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Branwayte is an ancient Scottish name that was first used by the Strathclyde-Briton people of the Scottish/English Borderlands. It is 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
The surname Branwayte 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
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
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Branwayte 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 Branwayte History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Prior to the first dictionaries, scribes spelled words according to sound. This, and the fact that Scottish names were repeatedly translated from Gaelic to English and back, contributed to the enormous number of spelling variations in Scottish names. Branwayte has been spelled Brathwaite, Brathwait, Braithwaite, Braithwait and many more.
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, Brathwait, Brathwayte, Braithwaite, Braythwait, and Braythwayte. The poet uses indifferently the first three of these forms. His great-grandfather, also Richard, the squire of Ambleside, had one son, Robert, who had two sons, Thomas and James, and five daughters. Thomas, the poet's...
Another 77 words (6 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Branwayte Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
In such difficult times, the difficulties of raising the money to cross the Atlantic to North America did not seem so large compared to the problems of keeping a family together in Scotland. It was a journey well worth the cost, since it was rewarded with land and freedom the Scots could not find at home. The American War of Independence solidified that freedom, and many of those settlers went on to play important parts in the forging of a great nation. Among them: William Braithwaite who settled in Maryland in 1775; Susan Braithwaite with her husband Francis arrived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with four children in 1822.