First found in Cambridgeshire where they were anciently seated as Lords of the Manor. After the Battle of Hastings in 1066, William, Duke of Normandy, having prevailed over King Harold, granted most of Britain to his many victorious Barons. It was not uncommon to find a Baron, or a Bishop, with 60 or more Lordships scattered throughout the country. These he gave to his sons, nephews and other junior lines of his family and they became known as under-tenants. They adopted the Norman system of surnames which identified the under-tenant with his holdings so as to distinguish him from the senior stem of the family. After many rebellious wars between his Barons, Duke William, commissioned a census of all England to determine in 1086, settling once and for all, who held which land. He called the census the Domesday Book, indicating that those holders registered would hold the land until the end of time. Hence, conjecturally, the surname is descended from the tenant of the lands of Balsham who was a Norman noble named Hardwin of Scales who held his lands from the Abbot of Ely who was recorded in the Domesday Book census of 1086. Balsham was a small village with a Mill. Hugh de Balsham (d. 1286,) was an English churchman, who, in 1256 was elected Bishop of Ely.

Some of the first settlers of this family name or some of its variants were: Anna Barbara Balsam, who came to America in 1750; Elisabetha Balsam, who settled in America in 1750; Frederick Balsam, who settled in Kansas in 1900; Johann Peter Balsam, who settled in America in 1750.

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