Wellham family trivia

Early settlers

Wellham Crossroads can be found at the northern tip of Anne Arundel County, near Baltimore, USA. This famous historical site is described as being 6 miles from Shipley, USA. Coincidentally my grandfather and father lived in Shipley, Yorkshire, England.

The first European settlement in Anne Arundel County, occurred in the early 1600s. The Algonquin tribes had all but left the area, due to the warlike Susquahannocks from the north. The first settlers were Protestant Englishmen and women. They amassed large areas of land in the area to farm, families such as the Wellhams grew tobacco, fruits and vegetables to sell in Baltimore and Washington. During the 1800s many small settlements emerged around the Wellham Crossroads area, which was the link between Old Annapolis Road and Elkridge Road. The 1878 Maryland Directory shows Wellham as a village of a hundred settlers, including three Blacksmiths and a Wheelwright, William Linthicum was the postmaster.

Back to school

Graveney School can be found in Wellham Road, Tooting. The name Tooting derived from the Saxons as did the name Wellham. The name Tooting has the meaning, 'Son of Totas'. Tooting was owned by Chartsey Abbey and Westminster abbey from AD675.

Cornish Celtic / Saxon connection?

Morwellham Quay on the River Tamar between Cornwall and Devon was built by the Benedictine monks of Tavistock Abbey, which was founded in 961AD during the Anglo Saxon period. Morwellham is mentioned in letters and papers in July 1539 from Henry VIII Volume 14. The origin of the name ‘Morwellham’ eludes me at present, but it has to be said ‘more Wellham’ is better than less.

In this instance the Saxon name has integrated with the Cornish Celtic language, Mor = Sea in Cornish, Wellham = Home or hamlet by water / spring in Saxon. Indeed Morwellham is a hamlet on the river Tamar leading to the sea. Though, it is likely to be a combination of a named person, founder of the hamlet by the sea.

Battle of Britain

The name Wellum appears to have close links with the Wellham’s of Essex. There appears to be no origins of the name Wellum or meaning in the Germanic or Latin languages, so it could be assumed it is a derivative of the name Wellham.

During the Second World War while John Wellham was leading the attack on Taranto in Italy in a Swordfish E5H for the Fleet Air Arm, Squadron Leader Geoffrey Wellum DFC, was a British Battle of Britain fighter pilot.

‘This is an interesting name of medieval English origin and is a dialectal variant of a locational name Welham, from places so called in Nottinghamshire and East Yorkshire. The first recordings of these place names are found in the Domesday Book of 1086 as 'Wellun', and the former in the Fees of Nottinghamshire in 1242 as 'Wellum', and the latter in the Yorkshire Chronicles of 1173 also as 'Wellum'. The derivation is from the Old English 'wellum', the dative plural of 'wella', meaning a spring. Thus, the name in its present form is an early variant of the present place name. One George Wellum married Mary Crosby on 29th November 1819 at Pontefract, Yorkshire. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John de Weleham, which was dated 1276, Hundred Rolls of Leicester, during the reign of King Edward I, 'The Hammer of the Scots', 1272 – 1307’

Tradesman

A person called Wellham was described as a Tanner, in the year 1484 North of Colchester in Stoke by Nayland.

A ‘Tanner’ is ‘One that tans hides’

Loyal Service to the Crown

For service to King Stephen, Welham Manor in Stratton St was awarded.

Early Middle Ages

The chapelries of Dogsthorpe, Eastfield with Newark, and Longthorpe, in that part of the parish which is without the city, 6107 inhabitants. The original name of this place, according to ancient records, was Medeswelhamsted, or Medeshamsted, derived by some from a whirlpool that existed in that part of the river Aufona, now the Nene, near which the town was built. According to Brydges, the name, signifying a meadow, village, or site, is derived from the local peculiarity of rich meadows extending along the banks of the river. During the heptarchy, Peada, fifth king of Mercia, having embraced the Christian faith, about 655 laid the foundation of a monastery, which was completed by his brother Wulf here, in atonement for having murdered his own sons for their attachment to the Christian doctrine, prior to his own conversion to Christianity.

Moments in History

Anti Enclosure outbreaks in Welham, Leicestershire in 1607.