It is said that all those with the surname Kerkham (as distinct from Kirkham) are related. Present-day Kerkhams are descended from Kerkhams who lived in The Fens area of south-east Lincolnshire / north-west Norfolk around 1800. During the 19th century Kerkhams were to be found at Fleet, Sutton, Terrington and King's Lynn.

Origin of the Kerkham Family

Various suggestions have been made as to the origin of the Kerkham family:

1. A Dutch/Flemish Origin?

Around 1650 the Dutch engineers, Cornelius Vermuyden, undertook extensive works to drain the fens where the Kerkham family are known to have lived. He made use of Dutch and French Protestant settlers to assist him, and it is possible that the ancestors of the Kerkhams were among them, the name "kerkham" being an anglicised form of the Dutch or Flemish name Van Kerkhem or Van Kerken. These European names are found in:

• German: the name Kirchheim is found A.M.H.J. Stokvis (Manuel d'historie, de genealogie et de chronologie de tous les etats du globe. Leiden, 1888-1893, repr. 1966. There is a town Kerken in West Germany (51° 26'N 6° 25'E) close to the Netherlands border.
• Dutch: the name Van Kerchem is found Johan E. Elias (De vroedschap van Amsterdam 1578-1795. Haarlem, 1903-1905, reprinted 1963), and the name Van Kerken in C.C. De Villiers (Geslacht register der oude Kaapse familien. Revised by C.Pama, A.A.Balkema, Cape Town, 1966. p.111).
• French: the names De Kerken and De Kerkhem are found in Remy J. Leenaert (Algemeen genealogisch-heraldisch repertorium voor de Zuidelijke Nederlanden. v.2 no.8560, v.2 no.10659, v.3 no.17085).

The Kerkhams currently living around King's Lynn have a tradition that the Kerkhams are descended from a retainer of William III, Prince of Orange, a member of the Dutch house of Orange-Nassau. He assisted his wife, Queen Mary, to gain the throne of England in 1688. He granted land near King's Lynn to William Bentinck, his faithful friend and "right-hand man", and this may be why there are Kerkhams on former Bentinck farms even today.

2. An English Origin?

The Kerkhams may be descended from the Kirkhams, an old English family dating back to Norman times when the name was De Kyrkham or De Kirkham. The name "Kirkham" in England dates back to at least the thirteenth century.

• Charles Wareing Bardsley (A dictionary of English and Welsh surnames. London, 1901) and P.H. Reaney (A dictionary of British surnames. 2nd ed. London, 1976} link it with the Norman(?) name De Kirkham / De Kyrkham / De Kirkeham which dates back to at least 1219.
• Kirkham / Kyrkham is listed in George W. Marshall (The genealogist's guide. London, 1885, 1903) and J.B. Whitmore (A genealogical guide. London, 1953).
• There are towns named Kirkham in Lancashire (53.47N 2.53W), and Yorkshire (54.05N 0.53W).
• In Yorkshire there was a Priory of Kirkham at Folkton, a house of Augustinian canons founded in the 1120s the ruins of which can still be seen today (History of the County of York - East Riding).
• There was also a Manor of Carkin / Kerchan / Kerkan / Karkin / Kirkham (History of the County of York - North Riding).

It has been suggested that a branch of the Kirkhams fell out with the rest of the family and changed their name to Kerkham, but this is mere speculation.

More likely is that "Kerkham" is simply an spelling variation of "Kirkham", as the spelling of names is often variable in older records. There are cases where a person known to be a Kerkham has their name spelled as "Kirkham" in official records.

In 2004, Richard Kerkham wrote a valuable record, The Kerkham Family, in which he was able to show a likely connection between the present-day Kerkhams and the Kirkhams of 18th-century Asterby, Lincolnshire.

The Earliest Known Kerkhams

Prior to Richard Kerkham's investigations in the early 2000s, the earliest known ancestor was a Richard Kerkham who married Rebekah Ratcliffe on 12 May 1783 at Long Sutton (his surname is spelled "Kirkham" in the marriage record). Both were staunch Baptists and they held services in Richard's farmhouse at Villa Farm, Lutton Garnsgate. In the 1805 Fleet Baptist records the Kerkham and Ratcliffe families appear on the first entry page as being received into the church. Richard died on 10 May 1826 and according to his gravestone in Fleet churchyard he was 72 years old; the Fleet Baptist Chapel burial register gives his age as 71 years; his marriage record gives his birth date as "abt 1758". No records of his birth have been found, but the above would place his birth date as 1753, 1754 or (less likely) about 1758. He is thought to have been born in Long Sutton (but see below). Click here for a map of the Long Sutton area.

Meanwhile the FamilySearch / IGI databases show a series of Richard Kirkhams from the Market Stainton / Goulceby / Asterby area in Lincolnshire:

RICHARD KIRKHAM (born abt 1643, of Lincolnshire)
     RICHARD KIRKHAM (born abt 1664, of Lincolnshire, married Jane ?
     abt 1685 at Market Stainton, died 30 Jul 1697 at Market Stainton).
     (Jane was born abt 1664, of Lincolnshire)
          RICHARD KIRKHAM (born 4 Jul 1686 at Market stainton, married
          Susanna Tuxworth 11 Jun 1708 at Asterby). (Susanna was born 1687
          at Asterby)
               ANN KIRKHAM (born 1709 at Goulceby)
               RICHARD KIRKHAM (born 5 Jun 1711 at Asterby, married
               Elizabeth ? abt 1747, died 30 Mar 1798 at Goulceby).
               (Elizabeth was born 1720 at Goulceby and died 29 Sep 1804
               at Goulceby)
                    JOHN KIRKHAM (born 1748)
                    RICHARD KIRKHAM (born abt 1752 at Goulceby)

Click here for a map of the Asterby area.

The 21st-century Richard has suggested that the Richard Kirkham born abt 1752 and the Richard Kirkham / Kerkham born 1754 / 1755 / 1758 are one and the same person. Reasons for this assumption include:

• Richard Kirkham and Francis Ratcliffe were stawarts of Asterby Baptist Church from the 1720s to the 1760s.
• The Kirkham and Ratcliffe families were farmers and leading Baptists in both the Asterby / Goulceby area and the Long Sutton area in the second half of the 18th century.
• The name Richard was in 4 successive generations, but practically nowhere else.
• One of the witnesses at Richard Kerkham's marriage to Rebekah Ratcliffe was Susannah 'Kirk' of York. Soon afterwards, Richard was a witness at the marriage of Susannah Kirkham to Samuel Goodrick on 27 May 1784 at Long Sutton. Susannah may have been named after Susanna Tuxworth.
• Benjamin Anderson was the other witness at Richard's marriage. The Andersons were another prominent family in the Asterby area. A book on the history of Asterby says: "the Kirkhams succeeded to the last of the Anderson lands". It says on page 104: "Richard Kirkham married an Anderson, Anderson and Holmes being the 2 yeoman families that survived the Civil War and Commonwealth Years. Anderson sold off the land to the Castles and Tuxworths among others .By 1700 only one line of Andersons were left of the 2 brothers who were Baptists, one of whom married a Tuxworth. They were deacons of the Baptist Church and recorded until the 1720s. Their sister married a Kirkham, another Baptist family with connections with the Tuxworths and the Kirkhams succeeded to the Anderson lands. Richard Kirkham settled at Girsby and the last noted record of his family is his son's will in 1773 bequeathing £10 to each of his 8 children and 29 grandchildren. He was in the Baptist congregation at least until 1760s."
• Rebekah Ratcliffe's father was Francis Ratcliffe of Tydd (just south of Long Sutton); he may have been the son of Francis Ratcliffe of Asterby.
• Richard's daughter Mary married William Cresswell from Great Steeping, and his son Francis married Mary Ann Chapman from Little Steeping, indicating significant social contact between Long Sutton and  the Lincolnshire Wolds.

Because of the confusion over Richard Kerkham's birth date, the connection between the two Richards remains uncertain. Nevertheless, a direct connection between the Kirkhams of the Asterby area and the Kerkhams of the Long Sutton area seems very likely, considering the commonality of first names and the strong connections with the Baptists.

-> More about Richard Kerkham.

-> See also Reminiscences of William Andrew Kerkham, my father's reminiscences of his youth in Cape Town in the early twentieth century, which also includes some family history.

The owner of this page, Andrew Summers Kerkham (email kerkham at gmail dot com), has extensive details of the Kerkhams in the King's Lynn area, South Africa and the south Pacific area. Please contact me:

• If you would like copies of the information I have
• If you have details of other branches of the family (especially in the USA)
• If you can help in extending the genealogy back earlier than 1752.

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Last updated August 2012