CARR HOLME

 

This is as Lincolnshire as a surname can be and it belongs to Cynthia TUPHOLME who lives in Salt Spring Island, Canada. Back at the time of the first millennium the area around the fens and up to Lincoln was large swamp with small islands by the dozen. These could be Carrs or Holmes and generally meant a bit of dry land in a swampy area. The first part of the name - TUP - is still in use. Have a chat to your local shepherd. At some stage during his year he will be putting the Tup in with the sheep and when you see a blue or red mark on a sheep's rear then you know that the Tup has done his work. The Tup is the ram. Tupholme was the island that had sheep on it. A good place to check this out is the LincsHeritage site which has a very nice article on the Abbey. "In the middle of the twelfth century, a newly elected Abbot and twelve canons set out from Newsham in North Lincolnshire to found a new Premonstratensian Abbey on the 'island of the sheep' at Tupholme." Many of the holders of the name are to be found in the south of the county with the earliest register entry I found being the baptism of William TUPHOLME in 1565 in Boston. In 1175 it was spelt TUPEHOLM so really hasn't changed a great deal over the years. Mind you due to the accent there are a few TUPHAM families about. In the Whites 1856 Directory the township of Tupholme had 73 people living there and there is no church listed.

A name that I put in the column last year is that of HADDELSEY. I have been known to put the column onto the Grasby.blogspot occasionally and it is here that Brian HADDLESEY came across it. It was Mrs Armstrong who had first brought up the subject of the HADDELSEY surname and if either she or anyone else researching it would like to contact Brian on hzr3zr@yahoo.com he would be delighted to hear from you. He has a large database on the family and is interested in sharing his data.

One of the things that was needed was someone to take on the restoration of the stone monuments in churchyards and one that has taken it up and contacted me recently is Stephen TOOP of Grimsby. The name I thought sounds Dutch to me but when I had a look at the National Trust Surname site I found that the main concentration for the name in 1881 was in Devon, Dorset and Somerset. By 1998 an enclave was to be found in Lincolnshire and the name could now be found throughout the southern counties. A quick peek at the Family Search website confirmed the findings with hundreds of TOOP individuals to be found in the south west from the 16^th century onwards. Some of the very earliest use of the name are to be found in the Domesday Book and are in Lincolnshire. The Domesday Book mentions one Ulf TOPE. The name most likely comes from the Old Danish name Topi.

Bits and Bobs

THE LOUTH & NORTH LlNCOLNSHIRE ADVERTISER - 1st June 1872 - A meeting of the friends of Mr Thomas KIRKHAM of Biscathorpe House, near Louth, the celebrated ram breeder, was held at Lincoln yesterday (Friday) week. when it was resolved to present that gentleman with a portrait of himself. A subscription has been entered into for carrying out the purpose. and when completed. will be presented as a token of esteem for the services he has rendered to agriculturalists in having so successfully devoted himself to the importance of the breed of Lincolnshire sheep, and as a testimonial of the regard in which he is held.