The Battle Abbey Roll. Vol. I.
by
The Duchess of Cleveland.
Prepared by Michael A. Linton
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Delahoid : or De La Hyde. I much doubt whether this name has any right to be here, as it sounds to me a local English one,[1] and I can discover nothing that even remotely resembles it in Normandy. It is first met with in the twelfth century, and spreading rapidly over England and Ireland, multiplied itself still more extensively in its shorter form of Hyde. Gilbert de la Hide and his son John, occur in Oxfordshire and Hertfordshire, William de la Hide, in Staffordshire, in 1194 (Rot. Curiae Regis): and in the time of Henry III. and Edward I., Peter de la Hide is found in Bucks, John had succeeded his father in Herts and Oxon; there was a Roger de la Hide in Northants (also holding a knight's fee of Hugh de Vivonne in Berkshire): and a Henry de la Hide in Devonshire, besides a Robert and a Richard in Oxfordshire.—Rotuli Hundredorum. Nicholas de la Hide held at La Hyde of the Honour of Carisbrook, Isle of Wight, and Elias de la Hide of Robert de Gournay in Wilts.—Testa de Nevill. Walter de la Hyde in 1262 rented two Sussex manors for "forty marks of silver, and a pair of white gloves and a penny at Easter."—Lower's Sussex. Henry de la Hide was of Worcestershire in 1309-10: and in 1307 Thomas de la Hide was Constable of Tintagel, in 1312 Sheriff of Cornwall, and in 1314 Conservator of the peace, as well as one of the Justices of that county and Devon. Sir James Delahyde was summoned to Parliament as an Irish baron in 1374: and Camden speaks of the Delahides as "among the most considerable families" in Kildare, and "of the greatest note" in Meath.
Lord Chancellor Clarendon belonged to this family. He came of a now extinct branch seated at Hyde in Cheshire, that had acquired Norbury through its heiress in the time of Henry III.; and one of whom, Sir John Hyde, was a gallant soldier under the Black Prince. His grandfather Laurence, a slenderly-portioned cadet, was an Auditor's clerk employed by Sir John Thynne of Longleat, and having married a well-to-do widow, bought West Hatch in Wiltshire. Of his four sons, the second, Sir Laurence, became Attorney-General to Queen Anne: the third was Lord Clarendon's father; and the fourth, Sir Nicholas, Chief Justice of the King's Bench. The future. Chancellor, thus belonging to a family of lawyers, distinguished himself early in life in political life and at the bar, and was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer by Charles I. at the age of thirty-five. A devoted Royalist, he followed Charles II. in all his wanderings, and on the death of the Lord Keeper Herbert, received the Great Seal at Bruges in 1657. Four years afterwards, he was created Earl of Clarendon. During his exile, he had composed his 'History of the Rebellion' at the King's request; "writing for prerogative," says Walpole, though he had always "acted for liberty." As a minister, he was "indefatigable in business, but a little too magisterial: impartial in the administration of justice, but a little too rough. He had a levity in his wit, and a loftiness in his carriage, that did not become the station he was in; for those that addressed him, and those that thought themselves neglected, he addressed with contumely, which created him many enemies, and at last procured his fall."—Burnett. This was in 1667. He thereupon retired to Normandy, and died at Rouen in 1674.
His line was carried on for three more generations. His daughter Anne married the Duke of York, afterwards James II.: and his second son Laurence, Master of the Robes to Charles II., was created Earl of Rochester in 1682. The two Earldoms merged in Laurence's son Henry, and expired with him in 1753. He left two grand-daughters as his heirs; Charlotte, married to a younger son of the Earl of Jersey, who became Earl of Clarendon in 1756: and Charlotte, the celebrated Duchess of Queensberry.