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- "WILLARD ANCESTORS"
ITALY, FRANCE, and ENGLAND
The Willard family is a very old English and Norman family, and before that, Italian family. The Willards descend from Othon, Count Bianchi di Villard of Naples of the year 1230. When Othon died in 1240, the title passed to his brother, Humbert.
The German persecution drove Count Humbert from his home in Italy and he, with Pope Innocent IV, fled to Lyon, France. Humbert died there in 1260. He left two sons and the youngest, also named Humbert, removed to Marseilles. In 1267 Humbert was made a Cardinal by Pope Clement IV. Cardinal Humbert's youngest son, also named Humbert, became the Commander of the Papal Army in 1306, fought in the Crusade, and was with the Knights of St. John in 1309 at the capture of Rhodes.
The oldest son of Count Humbert was named Othon for his grandfather, and it was he who inherited the title. Othon went to Rouen and from there to Caen. In Caen, he no longer used the title and went only by the name of Villard. In 1310 he was suspected of being disloyal to the French Crown, and he fled with his family to England.
In England, "Henri, Count Willard" (Othon) was awarded grants of land in Sussex and Kent by King Edward III. Later King Richard appointed him a Magistrate and Deputy Lieutenant of the five counties. He was also granted a coat of arms described as "Argent a chevron sable between three fish weirs proper five ermine spots." The family motto is Patientia Duris; Endure with strength.
Othon, also known as Henri, Count Willard, was the ancestor of the Willard lines of England. His descendent Richard Willard is the earliest positively identified Willard ancestor of the Stephen line. Richard was a yeoman at Brenchley and was the great grandfather of the American emigrant. Richard's son Symon had two sons, Thomas and Richard. Richard was the father of the emigrant and he lived at Horsemonden, County Kent, England.
- "Willard Genealogy," Charles Henry Pope, 1915
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1500 - 1558 (58 years)
