Background and Aims

1. The industrial revolution changed Britain dramatically. People moved from working the land to gaining new skills in the growing industrial towns and cities particularly in the north. The Needham’s provide good examples of this. In the 18th century a number of them  moved to Sheffield  as apprentice cutlers. Take William Needham who was a husbandman in Rotherham. In 1733 he had the foresight to send his eldest son George to train as an apprentice cutler in Sheffield. This was the start of a long line of Needham cutlers. In fact of the 96 Needham boys born in the 18th century in Sheffield, nearly half died before the age of 21 and the remainder all worked in the cutlery industry. But back to William’s descendants. George’s grandson Henry Needham, a spring knife manufacturer married Ann Brown and they had  9 children. Two of these children, William and Joseph Needham, founded Needham Brothers which had the well known Trade Mark ‘Repeat’ and a third brother, Thomas Brown Needham started the company that inherited the iconic ‘ Eye Witness’ corporate Trade Mark.  Through mergers this company became Needham Veall & Tyzack, one of the more progressive cutlery companies . From this one family two cutlery companies emerged which were still in existence to  middle of the 20th century and one is still going to day although it has been merged into a multinational company.
2. Needham's fought each other in the English civil war. After the battle of Naseby  in 1645 Leicester was recaptured from the Royalists and Colonel John Needham was made the Governor  of the city . The Parliamentarians  went after the Royalist army and eventually defeated them at the battle of Worcester. A leading Royalist Colonel George Needham, fled to the West Indies where he became a Member of the Jamaican Assembly and was an early Speaker of the Jamaican Parliament. When Charles II came to the throne he rewarded him with land (and slaves)
3. Although Edward Moore Needham was born in Macclesfield he lived the latter part of his live in Derbyshire, near Belper . He joined the railways in their infancy in 1839 and rapidly rose through  the ranks to become the General Superintendent of Passengers for the Midland Railway, He died in 1890 and the respect of his peers and the town he lived in was such that at his funeral a special train was laid on to the town of Belper  and the town shut all its shops  as the cortège included over 100 carriages proceeded down the High Street.  So a lad who joined the railways as a porter aged 19 went on to be a major influence of one of the biggest rail companies in the country.

What's in a name

The surname Needham is English and is recorded with a wide variety of spellings including Needham, Needam, Nedam, Nedum, Neden, Nedin, Nedon, Needon, and Nedeham; no doubt there are others. We know Needham is surname but it is also a place name ie Needham in Norfolk, Needham Market in Suffolk and High Needham in Derbyshire. So the first question to ask is what came first the place name or the surname?

In Great Britain virtually no one had a surname or family name before the 12th century. Family names started to be used from the middle end of the 11th century when King  William wanted to know who on owned what lands and who owed him money. As a consequence the name structure we use now (Christian name(s) followed by a surname) came into being and surnames began to be used usually based on the father's/husbands name. Because of the Kings requirement the first set of people to adopt this name structure were the higher social classes such as Lords of the Manor. Over time the use of surnames and forenames filtered through society so that by the end of the 16th century most people had a surname and first name. The earliest reference I have found to a Needham is in the Rotuli Hundredorum of around 1275 and refers to Johes de Nedh'm ie Johes of Nedh'm with French being the court language as William was French. In fact most of the references to Needham's from the 11th century to the 16th century are called xxxx de Needham or xxxx de Nedham ie xxxx from Needham or xxxx from Nedham
 
So I would argue that the Needham family name came from the place Needham not the place of Needham being named after the family.

It's also worth pointing out that there are a large number of variants of Needham and that as an observation there are few variants in the higher social classes and far more variants from those people at the bottom of the social spectrum. In part this must be due to the level of education. It is noticeable that by the 20th century when universal schooling was in place and the level of literacy increased significantly that the number of variants declined. 

Thus having concluded that the basis for the surname Needham is locational then the drivation of the name must have come from one or all of the places called 'Needham' . The OS map has three places in England with Needham in it: Needham , Derbyshire; Needham, Norfolk, and Needham Market in Suffolk.

There are at least two theories on the derivation of the place name Needham;

• "Needham" might have come from the Olde English pre 7th century elements 'ned' meaning need, with 'ham', a homestead or village; the name indicating a place that provided a poor living. A similar formation from the same period was the place called Hungerton, also meaning a poor or hungry village. See note 2
• According to thee Needham Historical Society, “Needham” might have come from the Anglo-Saxon and means “Lower Village,”(17) with nieder being Germanic for nether or lower, and ham signifying a village or hamlet, according to the Needham Historical Society. As has been pointed out by George Moore this has some  appeal because of the common use of Nether in place-names in both Hallamshire (Nether Hallam Bierlow) and in Hartington Parish, Derbyshire (the parish of High Needham) which had upper, middle, town, and nether quarters.

I'll leave others to decide which is correct

Origin

Needham's of Norfolk or Derbyshire?

Distribution

Growth in Population

Distribution

The earliest comprehensive data available comes from parish registers. But care needs to be taken as not all parishes are on line some of the registers are damaged and difficult to read. None the less some idea of the early distribution of Needhams can be gained by looking at baptism data. The earliest data that is reasonably comprehensive is in the period 1600 to 1630.  If we look at the distribution by county then Derbyshire and Lincolnshire have the highest number of Needham's outside London

The parish with the largest baptisms of Needham's is Hartington which has double the number of the second placed parish, Baslow. These two parishes are adjacent to each other with Hartington being the parish where the Needham's originated at High Needham. Third equal are three parishes in three areas: Worksop in Nottinghamshire, Macclesfield in Cheshire and Magnus the Martyr in London. There are two other parishes which have over 10 baptisms: Humberstone in Leicestershire and Bishopsgate in London

However, if we look at the density of Needham's in a county, Lancashire and Yorkshire drop to 8th and 6th respectively because they have high populations, while smaller Derbyshire rises one place to second. The county with the highest density is Rutland followed by Derbyshire with Leicestershire third.

Distribution by County

Detailed analysis is available on the output of the 1881 census. Looking at the distribution of counties with the highest number of Needham's they lie in a band running NorthWest SouthEast across the middle of England from Lancashire in the west to Lincolnshire in the east.

Distribution by District

A similar pattern occurs when the numbers of Needham's in the 1881 census returns are analysed by Districts. There are 10 districts with over 100 Needham's. These districts vary from the large industrial cities of Sheffield and Oldham to small parishes such as Barrow on Soar

Not surprisingly the district distribution follows a similar pattern to that of the counties

The district with the highest incidence of Needham's is Oldham in Lancashire where there are 417. This is 34% higher than second placed Ecclesall Bierlow and 41% higher than third placed Sheffield both of which are in West Yorkshire. All three of these districts are in large industrial towns with populations of over 100k people. So when you look at density of Needham's Bakewell in Derbyshire is top followed by Oakham in Rutland and Chapel en le Frith which like Bakewell is in Derbyshire. All three of these districts have fewer than 31k people living in then. Oldham which has the highest number of Needham's drops to 11 when you look at density, Ecclesall Bierlow is 12th and Sheffield is outside the top 20

Regional Growth Variation

When the first national census was completed in 1841 there were 3501 people registered with Needham as their surname in England. 82% of this number were in the counties of Lancashire, Derbyshire, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire, with the highest number being in Lancashire. 

By comparison in 1841 there are less than 30 Needham's in Norfolk and Suffolk which would imply that the Needham line emanating from Needham in Norfolk had essentially died out or had moved away from East Anglia and that the majority of the ancestors of Needham's in England came from High Needham in Derbyshire.

From 1841 to 1911 the number of Needham's grew in line with the growth in the national population.

The county with the greatest growth in Needham's appears to be Yorkshire, which by 1901 was the county with the highest number of Needham's (thank goodness!)

In the 7 counties with the highest number of Needham's, the number of Needham's increased between 1841 and 1911 but interestingly over the same period the proportion of Needham's in the Derbyshire and Sheffield population compared to the total number of Needham's fell. In Derbyshire there was also a trend where Needham's moved from rural villages into the bigger towns in Derbyshire and Cheshire and the industrial cities in Lancashire and Yorkshire.

One very noticeable point to make is that theses areas are close to Derbyshire and High Needham; The incidence of Needham's in East Anglia is low. This would point to High Needham our North West Derbyshire being the predominent source of the Needham name

All the data is accessed from a single page. Unsurprisingly this is called , the Record Page. From this page you can access: 

1. Parish records - Baptism, Burials and Marriages

Information is available for a number of large number of Derbyshire Parishes, for a small number of parishes in North Cheshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire,and for a number of parishes in South Yorkshire including Sheffield2. Parish FamiliesFor some parishes the baptism, burial and marriiage records have been summarised into family units

3. Wills

The family relationships from the wills of a large number of wills proven in the Perogative Court of Canterbury, the appropriate Consistory Court, and the National Probate Calender for Needham's who died in the following places: Cheshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Staffordshire, Shropshire and Warwickshire and Sheffield 

4.Church Records

These records include papist returns and marriage bonds. Other records will be added as appropriate

5. Crime

Currently only court records for crimes committed in Sheffield are available. 

6. Directories

Information from Trade Directories in SHeffield and Derbyshire are available7. General ArmouryThis summarises the coat of arms issued to a number of Needham's

8. Gravestones

Details of memorials in a number of graveyards Derbyshire, Rutland, Staffordshire and Yorkshire have been detained

9. Poll Books and Electoral Rolls

Dat is available for Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Sheffield

10.Tax

This can provide an excellent source of information and particular attention has focused on the Hearth Tax (1662 & 1688) and Lay Subsidy (from 1290)

11.Trades Professions & Businesses

Many Needham's were skilled craftsmen so this summarise. those records relating to Guilds and Livery Companies, apprenticeships, employment records, trade union records, professions and businesses

12. Property

Fortunately some Needham's owned property. To date details have been summarised of some of the larger more important residences

13. Visitations

Finally, some of the Needham's were wealthy enough to be issued with coats of arms and Visitations were undertaken and recorded by the Garter Principal King of Arms.  Records from a number of these Visitations starting with those undertaken in 1530. The outcome has been summarised for Needham's in six counties. 

At the moment there is one focusing on DNA data. It would be a good idea to establish a group to look after this are. However, there is a group set up in Family Tree DNA and run by Stan Courtney:

https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/needham/about