Our
surname's origin comes from the Alpine region
of Italy, near the border of France. A small village
there called La
Combe [Combe
meaning the uppermost part of the valley] is
situated in the Valley of Lucerne [Valley of Light],
at the foot of Mt. Vaudelin. From this originated
the
name
Des Las Combes. Cities nearby are Rorá, Torre Pellice,
and Malpertus.
This area was home to the Waldenses [Vaudois
or Valdesi] who had existed since the time of the
apostles, and were believed to have possessed the
first translation of the
New
Testament
in
the twelfth century. During some of the persecutions
of the Waldensesian people by the Catholic Church
in the 1480's, these
people passed over the Alps into France and became
identified with the Huguenots of Languedoc.
Map
of Lucerne Valley – Piedmont, Italy – Torino
Region
La Combe at the center.
Click
here to read chapter 14 from "The History
of the Waldenses" - "Exploits of Gianavello–Massacre
and Pillage of Rora-Ascent of La Combe..." by
J.A. Wylie.
"One family at least settled in the town of Whippingham,
Isle of Wight, and from this is descended the Sir
Thomas Larcom who became Under Secretary of Ireland
and was made a Baronet. ‘Thence after some years
passed over to Bristol, England and then one of the
brothers of the family sailed to America.’ Unfortunately,
the records of the church at Whippingham have been
burned, and so all the data about the earlier Larcoms
have perished. The traditions of the Isle of Wight
Larcoms and the Connecticut branch of the Americans
agree in this story of the origin of the family.”
– G. A. Lewis of Philadelphia, who for many
years and at considerable expense made researches
concerning the history of the Larcom family.
Records
show that a Larcom left France for the Isle of Wight
in 1600, and that a William Latcome sailed to America
on the ship Hercules departing from London
on March 24, 1633/34 and Southampton on April 18,
1634, for New England. Click
here to view the English-America website that
has the passenger list available for The Hercules
of London.
From here, Ipswich records give a Mordicai Larcom
who appeared in Ipswich, Mass., in 1640. Mordicai
could
have been a brother or son of William Latcome.
“And
then he was but a simple yeoman, a tiller of the soil;
one who must have loved the sea, however, for he moved
nearer and nearer towards it from Agawam through Wenham
woods, until the close of the seventeenth century
found his descendents – my own great-great-grandfather’s
family – planted in a romantic homestead-nook
on a hillside, overlooking wide gray spaces of the
bay at the part of Beverly known as ‘The Farms.’”
– Lucy Larcom, A New England Girlhood.
"De
Las Combes of the Waldenses of Piedmont, Italy now
Larcom – and Larkham and Larcombe of The United
States of America."
"There
is a family shield in existence, showing a hill
surmounted by a tree, and a bird with spread
wings above. It might symbolize flight in times
of persecution,
from the mountains to the forests, and thence
to heaven, or to the free skies of this New World.” – Lucy
Larcom, A New England Girlhood, 1889 (The Riverside
Press, Cambridge, Mass., USA), 19.
This
shield was drawn by Gilbert Philips, dated March
7, 1902. It is part of a letter sent to William F. Abbot
who wrote Genealogy of the Larcom Family published
in the
early
1900’s. This letter describes in great detail the
Larcom Family Shield, what it means, and why we have
it. I am so honored to have this letter. A copy was e-mailed
to me by a great friend and distant cousin, Qunicy S.
Abbot.
Excerpts
from the letter:
"
The
Larcom – Larkham & Larcombe Shield – was no doubt
adopted by the family in France – where it
appears during the
wars of the Huguenots; although it may have been
the Huguenot symbol of the protestant families of
the
name in Piedmont. The eagle is the Piedmont arms
combined with the tree upon the mountain top.
It symbolizes – 'You can burn the body, but not the
soul.'
The burnt and blackened tree the symbol of their
mountain home, with the eagle rising above it green
full of life – the soul. "
"The
arms of the English Baronets Larcom [see below] were
founded on these old Huguenot emblems although differenced
by
the Ulster king of arms in Ireland where the grant
was made to Sir: Thomas Askiew Larcom – then Under
Secretary
for
Ireland –Dublin in 1858 – so they are modern! Their shield
is also argent – but the eagle is red – while the hawthorn
tree on the mount is green – symbolizing their origin
in Piedmont (Red eagle of Piedmont) and green hawthorne
bush or tree on a mount – as their later origin in Isle
of Wight, England – also – The herald gave him for crest
– a cap of maintenance blue – to show
his loyalty to the crown of Great Britain– on which appears a Martlet
– the symbol of the Huguenot flight with a golden
fleur de lis in his mouth – to symbolize France as the
origin of the Larcom family – fleeing from France.
The
old shield of the Huguenot family of Languedoc, France
is of course more ancient and the Larcoms in America
have no right whatever to use the arms of the English
Larcoms, as they were a modern grant for that special
branch of the family – the brother of the old family
that came to America (Mordochée) carried the traditions
of the old Languedoc French shield with him here – and
the family of Larcom – Larkham & Larcombe in America
have the right to it alone."
LARCOM
FAMILY COAT OF ARMS
The
Larcom Coat of Arms (granted to the British line
of Larcoms) displayed to the left is officially
documented in Burke's
Peerage & Gentry:
SIR (CHARLES)
CHRISTOPHER ROYDE LARCOM, 5TH BT[Sir Christopher
Larcom Bt, 8 The Postern, Barbican, Wood St, London
EC2Y 8BJ; 4 Village Cay Marina, PO Box 145, Road
Town, Tortola, British Virgin Islands]; b 11 Sept
1926; s f 1967; educ Radley and Clare Coll Cambridge
(Wrangler 1947, BA 1947, MA 1951); Lt RN 1947–50;
ACA (1954), FCA 1965; memb London Stock Exchange
1959–86 (memb Cncl 1970–80), ptnr Grieveson
Grant & Co 1960 (ret 1986); m 8 Sept 1956 •Barbara
Elizabeth, dau of Balfour Bowen, of Eton Lodge,
Highwood, Essex, and has:
Lineage:
THOMAS LARCOM, of Whippingham, IoW; b 1708; settled
Alverstoke, Hants; m 1731 and d 1784, leaving an
only s: (Record Type(s): 1999 Peerage)
The
original description of the arms is as follows:
"AR.
ON A MOUNT A HAWTHORNE BUSH PPR. AND IN CHEIF AN
EAGLE DISPL. GU."
When
translated the blazon also describes the original
colors of the Larcom arms as:
"SILVER
ON A NATURALLY COLORED MOUND, A NATURALLY COLORED
HAWTHORNE BUSH AND IN THE UPPER THIRD, A RED EAGLE
WITH ITS WINGS SPREAD."
Silver
used in the heraldry represents serenity and nobility.
Red means fortitude and creative power.
Above
the shield and helmet is the crest which is described
as:
"ON
A BLUE CAP OF MAINTENANCE, TURNED UP ERMINE, A BLACK
MARTLET WITH A GOLD FLUER-DE-LIS IN ITS BEAK."
