Zouche History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

The surname Zouche was first found in Lancashire at Ormskirk. The first record of the family was Thomas Such, who complained early in the reign of Elizabeth that certain of the inhabitants of Ormskirk had taken their corn to other mills. The entry continues: apparently there were complaints against the miller that the corn was not so well ground by him and that he took, or lost, an excessive proportion of the flour. In the end, Thomas Such built a new mill at the Knoll to help solve the issue. 1

However, another source has a different point of origin for the family. This source claims the name was a Norman name appearing in the Roll of Battel Abbey. "All authorities are agreed in deriving this great house from the Sovereign Earls of Brittany ; but they differ materially as to the affinity it bore to the parent stock." 2

"Alan La Zouche, the undoubted founder of the family, who in his charter to Lilleshall Priory styles himself ' son of Geoffrey le Vicomte,' lived in the time of Henry II., and acquired a great estate through his wife Alice, the heiress of the elder male line of De Belmeis. She brought him Ashby, since, as Ashby-de-la-Zouche, the head of his barony, in Leicestershire, Tong and other manors in Shropshire, and lands in Sussex and Devonshire. Their eldest son William commonly went by his mother's name; but when he died in 1199, he was succeeded by his brother Roger, who had always called himself La Zouche." 2

North Molton, Devon was the site of another of the family. "The manor was part of the portion of Eadgytha, wife of the Confessor, and was given by John to Roger le Zouch. From the Zouches it passed to the St. Maurs. The church was given by Alan le Zouch, circa 1313, to the monastery of Lilleshull, in Shropshire." 3

"The manor [of Harringworth, Northamptonshire] belonged to the barons De la Zouche, who, till within the last three centuries, resided here; and remains of their mansion are perceptible in the present manor-house." 4