The surname Kalmaday was first found in Devon where "Langdon was for several generations till recently the seat of the Calmadys. "[1]
By the 13th century, the family held the estates of Wembury in Devon. "The church [of Membury] contains a monument to the memory of Sir S. Calmady, who was mortally wounded at the siege of Ford House, during the great civil war." [2]
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Kalmaday research. Another 141 words (10 lines of text) covering the years 1510, 1600, 1080, 1142, 1149, 1162, 1163, 1455, 1487, 1645, 1619, 1683, 1660, 1600, 1666, 1600, 1635, 1685, 1642, 1686, 1671, 1732, 1671, 1697 and 1755 are included under the topic Early Kalmaday History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Spelling variations in names were a common occurrence before English spelling was standardized a few hundred years ago. In the Middle Ages, even the literate spelled their names differently as the English language incorporated elements of French, Latin, and other European languages. Many variations of the name Kalmaday have been found, including Calmady, Kalmady, Galmady, Callmady, Calmadie, Calmadee, Calmadey, Callamadee and many more.
Distinguished members of the family include Sir Shilston Calmady (died 1645), English soldier in the English Civil War, killed in action; and his son, Josias Calmady (1619-1683), an English politician who sat in the House of Commons, Member of Parliament for Okehampton (1660.)
Edmund Calamy the Elder (1600-1666), one of the authors of ‘Smectymnuus,’ was born in February 1600, the only son of a tradesman in Walbrook. His father came from Guernsey, and the family tradition is that he was an exiled Huguenot from the coast...
Another 85 words (6 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Kalmaday Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Families began migrating abroad in enormous numbers because of the political and religious discontent in England. Often faced with persecution and starvation in England, the possibilities of the New World attracted many English people. Although the ocean trips took many lives, those who did get to North America were instrumental in building the necessary groundwork for what would become for new powerful nations. Some of the first immigrants to cross the Atlantic and come to North America bore the name Kalmaday, or a variant listed above: the name represented in many forms and recorded from the mid 17th century in the great migration from Europe. Migrants settled in the eastern seaboard from Newfoundland, to Maine, to Virginia, the Carolinas, and to the islands..