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![Show Contents]() Drigham History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms
- Origins Available:
 England
Drigham is a name of ancient Anglo-Saxon origin and comes from the family once having lived in Yorkshire, where they lived in the village named Brigham. The place-name Brigham is derived from the Old English words Brycg and ham which literally mean bridge and homestead. 1 Early Origins of the Drigham familyThe surname Drigham was first found in the East Riding of Yorkshire at Brigham, a township, in the parish of Fostonupon-Wolds, union of Driffield, wapentake of Dickering. Brigham can also be found in the West division of Cumberland where it is a parish of some size. 2 Early History of the Drigham familyThis web page shows only a small excerpt of our Drigham research. Another 82 words (6 lines of text) covering the years 1543, 1555 and 1558 are included under the topic Early Drigham History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible. Drigham Spelling VariationsSound 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 Drigham family name include Briggam, Brigham, Brighame and others. Early Notables of the Drigham familyDistinguished members of the family include Nicholas Brigham (d. 1558), a Latin scholar and antiquarian, who gave up literature to practice in the law courts. In 1555, he built a tomb for the bones of Chaucer in Westminster Abbey. It is thought that "he was...
Another 45 words (3 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Drigham Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible. Migration of the Drigham familyFor 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 Drigham surname or a spelling variation of the name include: Richard Brigham settled in the New Netherlands in 1645; Thomas Brigham settled in Cambridge Massachusetts in 1645; John Brigham settled in Maryland in 1774.
- Mills, A.D., Dictionary of English Place-Names. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991. Print. (ISBN 0-19-869156-4)
- Lewis, Samuel, A Topographical Dictionary of England. Institute of Historical Research, 1848, Print.
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