As a child my father taught me his version of the Udall family history. In  brief, that was, that our ancestors came over with William the Conqueror. One  of the first being Hugh of the Dale.  Later the name became de Uvedale, many  of whom were Knights of the Realm, later the name was abreviated to Udall.  Currently being at a brick wall with John Udall c 1615 (LDS say he was born at  Ellastone, but Ellastone Parish records which start in 1538, have no Udall's  mentioned until 1640, John's marriage to Elizabeth Bull) I decided to see if I  could forge a link, by starting with the de Uvedales. To date the link evades  me|
 However, I have discovered an eighth cousin, in Canada, who has made an  in depth study of the name Udall and its derivations.  Gordon Udell has  written a book on the subject, which he has very kindly e-mailed a copy of.   Gordon isn't the first to have written a book on de Uvedales, Sir Leveson- Gower (pronounced Loosen-Gore) one of the Dukes of Sutherland from Trentham  Hall, beat him to it! I shan't be so lucky with a copy of that book.

The widely accepted concenus is that, they did in fact arrive with William the  Conqueror, the name then being de Ovedale, ( there was in fact a Hugh de  Ovedale) later becoming de Uvedale. The ancestors began in the Lake District,  then moving to Talconeston, Norfolk. Their next move was to Titsey, Surrey,   and later to Wickam, Hampshire. Which explains why there are groups of Udall's  who decamped along the route, and a large group of Udalls in Dorset.

Many of them were indeed Knights of the realm (Knights Templar) The de Uvedale  coat of arms is on the cover page, goes back to the 13th century, "Argent a  Cross Moline Gules" the motto being "Tant Que Je Puis" (As much as I can)   
 I make no claims as to the accuracy of the data on this site, but it does  seem to fit, if anyone can correct any details please, let me know.

I would like to express my thanks to the following people,the input of whom  spurred me on.
 Gorden Udell. Jean Sawyer. Eric Eames.