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The name Berhems arrived in England after the Norman Conquest of 1066. The Berhems family lived in any of several places of this name in the counties of Middlesex and Kent having derived from the Old English words beorg, meaning hill, and ham, meaning homestead. 1
The surname Berhems was first found in Kent, where Barham is a village and civil parish in the City of Canterbury. An ancient Saxon village, it was listed as Bioraham in 799 1 and later as Bercheham in the Domesday Book. 2 There are also parishes in the Dioceses Ely, Chichester, and Norwich.
The first record of the surname was Warine de Berham, as holding lands in Kent in 1203. 3
The Hundredorum Rolls of 1273 included some early spellings for the name: Simon de Bernham in Norfolk; and Walter de Bernham in Suffolk. 4
The Placita de Quo Warranto, temp. Edward I-III listed John de Bernham, Kent, 20 Edward I (during the twentieth year of King Edward I's reign) and Thomas de Bernham, Suffolk.
"The family were lords of Barham, in Kent, at an early period, and according to Philipot, the Kentish genealogist, descendants of Robert de Berham, son of Richard Fitz-Urse, and brother of one of the assassins of Thomas a Beckett. " 5
"The Sussex Barhams are probably connected with the ancient Kentish family of Barham. In the 13th century Baham was a Suffolk name. " 6
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Berhems research. Another 133 words (10 lines of text) covering the years 1390, 1391, 1535, 1577, 1595, 1621, 1625, 1626, 1634, 1667, 1670 and 1726 are included under the topic Early Berhems History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Anglo-Norman names tend to be marked by an enormous number of spelling variations. This is largely due to the fact that Old and Middle English lacked any spelling rules when Norman French was introduced in the 11th century. The languages of the English courts at that time were French and Latin. These various languages mixed quite freely in the evolving social milieu. The final element of this mix is that medieval scribes spelled words according to their sounds rather than any definite rules, so a name was often spelled in as many different ways as the number of documents it appeared in. The name was spelled Barham, Bareham, Barrham, Braham, Bearham, Bereham and many more.
Outstanding amongst the family at this time was Richard de Berham, Sheriff of Kent (1390-1391); Sir Edward Barkham (died 1634), an English merchant, Lord Mayor of London in 1621; and Sir Edward Barkham, 1st Baronet of South Acre (1595-1667), an English politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1625 and 1626.
Nicholas Barham (d. 1577), was an early English lawyer, "a native of Wadhurst, Sussex. His family had been settled there for some generations, being a branch of...
Another 78 words (6 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Berhems Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Because of the political and religious discontent in England, families began to migrate abroad in enormous numbers. Faced with persecution and starvation at home, the open frontiers and generally less oppressive social environment of the New World seemed tantalizing indeed to many English people. The trip was difficult, and not all made it unscathed, but many of those who did get to Canada and the United States made important contributions to the young nations in which they settled. Some of the first North American settlers with Berhems name or one of its variants: Anthony Barham who settled in Virginia in 1626; L. Berham arrived in San Francisco, California, in 1850; Mary Barham settled in Virginia in 1654; Thomas Barham settled in Maryland in 1720..