VAUX

VAUX. 1. It is said that the illustrious family of Vaux deri\ ed their surname from a district in Normandy ; which is very probable, there being seven or eight places in that province still so designated. It is further asserted that so early as A.D. 794, a branch of the family, liearing the surname of Beaux, Baux, or Vaux, were settled in Provence; which cannot be correct, as heritable family names were not introduced until long after that date. There is, however, no doubt of the influence of the Vauxes in the South of France, and in Italy, at a remote period. A tomb erected in 1G15, in the church of St. Clair at Naples, lay Hieronymus de Vaux, contains the bones of divers of the females of his ancestry, namely : — Antonia de Vaux, Queen of Sicily. Isabella de Vaux, Queen of Naples. Cecilia de Vaux, Countess of Savoy. Sibella de Vaux, Princess of Piedmont. Maria de Vaux, Daupliiness of Vieune. Isabella de Vaux, Despotess of Servia. The English family spring from Bertrand de Vaux, who was living in 929, and was a favourite of Robert I., Duke of Normandy, the Conqueror's grandfather. Harold de Vaux, Lord of Vaux, attended William I. at the Conquest, and was accompanied by his three sons, Hubert, Pianulph, and Robert. From Hubert sprang the great house of Vaux, or De Vallibus, of Cumberland; and from Robert came tlie Bai'ons Vaux, of Harrowden, co. Northampton. The heiress of the elder line of this Robert married, in 1553, Thomas Brougham, Lord of Brougham, co. Westmoreland, and hence the title of Heiu-y, Lord Brougham and Vmix.

Lower, Mark A (1860) Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom. London: J.R. Smith. Public Domain.