Chapter 15 - The Huguenots at Bay 74 Chapter 16 - The London Churches and the Threadneedle Street Capers 78 Chapter 17 - The Guisne' Delaforces 83 Chapter 18 - The American Families 85 Chapter 19 - The Caumonts 91 Chapter 20 - The Secret Agents 93 Chapter 21 - James and the Queens of Scotland & England 97 Chapter 22 - King Henry VIII's troubleshooter - John 101 Chapter 23 - Sir Anthony de La Force and Perkin Warbeck, the Pretender 104 Chapter 24 - Sir Bernard - Ambassador for Four English Kings 108 Chapter 25 - The Gascon Lord and the Battle of Barnett 113 Part Two - The Age of Uncertainty Chapter 26 - What the French historians say about the Delaforce family 117 Chapter 27 - The Hundred Years War 121 Chapter 28 - Fourcès 129 Chapter 29 - The family in the Auvergne 132 Chapter 30 - La Force 136 Chapter 31 - The Bordeaux wine growers 138 Chapter 32 - The Gascon merchants in London - 13th century 141 Chapter 33 - The Gironde and Gascony in the 12th and 13th centuries 144 Chapter 34 - The Prelates 149 Chapter 35 - The Poitevins, Battle of Hastings and Domesday Book 152 Chapter 36 - King John and William - the Feudal Adventurer 157 Chapter 37 - Richard, Coeur de Lion’s friend - William 160 Chapter 38 - The Mysterious Earls of Albermarle and the Conqueror’s Family 163 Chapter 39 - The Fezensacs and Armagnacs 171 Chapter 40 - The Princes of Verdun 176 Part Three - The History Book Chapter 41 - The consequences of Bernard de la Force 185 Chapter 42 - Fortun & Aurea 188 Chapter 43 - Early Goths 190 Chapter 44 - Later Goths 196 Chapter 45 - Gothic triumph & disaster 200 Chapter 46 - Early Franks 204 Chapter 47 - The Girls & later Merovingians 208 Chapter 48 - Early Gascony 211 Chapter 49 - Charlemagne 216 Chapter 50 - Later Gascons 220 Chapter 51 - The Kings of Navarre 224 Chapter 52 - The Delaforce Outrageous Claim 230 Appendices Appendix I - Genealogical Sources in the UK 233 Appendix II - French Sources of Genealogy & Family History 256 Appendix III - Latin Chartes 262 Appendix IV - Whatever happened to Gersinde? 265 Appendix V - American trees from Matthew 273 Appendix VI - Our Straight Lines 280 Appendix VII - Luther’s 95 Theses 283 Appendix VIII - The Edict of Nantes 289 Appendix IX - Revocation of the Edict of Nantes 292 Appendix X - The Family Tree of Bernard de la Force 294 Introduction to the First Edition by Patrick Delaforce Wordsworth 1770-1850 "And they are gone, ages long ago For old unhappy far-off things and battles long ago" This is a true story of Kings and Convicts, Princes and Pawnbrokers, Barons and Silkweavers, Prelates and Tailors, Admirals and Lombardsmen, Goldsmiths and... Spies. It concerns a family called Delaforce. Some of their earlier ancestors - three generations of them - were hung by Charlemagne after the two battles of Roncesvalles in the 8th century. They were directly related to the old Kings of Navarre in the 9th and 10th centuries. They were Princes of Verdun and Savennes (near modern Montauban) in the 10th and 11th centuries. Later on they fought at Hastings, married into the Conqueror's family, appeared in the Domesday Book, were personal friends of Richard Coeur de Lion, King John and other Monarchs. One signed for the Barons at Runnymede, others served personally Mary, Queen of Scots, Queen Elizabeth I, Henry VIII and Richard III. Another sailed in the Mayflower as a member of the crew! Now in the twentieth century they are scattered to the four winds. A few are to be found in London. Others in Portugal, America, Australia and Canada. And the original author lived in France not far away from the feudal princes' stamping ground of a thousand years ago. This book is more than just a history of a small unusual Anglo-French family. It is also a serious work on genealogy and the fascinating art of family history research. It is possible for most families to trace their ancestry back several centuries. it requires time, patience, some luck, a little money, but it most certainly can be done. The author had time, patience, a lot of luck, a little money, and, venturing into the unknown, came up with over a thousand years of well documented family history. Some of the highlights of the history and most of the sources from 1500 are shown in this book. The author discovered new (but old) families of relations in England. Australia, USA and Canada as a direct result of his research. The many sources of data, references and historical facts spanning a thousand years or more are spelt out in detail: in Appendix I for the UK, and in chapters 18 for the USA, 6 for Australia and 7 for Canada. Many of Britain's population derived from the Normans of the 11th century and Huguenots of the 16th and 17th centuries. Many British have emigrated to the USA, Canada and Australia. It is felt that genealogical sources for those countries will be of interest. Most families have a legend lurking in the background perhaps true, perhaps a fantasy! Some of the Delaforces believed that they descended from the illustrious Dukes De La Force who were marshalls and pairs (peers) in France from the moment when King Henri IV (Paris was worth a Mass) ennobled the Caummont family in 1607. They were Huguenots, so were the Delaforces. However it is clear that the Caumont la Forces were not blood relations to the Delaforces, a very old French family deriving from Navarre, Gascony and the Gironde, with the original names of Fources, Forces, Forca etc. The Caumonts acquired the town and chateau of La Force near Bergerac when in 1554 Philippe de Beaupoil de la Force of Perigord, daughter of Francois de Beaupoil, Seigneur de la Force married Francois The Delaforce Family History Research by Patrick Delaforce and Ken Baldry © Patrick Delaforce & Ken Baldry 1980-2006 Page 1 at the time discussed). Chapter 19 is a note about the Caumonts. The author's family has been, and members still are, Port Wine shippers in Oporto, in northern Portugal. For many generations it was a privately owned firm which meant that records were kept and a family tree preserved as far back as 1781. It could be said that a head start of two centuries is a great advantage to a family historian. True - but this family tree concerned an English family living and working mainly in Portugal for that two hundred year period. There was little knowledge available of other Delaforce families living elsewhere. In a sense this has been written as an adventure story. Always round the next corner was a new hero - or a villain - sometimes simultaneously. The Delaforce Family History Research by Patrick Delaforce and Ken Baldry © Patrick Delaforce & Ken Baldry 1980-2006 Page 2 Introduction to the Second Edition by Ken Baldry “They that do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. That which was tragedy the first time will be farce the second” Karl Marx In about 1980, Volume One of Patrick Delaforce’s ‘Family History Research - The French Connection’ was published.