The SCAMP study has just (January 2020) been picked up by a new researcher who is busy investigating and collating all the information known about the SCAMP family. 

Collaboration is invited and greatly looked forward to, please contact me via the email address below.

The Scamp name appears to be virtually unchanged over several hundred years but has been found as Skamp, Scampe, Skam, Skaimes and Scemp.

Charles Bardsley is his famous 1880 book, OUR ENGLISH SURNAMES: their Sources and Significations believed that Scamp was a quite rare  and very old surname. It was possibly introduced into England at the time of the Norman Conquest of 1066, and a derivation of the French word "descampen.", which according to the website "Surname DB"  meant someone of no fixed abode.

Initial research has discovered two main branches with some longevity. One branch lived in Devon  and the other lived in Kent. So far no links have been found between them.

 In the 1841 census there are 159 Scamps listed; the largest groups being 111 in Devon, 16 in Gloucestershire (but the adults not born there), and 8 in Somerset. These individuals families originated in Devon  There are only  5 in Kent. This is likely to be a serious underestimation as the Kent Scamps were Romany and were not well enumerated.

By 1881, the census shows only a very small change in numbers, up to 161; the largest groups are 89 in Devon and 46 in Kent. 

By 1939, the pre-war census lists 153 Scamps; the largest groups being 79 in Kent, 26 in Devon, 10 in Glamorgan, 7 in Essex, 6 in Birmingham, 5 in Somerset.

SCAMP blog - This first blog is called "What's in a name?" It's about a Scamp who changed his name to Manley Camp and what he did with his life - from Devon & Cornwall to  London slums, Bridewell, Herefordshire river baptisms -  schoolteacher, Baptist minister, teetotal advocate, acclaimed vigorous orator, campaigner against the established church - the Rev J M Camp hit life head on for over 80 years, making him one of my favourite ancestors.

Romany and Traveller Family History Society

The Surname Database