The name Blachford probably comes directly from the place of the same name near Ivybridge in Devon - my earliest Blachford is John (b. ~ 1520) whose son William was born at Holworthy on Exmoor. By the time William's son Richard was born in 1565 the family (or at least this branch of it) had moved to Dorset. Mark Wareham's meticulous research here has a lot more.

My connections to royalty are through my great grandmother Elizabeth Blachford. The Blachfords were landed families in the west Hampshire area, possibly originally from Devon, although there may be connections in the Ellingham/Blashford area going back to 1200 - see here for more information. The more recent Blachfords, and many of the families they married in to, lived in the beautiful Avon Valley, between Ringwood and Fordingbridge. My grandparents Walter John Dyett and Eva Sarah Thomas were married in All Saints, Harbridge, one of the most attractive parts of the valley. The hamlet of Blashford (now mostly under gravel pits) is presumably named after them. It appears that they, and the families they married into, fell on hard times during and after the Civil War because of their steadfast support of the Royalist cause, and family fortunes declined.

There are a number of other Blachfords in the historical record, including Richard (1570-1652, Mayor of Dorchester), John (1682-1759, Lord Mayor of London) and Robert (1699-1729), merchant, smuggler and slave trader). More on these gentlemen can be found here.

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River Avon meadows, Harbridge

Blachford Coat of Arms - see this page for explanation