The titles Baron Beauchamp and Viscount Beauchamp have been created several times throughout
English and
British history. There is an extant Viscountcy of Beauchamp, held by the Seymour family,
Marquesses of Hertford.
Beauchamp family
The name Beauchamp (French "beautiful/fair field"),
Latinised to de Bello Campo ("from the beautiful field/fair field"), is born by three of the most ancient Anglo-Norman families which settled in England during the
Norman Conquest of 1066: Beauchamp of Worcestershire, of Somerset and of Bedfordshire.[5] The surname was taken from their respective manors in Normandy and there is no evidence of any shared origin between the families of that name seated in those three separate counties. The Bedfordshire branch died out in the male line after only two generations. The heir of the Somerset branch was the powerful Seymour family, whilst the Worcestershire branch achieved the greatest power and prominence as
Earls of Warwick.
Barons Beauchamp, first creation ("de Somerset") (1299–1361)
Viscount Beauchamp, first creation ("of
Hache") (1536–1552)
The Seymour family inherited the
capital manor of Hatch Beauchamp (anciently Hache) due to the marriage of Roger Seymour (d.c.1361) to Cecily Beauchamp (d.1393), the aunt and heiress of John IV de Beauchamp, 3rd Baron Beauchamp (1330-1361),[7]feudal baron of Hatch Beauchamp.
^Hugh de Beauchamp was the first Norman feudal baron of
Bedford and held many manors in Bedfordshire as is recorded in the
Domesday Book (Sanders, p.10)
^Cookson, Christopher, Hatch Beauchamp Church, section: Historical Note on the Church and its Associations, 1972
[1]Archived 2016-03-03 at the
Wayback Machine