Snippet 3 - The Family French Connection (1066)

SNIPPET OF FAMILY HISTORY  -  No. 3

"We are born with a History, and we live to tell another Story." (Warren Maloney)

THE FAMILY FRENCH CONNECTION

The Savages



In 1066, William the Conqueror defeated the Saxon King Harold at the Battle of Hastings, and England within a short time belonged to the Normans.

One line of our Family, being Normans, fought at the Battle, and were rewarded with substantial land in Derbyshire. This was the family of Thomas Le Sauvage [1], his son, John, and his grandson, Adam.

The Le Sauvage family came from Avranches, Normandy, where they had sufficient land holdings to warrant minor Norman titles under William.

It would be nice to believe that the family behaved honourably after the Battle, but this was unlikely. The first twenty years of William’s rule were amongst the bloodiest in England’s history. All spoils went to the Conquerors and little compensation was paid. 

It is not clear why Derbyshire became the family base. We do know that over the next 200 years they acquired more lands through marriages in Cheshire, Yorkshire and even Ulster. Their most prominent base was Rock Savage Hall in Clifton, Cheshire. 


The family by the mid-12th Century had anglicized their name to Savage.

Whether there are indisputable links going from the millennials' generation of the Testros, Grodskis, Barkers, Clarkes, and Andersons, going back 33 Generations to Thomas Le Sauvage is a matter of conjecture. Not everyone possibly stayed on their side of the bed.

But if there is a place to visit when UK travelling, it is the Savage Chapel, in the Church of St Michael and All Angels in Macclesfield, Cheshire. This beautifully preserved Chapel contains the bodies and statues of many of the Savage family.


Perhaps the most impressive of these is Sir John Savage VI. This great grandfather[2] of ours was knighted for his bravery at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, fighting for England’s Henry V, this time against the French -

“…We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.”[3]

The family moved from the Savages’ line in the mid-16th Century as we linked through marriages with the Yorkshire Robinsons, the Lancashire Houghtons, the London Cartwrights and Adams, and finally the Irish Reas and Maloneys.

P.S. This is not our only French Connection as part of the family were neighbours of, and fought alongside, Joan of Arc. But that is another story for another day!


[1] Thomas Le Sauvage (c.1000-?), John Le Savage (c.1024-c.1090), and Adam Le Savage (c.1049-c.1079)

[2] Sir John Savage VI (1375-1449)

[3] Shakespeare’s play Henry V – St Crispin’s Day Speech


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