This study relates to the Touchet family as found in England shortly after the Battle of Hastings of 1066. This was a Viking family that had settled at a place named Touchet, close to Mortain in Normandy. Later, this became the town now known as Notre-Dame-du-Touchet.

The first of the family in England was a Jocelyn Touchet who was a knight in the service of Hugh d'Avranches, the 1st Earl of Chester. Through military service and marriage the family rose through the ranks of the nobility, and in the 15th century 4 generations of its men married women of royal descent. During their rise, again though marriage, the family inherited the title of Baron Audley. Later generations of the family went by the name of TOUCHET or AUDLEY, or a combination of both.

The family had a major downfall in 1497 when James Touchet, 7th Baron Audley, became a leader of the 1st Cornish Rebellion and tried to overthrow King Henry VII. Defeated at the Battle of Deptford Bridge, he was afterwards found guilty of treason and beheaded at the Tower of London, and his family suffered attainder. Although the senior line of the family managed to recover from this setback, its male line died out in the mid 18th century.

Offshoots of this family did continue, though, often under different spellings of Touchet. My mother was descended from a younger child by the second wife of James Touchet, 7th Baron Audley, that family going by the name of TWITCHETT. This study includes details about the Twitchett family that descends from a child of James Touchet, 7th Baron Audley by his second wife, Joan Bourchier. That child, a James Touchet born around the year 1493, was the start of a Twitchett family that originated in Norfolk, expanded over the centuries into Suffolk and Essex, and in later generations found its way into London.

It appears likely that James Touchet and Joan Bourchier also had a son named Alexander, and that he had a son William who became the origin of a family first found in the village of Stoke St. Gregory in Somerset in the mid-16th century who produced a lineage under the surname of TUTTIETT.

Tuchet, Tutchet, Twychet, Twitchit, Twitchett, Tutyett, Tuttiett.

The Touchets are thought to be Vikings, either of Danish or Norwegian origin, who settled in Normandy, possibly arriving in the era of Rollo the Viking in the late 9th century.

James Touchet, 5th Baron Audley (1397-1459) - Commanded the Queen's Gallants at the Battle of Blore Heath, the first major encounter of the Wars of the Roses, where he was killed.

John Touchet, 6th Baron Audley (1418-1490) - Appointed Lord Treasurer by King Richard III in 1484 and fought with the King at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485.

Edmund (Touchet) Audley (1437-1524) - Became Bishop of Rochester in 1480, Bishop of Hereford in 1492 and was Bishop of Salisbury from 1502 until his death.

James Touchet, 7th Baron Audley (1453-1497) - Army commander during the Wars of the Roses, he became a leader of the 1st Cornish Rebellion in 1497.

Thomas (Touchet) Audley (1488-1544) - Appointed Lord Chancellor by King Henry VIII in 1532, to who he was a great supporter.

George Touchet, 1st Earl of Castlehaven (County Cork) (1551-1617) - Member of the English Parliament, he was elevated to the Irish Peerage in 1616.

Very few instances of this surname are found in England after the 18th century, but the surname is still found in France.

The family's origin was in Normandy in France and lineages of it are found in both France and England.

A complete history and lineage of the family in England has been written, covering the period from circa 1050 to 1740. My book 'The History of the Touchet/Twitchett Family' is presented in two volumes; Volume 1 covers the history of the Touchet family in England and Volume 2 the history of the Twitchett family. This book is available to view at the website mentioned above.

A lineage and history of the family in France can be consulted from a copy of the book 'Histoire genealogique de la maison Touchet by Theodore Courtaux' which is held.

No DNA results for the family are currently available.