Patrick Barnum (4793)

The Barnum One-Name study originated more than 65 years ago with a letter I received during the Summer of 1960 from my paternal grandfather, who offered to fund the purchase of the necessary copies of legal documents if I undertook the physical research.

In the years before the advent of the Internet, the research consisted primarily of many hours spent in the genealogy sections of local libraries and dozens of letters sent to municipal, county, and state registrars. The project's progress, at first limited, increased dramatically after I purchased my first personal computer in 1992.

From that time, with the increasing availability of genealogical information on the Internet, the orientation of the study also changed, and I began to collect information for surname variants and all members of the Barnum family, not merely those in my direct line of descent. Its initial orientation toward the United States, where I lived then, also changed to include Barnum, Barnham, and Barnam family members worldwide. For the past 22 years, I've been a resident of Mexico, where I hold dual citizenship and continue researching Barnum genealogy worldwide.

I registered the Barnum, Barnham, and Barnam surnames with the Guild of One-Name Studies more than two decades ago. Still, work, travel, and family pressures relegated the study to relative oblivion. This new iteration is intended to develop in a more leisurely manner during the remaining years of my retirement.

The registered variants of the surname Barnum are Barnam and Barnham.

Barnum is a toponymic or habitational surname derived from a place name. It originated in England as Barnham (or de Bernham), and the spelling was changed after 1640 to Barnam or Barnum in the British Colonies of North America, from where those spellings eventually migrated with the families who bore them to other parts of the world. In December of 2021, I discovered that the surname Barnham, previously supposed to have originated with Sir Walter Barnham (1350 - after 1399), seems to have a much earlier origin. Research shows that on the deprivation in 1070 of Stigand, Archbishop of Canterbury (who held Haylesdon as a lay fee), William the Conqueror granted it to Godwin Halden. Godwin later took up residence at Bernham Manor in Haylesdon and began to style himself as Godwin de Bernham. It has subsequently been found that the arms of de Bernham are identical to those of Barnham, and research shows that several of Godwin's descendants left Norfolk later to settle at a location in Suffolk near where Sir Walter Barnham later resided. This strongly suggests that the family Barnham may have descended from the family de Bernham.

Of special note is the use of the surname Burnham by a few members of the Barnum family. According to family tradition, Stephen Baker Barnum (c. 1788-1860) decided as an adult that he no longer wished to have his name associated with that of his famous (some say infamous) third cousin, Phineas Taylor "P.T." Barnum, of circus fame. Therefore, he changed the spelling of his surname and that of his children from Barnum to Burnham. In doing so, he created a unique connection between two surnames for which no other historical relationship has been found. They are separate and distinct surnames with unique origins and meanings, the only connection between them being the artificial one created by Stephen's name change.

When surnames first began to be used in England, shortly after the Norman Conquest (1066), several persons living in towns called Barnham adopted the name of the town as a personal identifier. It is an Anglo-Saxon toponymic surname for any of the towns or villages named Barnham in the counties of Suffolk, Norfolk, and Staffordshire. Barnham in Suffolk is recorded as Berneham in the Domesday Book of 1086, while the two places in Norfolk and Staffordshire appear in the same source as Bernham. All of these place names have the same derivation.

The place-name Barnham arises from a combination of the pre-seventh-century Old English name Beorn(a) [from Beorn (Old Norse Barn), a warrior] with the Old English suffix "ham", meaning homestead or village (hamlet). It is related to the Scandinavian names Björn (Swedish) and Bjørn (Norwegian and Danish) meaning Bear. The word Baron also developed from Beorn.

The meaning of Barnham in Old English, then, was "the homestead (ham) of the family or followers of a man named Beorn".

The earliest recorded user of our surname was Godwin Halden de Bernham (abt. 1030 - aft. 1070). After he was awarded the lordship of Haylesdon (Hellesdon) by William the Conqueror in 1070, Godwin resided at Bernham, Norfolk (later Barnham Rysks, today Barnham Broom), and took his surname from that place. Through the vagaries of medieval English spelling, the place name Bernham and the family name de Bernham appear to have mutated over the centuries to become Barnham.

Barnum is the 58,337th most common surname in the world. Approximately 8,668 people bear this surname, which is most prevalent in the United States.

Barnham is the 398,612th most common surname in the world. Approximately 883 people bear this surname, which is most prevalent in England (and to some extent in Ireland).

Barnam is the 1,755,741st most common surname in the world and has virtually disappeared from English-speaking countries.

The ten countries in which the surname Barnum appears most frequently (in order of most to least common) are the United States, Canada, Saint Vicent and the Grenadines, the Philippines, Australia, England, Trinidad and Tobago, México, Ecuador, and Israel.

The ten countries in which the surname Barnham appears most frequently (in order of most to least common) are England, Australia, the United States, Scotland, Wales, Canada, the Isle of Man, Thailand, New Zealand, and India.

Eight occurrences of the surname Barnam have been found in the United States and five in England.

I am the owner and webmaster of the website "Barnum Family Genealogy" and the compiler and editor of Barnum Genealogy: 650 Years of Family History (Boston, Massachusetts: Higginson Book Company, 2006) [now out of print] and Barnum Genealogy, 2nd Edition (Boston, Massachusetts: Higginson Book Company, 2011). The information found in those three sources, gleaned from more than 60 years of study of the Barnum family, has formed the basis for the One-Name Study.

• Barnum, Noah G., The Barnum Family, 1517-1904 (Albion, New York: Privately Printed, 1904)

• Barnum, Noah G., The Barnum Family, 1350-1907 (Albion, New York: Privately Printed, 1907)

• Barnum, Eben Lewis, and Fr. Francis Barnum, SJ, Genealogical Record of the Barnum Family, Presenting a Conspectus of the Male Descendants of Thomas Barnum 1625-1695 (Gardner, Massachusetts: Meals Printing Company, 1912)

Over several centuries, the Crown of England granted patents of nobility to four members of the Barnham family. Burke, Extinct and Dormant Peerages of Great Britain, states that all of them have subsequently lapsed in default of male heirs.

The oldest of these, mentioned in Fairbairn’s Crests of the Leading Families in Great Britain and Ireland and their Kindred in other Lands, was bestowed upon Sir Walter Barnham by Richard II. Sir Walter was born about 1350, during the reign of Edward III, and was Chancellor of the Exchequer during the reign of Richard II. The exact date of his elevation to the nobility is not known. Sir Walter’s arms are illustrated below, per the description mentioned.

These arms of Sir Walter Barnham were blazoned: Argent, a cross gules between four crescents gules. Crest: A crescent gules between two laurel branches in orle proper. It is not known whether a motto accompanied this blazoning of arms.

The second patent of nobility granted to a member of the Barnham family was bestowed upon an unknown member of the family, possibly the father of Sir Nicholas Barnham (1455-1485). Sir Nicholas and his father were both killed on 22 August 1485 in Leicestershire, England, along with Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field.

These arms are blazoned: Sable, a cross engrailed between four crescents argent. Crest: A dragon's head argent pelletée between four dragon's wings sable bezantée. Motto: Per Crucem ad Lumen — “Through the Cross to the Light”

The third patent of nobility that is known to have been granted by the Crown to a member of the Barnham family is that of Sir Martin Barnham, knight of Hollingbourne, who was Sheriff of Kent in 1598. Sir Martin was knighted on July 23, 1603, by James I. This was just a few months after James had ascended the throne following the death of Elizabeth I. Note the quartering of the Barnham arms with those of Martin's mother, the heiress Alice Brodbridge. The use of the phaeon (the heraldic broad arrow) is an example of canting or punning arms — using a broad arrow for the sound of Brodbridge.

These arms are blazoned: Quarterly 1^st and 4^th sable, a cross engrailed between four crescents argent; 2nd and 3^rd azure, a phaeon proper. Crest: A dragon's head argent pelletée between four dragon's wings sable bezantée. Motto: Per Crucem ad Lumen — “Through the Cross to the Light”

Sir Robert Barnham, esq., was created a baronet by Charles II on August 15, 1663. His was the fourth patent of nobility granted to a member of the Barnham family. According to Burke's Heraldry (1826), “[T]he heiress of Sir Robert Barnham, second and last baronet, married Thomas Rider, esquire. A branch of the Barnhams still exists at Norwich.” No example has been found of the arms of Robert Barnham, Bart., but it may reasonably be assumed that they were similar to those of his grandfather, Sir Martin Barnham. The principal difference would likely have been the quartering of the Barnham arms with those of Robert's mother, the heiress Elizabeth Lennard, as illustrated below.

These arms are blazoned: Quarterly 1^st and 4^th sable, a cross engrailed between four crescents argent; 2nd and 3^rd or, on a fess gules three fleurs-de-lis of the first. Crest: A dragon's head argent pelletée between four dragon's wings sable bezantée. Motto: Per Crucem ad Lumen —“Through the Cross to the Light.”

Barnum Family DNA Project. Includes a brief listing of DNA tests completed by Barnum family members, together with the types of tests completed.

Barnum Family Genealogy (One-Name Study). This study, on my own website, contains all my research for the Barnum family, including more than 28,000 entries for Barnum, Barnam, and Barnham family members, their spouses, ancestors, and descendants.

Barnum Name Study on WikiTree. I've been developing a Barnum/Barnham One-Name Study on the WikiTree website, a free, single-family tree that includes more than 41,000,000 profiles. So far, I've connected about 7,000 Barnum profiles to the WikiTree Barnum Name Study.

My WikiTree Connection. This is my profile page on WikiTree, which connects to all my direct ancestors (Barnum and others) and their collateral lines of descent.