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The surname Wellhopp was first found in Hampshire where "the true and original name of this family is Barton - Peter Barton, lord of West Barton, having married Alice, only daughter and heiress of Sir Robert de Wallop, who died in the eleventh year of Edward I." 1
There can be no doubt as to the authenticity of this quote, but one must question Sir Robert de Wallop's heritage, not Peter Barton. For this, we must look back further where the name "Matthew de Wallop, which was the title of one of it's early members, favours the opinion, that the Wallops were settled at Wallop as Saxon manorial lords anterior to the Conquest of England, and that the family name is derived from that places." In fact, "four brothers are mentioned in [the] Domesday [Book] as possessing Wallop, in Hampshire." 2
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Wellhopp research. Another 106 words (8 lines of text) covering the years 1228, 1502, 1540, 1551, 1566, 1568, 1581, 1599, 1601, 1616, 1621, 1642, 1660, 1667, 1690, 1697 and 1762 are included under the topic Early Wellhopp 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 Wallhope, Wallop, Walopp, Walop, Wallopp, Wallope, Wellhope, Welhopp and many more.
Outstanding amongst the family at this time was Sir John Wallop (d. 1551), English soldier and diplomatist, the son of Stephen Wallop. "The family of Wallop had, according to a pedigree drawn up by Augustine Vincent, been very long settled in Hampshire. They held various manors there, but John Wallop, who lived in the time of Henry VI and Edward IV, having inherited Farleigh, or, as it was afterwards called, Farleigh-Wallop, from his mother, made that the chief residence of his family. A son of this John Wallop, Richard Wallop, was sheriff of Hampshire in 1502, and seems to have died...
Another 132 words (9 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Wellhopp 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 Wellhopp name or one of its variants: James Wallop who arrived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1749.