Michael Linton's Bayeux Tapestry: 1066 - A Medieval Mosaic and Puzzles

Delauache :

I first met with this name in the will of Sir Lewis Clifford, dated December 5th, 1404. (See Collins.) "Now first I bequethe to Syre Phylipe la Vache, Knyght, my masse-boke and my portoos,^[149] and my boke of tribulacion to my daughter his wyf." The La Vaches are reputed to have been of Gascon origin; but it is far more likely that they came from Normandy, where the family still existed during the last century. The great assembly of the Norman nobility held in the church of St. Stephen, Caen, for the election of the States-General in 1789, included a De La Vache, Baron de Saussay.

In England Dugdale finds no mention of the De La Vaches earlier than 1272, when they held Shenley-Mansel, in Buckinghamshire. It had come to them by the marriage of Richard de la Vache with Maud, one of the co-heiresses of Thomas le Mansel; and this Richard, who had evidently joined in the Barons' rebellion, "was, under the Dictum de Kenilworth, permitted to redeem Shenley; and then held it in capite as of the Earl of Arundel and Honour of Chester, paying one mark to the King annually."—Lipscomb's Buckinghamshire. In 1279 he acquired a manor in the parish of Aston Clinton, to which he gave its present name of Vaches. His son and heir. Sir Richard, styled of Bigenhull in the parish of Bicester, co. Oxon, was an important personage in the reign of Edward III. He served in 1340 as knight of the shire for Bucks, in 1355 became a Knight of the Garter, and was Constable of the Tower in 1361. He had bought of Hugh Wake in 1360 half the manor of Chalfont St. Giles, and three years later obtained a further part of it, with a grant of free warren in all his demesne lands there. He left an only son, Sir Philip—the husband of Elizabeth Clifford—who was also a Knight of the Garter, Sheriff of Bucks, and represented the county in 1387. With Sir Philip the male line terminated in 1407; and his eldest daughter "carried away many of his possessions to the family of Grey de Wilton." She was twice married, each time to a Lord Grey; her first husband was Richard, Lord Grey de Wilton, who died in 1442; and her second Thomas, Lord Grey of Rugemont. She herself died in 1452. In the county history she is called both Blanche and Margaret, being probably confounded with her sister; for she is said to have had a younger sister (of whom Lipscomb makes no mention) married to one of the Restwold family. Edward Restwold, presumably that sister's grandson, died possessed of the Vache in Chalfont St. Giles in 1547.

I have found incidental notices of several others of the name. Matthew de la Vache was one of the Lords of Barton 9 Ed. II. (Nom. Vill.)—Lysons' Cambridgeshire. John Vache of Haddesdon and Katherine his wife occur in 1358; Simon Vaches in 1402. The last mentioned is Andrew de la Vache, who held part of a knight's fee in Clifton and Newton, Buckinghamshire, and died in 1436. They bore Gules three lions rampant ducally crowned Or.

The De la Vaches are likewise to be met with in Scotland, where they held the lands of Dawick, on Tweedside, during a long series of years, and exchanged the lions on their coats for cow's heads, in allusion to their name. No trace of them now remains in Peeblesshire; for "the changes that have swept over Tweeddale in the course of seven centuries leave little to connect the past with the present family history of the county. We hear of them as early as the reign of Alexander II.) and in 1296, William le Vache signed the Ragman Roll. From this time they appear in various charters, the name gradually changing from Vache to Vaitch,^[150] and finally Veitch. In the early part of the fifteenth century they are seen to be in possession of Dawick, and were a leading family in the county. A hundred years later they took the side of Royalty. David Veitch, brother of Sir John Veitch of Dawick, joined Montrose, and suffered defeat with him at Philiphaugh. So says the ballad of The Gallant Grahams:—

'And Newton, Gordon, burd alane,
And Dalgatie both stout and keen,
And gallant Veitch upon the field,
A braver face was never seen.'

After centuries of distinction, the family began to decline about 1696, and the lands were sold in consequence of debts contracted in the public service, for which they were never indemnified."—Chambers' History of Peebles. Since then, "the Veitches have merged in the general population."