- published: 14 Aug 2015
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Delaval is the surname of a family of gentry/aristocracy in Northumberland, England, from the 11th century to the 19th century. Their main estate was the manor of Seaton Delaval. The 18th century Delavals are noteworthy for their colourful lifestyle, for the magnificent Seaton Delaval Hall and for the development of the little seaport of Seaton Sluice and a coal mine at Old Hartley.
The Delaval name derives from Laval, a town in the valley of the Mayenne River, in the département of Mayenne in old Maine, north-western France. An early ancestor, Guy de la Val II, built a castle there in the first half of the eleventh century. One of his descendants fought at the Battle of Hastings in AD 1066 (the event marking the Norman conquest of England), and thereafter the De la Vals settled in Northumberland. At Seaton they built a small fortified dwelling near the existing Saxon church, which in 1100 Hubert de la Val rebuilt, bringing into being the present Church of Our Lady near Delaval Hall.