My grandmother, Martha Maria du Toit told me this story; The du Toit family obtained the grant of a family crest as a reward for saving an important person's life, who it was she did not know. After a battle this person was fleeing for his life and came to the du Toit house. They hid him under straw in the loft. When his pursuers arrived at the house they climbed up a ladder to the loft, but seeing only some straw lying there they did not search the house any further and left. The family was given a crest. A shield in silver, a chevron in black with tree swallows in black. The swallows was given because they nested under the eaves of the house that saved this persons life. The du Toit family lived at St Omer near Lille until the revocation of the Edict of Nantes when they fled to the Netherlands and from there came to Sout Africa in 1688.This is the story I was told and paid little attention to.
I was recently reading a book: History of the Belgians by Adrien de Meeus published in 1962 by Thames & Hudson . London on page 91
'After creeping through dark alleyways until midnight, while the men of Ghent were all over the city, Louis de Maele decided to knock on the door of a poor woman, to escape capture. It was a poor, small house, blackened by peat and smoke. There was only one tiny room with a piece of old cloth to hide the fire. Above, there was agarret, where the womans children slept on a pallet. When the Count came in, shocked by the house in which he found himself, he said to the frightened woman: 'Save me I am your Lord, the Count of Flanders. I must hide from my enemies who are pursuing me. I will repay you for sheltering me.' The woman knew him well, for she had in the past asked him for alms. She had also seen him when he had gone about town in pursuit of pleasure.
She immediately told him -for delay would have been fatal-'Sire go up to the garret and hide beneath the pallet where my children are asleep.' He did so, and the woman pretended to tend the fire. then she took one of the children in her arms. The Count found a place between the floorboards and the straw. He turned his face to the wall and kept still.' etc.
When the people came looking for him at the woman's house they did not find the Count and he was saved. This happened in Brugge in 1382 after the battle of Beverhoutsvelt. The Count eascaped to Lille and from there summoned the help of the French King. His son -in-law Philippe the Bold who had become regent after the death of Charles V intervened to restore the peace.
Would it be possible that this is the same story? If a crest was granted and possibly land at St Omer would it be possible to find such a grant? Where do I start looking?
One thing I have learnt, never discount stories that have come down generations in a family, there is usually some truth in them
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