Bentholm History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
England

Bentholm is a name of ancient Anglo-Saxon origin and comes from the family once having lived in the West Riding of the county of Yorkshire, where the Bentholm family settled near the village of Bentham, from which they took their name. The name is composed of the Old English words beonet, meaning bent grass, and ham, meaning settlement. 1

Early Origins of the Bentholm family

The surname Bentholm was first found in Yorkshire, where "there is not much reason to doubt that this name is derived from the parish of Bentham, in the West Riding of Yorkshire. " 2 Bentham was listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Benetain. 3 Today, Bentham is a civil parish in the Craven district of North Yorkshire and comprises Upper Bentham and Lower Bentham.

Early History of the Bentholm family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Bentholm research. Another 102 words (7 lines of text) covering the years 1379, 1513, 1560, 1576, 1578, 1579, 1593, 1594, 1671, 1681, 1700 and 1733 are included under the topic Early Bentholm History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Bentholm Spelling Variations

Sound was what guided spelling in the essentially pre-literate Middle Ages, so one person's name was often recorded under several variations during a single lifetime. Also, before the advent of the printing press and the first dictionaries, the English language was not standardized. Therefore, spelling variations were common, even among the names of the most literate people. Known variations of the Bentholm family name include Bentham, Bentheim, Benthiem and others.

Early Notables of the Bentholm family

Notables of this surname at this time include: Thomas Bentham (1513-1578), English Protestant minister, one of the Marian exiles, who continued secretly ministering to an underground congregation in London, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield (1560-1579.) Joseph Bentham (1594-1671), the English...
Another 39 words (3 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Bentholm Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Migration of the Bentholm family

For political, religious, and economic reasons, thousands of English families boarded ships for Ireland, Canada, the America colonies, and many of smaller tropical colonies in the hope of finding better lives abroad. Although the passage on the cramped, dank ships caused many to arrive in the New World diseased and starving, those families that survived the trip often went on to make valuable contributions to those new societies to which they arrived. Early immigrants bearing the Bentholm surname or a spelling variation of the name include: Matthew Bentham who settled in Barbados in 1679; James Bentham and family settled in South Carolina in 1820; Mary Bentheim settled in Edenton in North Carolina in 1820..

Citations +

Mills, A.D., Dictionary of English Place-Names. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991. Print. (ISBN 0-19-869156-4)
Lower, Mark Anthony, Patronymica Britannica, A Dictionary of Family Names of the United Kingdom. London: John Russel Smith, 1860. Print.
Williams, Dr Ann. And G.H. Martin, Eds., Domesday Book A Complete Translation. London: Penguin, 1992. Print. (ISBN 0-141-00523-8)