Family Chat

Family Chat

I wrote, back in November, of the DIMBLEBY name and the latest information is that cousins of one sort or another keep popping up for Gillian BAKER.   On the female side of her family is the HANDFORD surname and it is this one that has been found to have a connection with a family in Norfolk, it originates from one of the places by the same name.  She has given me couple of other names that are in the family.  On her father’s side her great-great-grandfather married Sarah MALEM in Lincoln.  Happily for her their son Jabez Bunting DIMBLEBY was in the habit of writing to other relatives who lived in Derbyshire and some of these documents still survive.  The family chat is all about other members of the family and the family history as it was in the very early part of the 20th century.  Lucky thing!!  The name MALEM is an unusual one for Lincolnshire.  For me I have the feeling that it is a name straight out of a Victorian novel for it has that certain ring about it.  According to the 1881 census there were few individuals living in the county; the concentration for MALAM  is Cheshire with a sprinkling in Lincolnshire.  However if it is spelt with two LLs  the concentration changes to the northern borders and Dorset and a goodly number around Liverpool. It is thought to originate from the medieval female name MALIN which was a pet form of Mary.  I do wonder though about the concentration around Liverpool and whether there could be an Irish influence here.  The reason I say this is because of the surname MELLON for it has the variation of MALLEN and these are the anglicised versions of the Irish name of O Meallain, the descendant of Meallan.
A new name for me is SCATCHERD which was put onto the internet by Mike Parker who is looking for more information.  One of the most prominent holders I found with this surname comes from Morley and she was the first Freewoman of Boston. Alice Cliff SCATCHERD lived from 1842 till 1906 and was a noted Liberal, philanthropist and radical suffragist; Alice sought to improve working women's legal and social position in many ways.  
John PATEMAN has moved to Lincolnshire from London since the turn of the century.  During his research he has found that there were a fair number of families with the PATEMAN name and they stayed stable in numbers between 1881 and 1998 he says.  Using those two dates I assume that John has used the Surname Profiler but the highest concentration of the name is in the Stevenage area and a question that I must ask is “What does the website mean by the entry Mosaic type with highest index # - White Van Culture?”   The name PATEMAN and its variation PATMAN have a very straight forward origin and comes from the pet form of Patrick.   In England the name Patrick was found generally in the north as it was commonly of Scottish origin.  Today we think of it as generally Irish but the name did not become popular in Ireland until the 1600s and the influx of the Scottish settlers.  The PATEMAN family that John is most interested in is the one that lived near Sleaford and was thought to be either of gypsy or traveling origin.  I guess if they had come all the way from Scotland they could be classed as travellers without much fear of contradiction.  In 1881 in Lincolnshire the PATEMAN families were invariably linked to the land with many being Ag Labs as you would expect.
Bits and Bobs
March 7th 1817 – Marriage – On Tuesday last Mr John MAPLETHORP to Miss M BLOW, aged fifteen years: also Mr James FAIRWEATHER to Miss Elizabeth BLOW (sister of the above) all of Billinghay near Sleaford.
Lincolnshire Family History Society Magazine 2000