The Latham Family
The Meaning of the Name Latham
Latham comes from the medieval Latin Lathomi or Latomi meaning "stone cutters" or "masons." . In Norse, the word was hlathum meaning "barn." The earlier spellings of this name were Leathan/Leathom meaning "the house near the barn." "Ham" means "house." Another book states that Latham/Lathom means "one who came from Lathom or Laytham in Yorkshire, or Lathom in Lancashire (Smith, 300).
The Latham Crest and Coat of Arms:
The Latham coat of arms appears in Foster's Dictionary of Heraldry: Feudal Coat of Arms and Pedigrees. 125:
Written and researched by Margaret Odrowaz-Sypniewska
In Fairbairn's Crests of the Families of Great Britain and Ireland it states:
Latham of Essex and Lancaster, an eagle preying on a child, all ppr., the child in swaddling clothes, gules, bound argent, at the head of the child is an oak-branch of the second.
First Record of the Latham Family:
The Lathoms were an Anglo-Saxon family that lived in Latham Manor in West Riding Yorkshire, England. Latham House was originally a lofty tower called "The Eagles." Sir Dunning Latham, Earl of Latham (a Saxon lord) was living in Lancaster County about the time of the Norman Conquest. He married Lady Marigard of Avon and Essex, the daughter of the Duke of Essex.
Sir Dunning Latham sided with the Normans, thus betraying the Saxon people. His lordship was given to him by the Normans because of his choice. Sir Dunning was granted his lordship of the Chapelry of Lathom in 1067. His wife's father also sided with the Normans.
Sir Dunning Latham and his wife Lady Marigard de Essex, had a son named Siward. Siward was born in 1073. Marigard died during his birth and Dunning never remarried, and he died in 1092, of pneumonia.
Sir Dunning of Latham was thought to have been the son of Ughtred. Uchtred/Ughtred was the Earl of Northumberland. He married Elgiva of England. Ichtred was the son-in-law of Ethelred II, "the Unready," King of England (d. 1016) who was married to (1) Alfflaed.
The name Latham first appears in English records in 1266.
GENERATION ONE:
Siward (son of Dunning) de Lathom was born on July 4, 1073 in the Chapelry of Latham, Lancaster County, England. Siward dies January 9, 1095 in the Chapelry of Lathom. Siward married Helga of Chester, on November 22, 1092. Helga was born on March 4. 1064, and died December 13, 1095.
GENERATION TWO:
Henry (son of Siward) de Latham, was born on April 27, 1093 in the Chapelry of Latham, Lancaster, England, and died June 12, 1128. Henry married Alice Woodward on April 24, 1118. Alice was born on April 4, 1092, and died on April 14, 1165.
GENERATION THREE:
Robert (son of Henry) de Lathom was born August 18, 1123, in the Chapelry of Lathom, Lancaster, England. Robert married Dora Whimple Magnus, the daughter of Orme Magnus (son of Ailward) on May 23, 1143. Dora was born on February 16, 1126, in Castlebury, England, and died December 28, 1185, in the Chapelry of Lathom, Lancaster, England. Robert dies in 1198. He held the manor of Woolfall, near Xuyton (now Merseyside).
GENERATION FOUR:
Richard (son of Robert) de Latham (1172-1220) married Alice Nelson.
GENERATION FIVE:
Robert (son of Richard) de Latham (1188-1250). Lathom manor was built in 1304. Robert had free warren and a market fair at Lathom and Robye. Robert was born on December 23, 1188/1198, and died September 12, 1250, in Lancaster County, England. Robert married Amica de Alfreton in 1223. Amica was brn May 26, 1200, and died November 11, 1250. Amica's father was Robert Lord and baron of Alfreton, Normanton, and Farmham in the reign of Edward I, and prior to 1252. Robert de Latham was High Sheriff of Lancaster in 1236, 1248, 1249, and 1263.
GENERATION SIX:
Sir Robert (son of Richard) de Lathom was born June 22, 1240 in Lancaster and died July 4, 1302. Robert married Catherine de Knowselegh of Derby on January 26, 1267. Catherine's father was Thomas de Knowselegh (1247-1277). Robert fought against the Scots in 1291 and 1309, was Justice of Oyer and Ternminer in 1324. He had a Knight's charter of the manors of Latham and Roby in 1303.
GENERATION SEVEN:
Philip de Lathom of Congleton, Chesire, England, was born July 7, 1227, in Lancaster, Enlgand. He married Mary de Chester on May 24, 1500.
GENERATION EIGHT:
Sir Thomas Lathom (knight) was born in 1301 in Lathom, Lancaster, England, and died September 14, 1370. He married Eleanor ferrars and had a son Thomas Latham.
Hugh de Latham (1302-1319), son of Philip, married Joyce Latchkey (b. 1301) on March 23, 1319, in Lathom.
GENERATION NINE:
Robert Ryan Lathom of Astley.
Other links regarding the Lathom family:
WIKITREE:
Alternate tree for the Lathom Family
SOURCES:
Smith, Elsdon C. New Dictionary of American Family Names. New York: Gramercy Publishing Company, 300.
