The Balch Family of County

Somerset, England.

BALCH, the name of a family of County Somerset,1 England, is either of Norman-French or English and not of British origin. At various times and with slightly different variations, this name is found in such far-distant countries as Baluchistan, Tibet, Afghanistan, Roumania, Russia, Servia, Germany, Flanders and Somersetshire. In Tibet there is the Balch Pass of the Balch Range of mountains.2 In northern Afghanistan the town now standing where the ancient city of Bactra stood, is called by the Germans on their maps Balch, and by the English on their atlases Balkh. In 1860 the Roumanian Minister of Foreign Affairs was Grégoire Balche.

1 Somerset, the land of the Sumorsaetan, is one of the West-Saxon shires which grew by gradual conquest from the Welsh, as opposed to the Mercian shires which were mapped out around a town and called by its name. There has never been any central town or acknowledged capital in Somerset, though Somerton bears a name cognate with the land. Assizes, elections and like functions were held at different places at various times. The land had no distinct name before the English conquest.

See the Encyclopedia Britannica: New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1887, Volume XXII., page 259.

2 Geographical Journal: London, 1900, Volume XV., page 168. Glacières or Freezing Caverns, by Edwin Swift Balch, Philadelphia, 1900, page 263.

3 Adolph Stieler's Hand Atlas: Gotha, Justus Perthes: "Iran und Turan;" Map No. 59, Ausgabe 1895.

The Encyclopedia Britannica: London and Edinburgh, 1903.

In 1870 Alexandre de Balch published at Odessa and Leipzig an essay entitled, M. Renan et Arthur Schopenhauer; Essai de critique. Among the officers on the Russian cruiser Variag, when she was sunk by a Japanese squadron of cruisers and destroyers off Chemulpo harbor in February, 1904, Lieutenant Balck. In Servia one of the friends of King Milan, it is said, was a Baron Balch, who, at his death, it is related, left to his sovereign a fortune of two millions of florins.5

was

In the Nouveau Larousse Illustré, Dictionnaire Universel Encyclopédique, at page 688, there is this statement:

"Balchides (en serbe Baochitchi), dynastie serbe qui régna en Albanie et au Monténégro au XIV et au XV* siècle. Elle eut pour fondateur, d'après les écrivains slaves, un Serbe nommé Balcha, mort en 1368, tandis que Du Cange prétend que les Balchides étaient apparentés à la maison des Baux (V. ce nom)—Un, une Balchide."6

The name of Balck or Balcke is found in the German Provinces of Silesia, Pomerania and Westphalia: Balck is known also in Mecklenburg

The Public Ledger, Philadelphia, April 2nd, 1904. 5 The Evening Bulletin, Philadelphia, 1904.

"In Old Provence, by Theodore Andrea Cook, the author in speaking of the castle and Counts of Les Baux, says in a footnote: "The Latin name in the deed is 'Balcius.'" New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1905, Volume II., page 127.

'Armorial Général Précédé d'un Dictionnaire des Termes du Blason par J. B. Rietslap, Gouda, 1884, 2nd edition.

Supply and Expenditure of Ammunition by Captain Balck, at

Schwerin. A family of the name of van der Balcht is recorded in Brussels and Flanders. The name of Balck is well known in Flanders and in Flemish means 'une poutre," a "beam." Monsieur Albert Soenens, juge au Tribunal de Première Instance de Bruxelles, writes from Brussels, May 10th, 1904: "Le nom de Balk ou Balck (avec k) est assez répandu dans tout le pays flamand: en langue flamande cela veut dire 'poutre."" Similarly the French word balcon designates a platform advancing out from a wall, and probably has the same origin as Balck.10 Among the holders of land mentioned in Domsday Book, it is said occurs the name of Balchi." In Norway the names Balchen and Balchens exist. In Scotland there is at the southern end of Loch Lomond the small town of Balloch and in the eastern mountains of Inverness Cairn Balloch.12 In Alsace and Lorraine the names Belchen and Bolchen occur. In German speaking

tached to the Infantry Regiment, Duke William of Brunswick, and Instructor of the War School at Engers. Translated from the German by First Lieutenant Gurovits, Eleventh United States Infantry. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1898.

8 Almanach de Gotha, 1905. Gotha, Justus Perthes, page 583. 'Armorial Général Précédé d'un Dictionnaire des Termes du Blason par J. B. Rietslap, Gouda, 1884, 2nd edition.

10 In L' Aiglon, Rostand uses the word baluchon in the sense of a support. At the end of the second act, he makes Flambeau say to the Duc de Reistadt: "J'en fais un baluchon tenez, danz le mouchoir!"

11 British Family Names, by Henry Barber, London, 1893, page 40. 12 Handy Royal Atlas of Modern Geography by Alexander Keith Johnston, Edinburgh and London, 1881.

Lorraine, to the east of the French speaking city of Metz and close to the French speaking pays Messin, there is the small town of Bolchen. On the Franco-German frontier, a little north of Belfort, one of the mountains, known to the French as le Ballon d'Alsace is called by the Germans Elsasser or Wälsche Belchen.13 In the heart of southern Alsace, near Gebweiler, there is another summit called the Gebweiler Belchen, and not far away further north another named the Kleiner Belchen.14 Belchen in German means a "balloon." In southern Alsace there is the commune of Balschwiller, near the Sulzbach.15

In northeastern Somersetshire, the term Batch is applied to a steep little hill and is common in the district.16

The name of Balch has come to light at two different times in County Surrey, and occasionally in 13 Handy Royal Atlas of Modern Geography, by Alexander Keith Johnston, Edinburgh and London, 1881.

Northern France, by Karl Baedeker, Leipzig, 1894, page 332. Some Facts About Alsace and Lorraine, by Thomas Willing Balch, Philadelphia, 1895.

Frankreich in 4 Blatten von C. Vogel: Gotha, Justus Perthes. Das Deutschtum in Elass-Lothringen, von Dr. Julius Petersen in the series Der Kampf um Das Deutschtum; Munich, 1902. Map at end of the monograph, Elsass-Lothringen.

14 Northern France, by Karl Baedeker, Leipzig, 1894, page 333. 15 Armorial des Communes d'Alsace y compris les Pierres-Bornes avec des notices sur chaque armure par Louis Schoenhaupt, Strasbourg, 1900, page 165.

16 There is a hamlet called Batch in the parish of Lympsham in the Hundred of Wrington, just south of the Ax River. The History and Antiquities of the County of Somerset by the Reverend John Collinson, Bath, 1791, page 202.

County Dorset, close to the southern end of County Somerset.17

In the County of Surrey the name is met with in the reign of Henry the Third (1216-1272), in this wise:

"Newdigate, of Arbury, Warwickshire.

*

"To which John, Richard the son of Roger le Balch, gave XX acres of land, in Newdigate, called Lamputts fields." * This John was son of Richard son of John de Newdigate, who lived in the reign of King

John, whose wife was Agnes.'

And also thus:

18

Newdigate of Arbury, Warwickshire. "This ancient family *

doubtless derived its

name from Newdigate, a town in Surrey * * * The first of any note was John de Newdigate, who lived in the reign of King John, whose wife was Agnes, by whom he had Richard, William and Robert.

"To which Richard * * *he took to wife Alice, dau. of Walter de Horten, & had issue by her John, William & Peter.

"To which John, Richard, the son of Roger le Balch, gave twenty acres of land in Newdigate called Lamputts fields." 19

At the end of the fifteenth century an isolated

17 'The will of Edward Balch is found in the York Registry, January 25th, 1640: York, fol. 78, city.

18 The English Baronetage, by Thomas Wotton, London, 1741, III., part 2, page 618.

19 The Baronetage of England, by E. Kimber and R. Johnson, London, 1771, Volume 2, pp. 413 and 14.