Flame History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

The surname Flame was first found in Normandy (French: Normandie), the former Duchy of Normandy, where the family held a family seat since ancient times. However, some of the family were part of the Norman Conquest of England as early records of Bishop's Middleham, Durham revealed. "This place is of considerable antiquity: its church was given in 1146 to the convent of Durham, by Osbert, nephew of Bishop Ralph Flambard; and soon afterwards, the manor appears to have been conveyed to the see of Durham, the bishops of which resided here, up to the end of the 14th century. Their castle was situated on a lofty brow of limestone, overlooking the marshy level of the Skerne." 1

Rannulf Flambard (d. 1128), was Bishop of Durham and Chief Minister of William Rufus. "Domesday shows that Rannulf Flambard (Flamard, Flanbard, or Flanbart) was a landowner in Godalming hundred, Surrey, at Middleton-Stoney, Oxfordshire, and at ' Bile' and 'Becleslei' in Hampshire. He was also tenant of a house in Oxford, and appears to have been dispossessed of part of his Hampshire property on the making of the New Forest." 2