Braithwait History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
Scotland
England

Among the the peoples of ancient Scotland, the first to use the name Braithwait were the Strathclyde-Britons. Braithwait was a name for someone who lived in any of the places so named in Cumberland or Yorkshire, bordering on Scotland. This place-name derived from the Old Norse words for a broad clearing. 1

Early Origins of the Braithwait family

The surname Braithwait was first found in Cumberland, at Braithwaite, a township, in the parish of Crosthwaite, Allerdale ward above Derwent. Braithwaite is also a hamlet, in the parish of KirkBramwith, union of Doncaster, Upper division of the wapentake of Osgoldcross in the West Riding of Yorkshire. 2

"Braithwaite is a characteristic north of England name, occurring in Westmorland, Cumberland, Yorkshire, and Lancashire. A Cumberland parish and West Riding hamlets are thus called. An ancient Westmorland family of Brathwaite or Braithwaite resided at Ambleside, near Kendal, in the 16th and 17th centuries, and afterwards at Warcop and Burneside. " 3

The Hundredorum Rolls of 1273 had only one listing for the family, that being in Yorkshire: Geoffrey de Braytweyt. But by the Yorkshire Poll Tax Rolls of 1379, there were more listings: Alicia Brathwayt; Willelmus de Brathwat; and Willelmus de Brathwayt. 4

Further to the north in Scotland, "the name is found in Edinburgh in the seventeenth century as Breathit and Breathwit." 5

Early History of the Braithwait family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Braithwait research. Another 205 words (15 lines of text) covering the years 1185, 1588, 1633, 1660, 1673, 1684, 1711, 1744, 1746, 1750, 1791, 1820 and 1825 are included under the topic Early Braithwait History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Braithwait Spelling Variations

Medieval Scottish names are rife with spelling variations. This is due to the fact that scribes in that era spelled according to the sound of words, rather than any set of rules. Braithwait has been spelled Brathwaite, Brathwait, Braithwaite, Braithwait and many more.

Early Notables of the Braithwait family

Notable amongst the family at this time was

Richard Braithwaite or Brathwaite (1588-1673), an English poet best known for his 'Drunken Barnaby's Four Journeys.' He "belonged to a Westmorland family who variously spelt their name Brathwaite, Bra...
John Braithwaite (fl. 1660), was an English Quaker, probably born in 1633, as there is an entry in the Cartmel registers of the baptism on 24 March 1633 of John, son of James Braithwaite of Newton. (N...

Braithwait migration to the United States +

Many Scots were left with few options other than to leave their homeland for the colonies across the Atlantic. Some of these families fought to defend their newfound freedom in the American War of Independence. Others went north to Canada as United Empire Loyalists. The ancestors of all of these families have recently been able to rediscover their roots through Clan societies and other Scottish organizations. Among them:

Braithwait Settlers in United States in the 19th Century

John Braithwait, who arrived in Arkansas in 1843 6
George Braithwait, who landed in Arkansas in 1887 6

Citations +

Smith, Eldson Coles, New Dictionary of American Family Names New York: Harper & Row, 1956. Print
Lewis, Samuel, A Topographical Dictionary of England. Institute of Historical Research, 1848, Print.
Guppy, Henry Brougham, Homes of Family Names in Great Britain. 1890. Print.
Bardsley, C.W, A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames: With Special American Instances. Wiltshire: Heraldry Today, 1901. Print. (ISBN 0-900455-44-6)
Black, George F., The Surnames of Scotland Their Origin, Meaning and History. New York: New York Public Library, 1946. Print. (ISBN 0-87104-172-3)
Filby, P. William, Meyer, Mary K., Passenger and immigration lists index : a guide to published arrival records of about 500,000 passengers who came to the United States and Canada in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. 1982-1985 Cumulated Supplements in Four Volumes Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Co., 1985, Print (ISBN 0-8103-1795-8)