Jasper Lillard was born Abt. 1630 in France. He married Isaacs on Abt. 1645 in France.
Notes for Jasper Lillard: Jasper Lillard Est. born 1620 -?
Jasper Lillard of France is the first known person in the Lillard ancestry. He was the descendant of Sir Thomas Lollard, who came to France for the invasion of the Normandy area, with King Henry V around 1415.
[Please note the below writings present alternate versions of the Lillard family origins.]
Earliest records indicate that a Thomas LOLLARD (b Abt. 1390- ??) joined in the invasion of France by Henry V, in 1415. Among other battles, there was an important one on October 25, 1415 in northern France at Agincourt (near Calais), in which this Thomas LOLLARD was knighted for gallant bravery in battle. It is reported that some 1,600 Englishmen and 10,000 French were killed in this one battle. There were many more battles in northern France before a Treaty of Troyes was signed May 21, 1420.
After this great battle at Agincourt, Sir Thomas stayed in France married a local woman, changed his name to LILLARD, and then established residence near the town of Saumur. The lady he had met and with whom the romance began, is supposed to have been a French Lady of gentle birth. She was from the province of Touraine; the romance culminated in a marriage (perhaps about 1420), resulting in Sir Thomas staying in Touraine, as a LILLARD, when King Henry V made his triumphal return to England.
Sir Thomas and family lived on the Loire River, near the town of Saumur. Speculation only could yield the number of generations which existed in the 200 years between Sir Thomas and the next known family member who was named Jasper Lillard (Abt. 1620-??). He lived on the Loire River near Angers, France.
Jasper was a vine grower and also owned/operated a line of boats on the Loire River, from Angers to Nantes, and from Angers to Tours. Jasper prospered and married a Miss Isaacs in about 1645; she must have been an extraordinary woman, as she gave up her religion to marry Jasper who was an avowed Huguenot. From this marriage was born at least five sons: [2] -Jean Lillard -Benjamin L. -Moise L. [b. Abt. 1650] -Joseph L. -David L. -others who are unknown??
This is a family in which given names are repeated, from generation to generation. Jean is one of those names; we might assume this Jean, son of Jasper, was born c 1647. In the next generation there is a Jean who emigrated to the USA, but he was born c1675-80.
---------------------------- Other "Family Stories" about the Lillard family origins
One source relates a "fable" or folklore of a woman in Wales or Scotland whose story is told in a poem; before this 1415 year of invading France, she fought the "invader" until her legs were cut off and then she fought on. She had a surname that was similar to Lollard.
There is also a version of the story saying that the original family name was LILLIARD, so that only the "I" had to be dropped from the name. This based on the facts of Scottish history having 16th century LILLIARD family names involving folk heroes and messengers to the Queen.
In the 1920's, there was another (the only other one known) family of Lillards in the USA, living in Tangagipano, Louisiana. They came from the Bayonne, France area and "that there is some of the family still living today .... near Marseilles and Lyons. [while the author was visiting France, there was an] account of the graduating exercises at St Cyr, where one Lieutenant Hypolite Lillard of France was the first in his class." [1]
Within the "modern" family itself, there is version saying "the two brothers (John and Benjamin) came from Wales to Virginia, bearing the name of LOLLARD....and that there are Lollards of Wales still living...on large estates and of high station; [also] there also are many Lillards still living in the south of France, who were formerly called Lollards." But these are "second hand" stories of origin and may be suspect for accuracy. [1]
Also of interest, from a historical perspective, there is a ''religious Lollard Society. "Lollardy, or Wycliffism, was England's greatest medieval heresy. The movement originated in the 1370s or early 1380s in Oxford with the followers of John Wyclif [d. 1384].....this web site...is to provide a forum for those interested in the study of Lollardy and the religious culture of the later Middle Ages in England..." [3]
Lollardy spread over a significant part of lower England as well as parts of Scotland, by the 1500s.
As may be noted, there are different derivations of the family specific geographic origin and the surname spelling, but all feel "England" produced the family. The most exhaustive research found was done for the reference [2] book, and it favors the surname evolution of Lollard to Lillard, and the England to France to USA logic.
Much of this information on Jasper and successive generations was obtained from the Reference Book [2].
References:
[1] "Lillards" by David Irvine Lillard, published 1906 [2] "Lillard, A Family of Colonial VA-1415 to 1928" by Jacques Ephraim Stout Lillard, published in 1928. [3] http://home.att.net/~lollard/
More About Jasper Lillard and Isaacs: Marriage: Abt. 1645, France.
Jasper Lillard (b. Abt. 1630)
Notes for Jasper Lillard: