Our Origins in England 
Woodham Family History
Our Origins in England
It appears that the largest number of Woodham, Woodhams, Wadham and Wadhams families had their origin in the County of Devon (Devonshire) in southwestern England, among the Saxons who invaded and conquered the island of Briton in the 400's AD. It is very possible that this area may be the origin of all such families. However, it is also possible and very likely that other, unrelated families of these names developed in other counties of England.
In ancient times, "families" did not have a family name. This began for the ordinary folk in the 1400's, when the kings of England saw the need for better records so they could collect taxes for the working folk. The tax rolls began to list folk by their trade (or occupation), residence (place name), after an ancestor, a nickname or other sources. So, John the tanner (who tanned hides) became "John Tanner" and John the carpenter became "John Carpenter", etc. John, the only John who lived in the tiny cross-roads community of Podunk, became "John Pudunk". John, the red (the one with red hair) became "John Redd".
Our ancient Saxon ancestors brought their Germanic religion and gods with them from northwestern Germany when they conquered Briton from the Romans and Celts. Their religion never had a name as such and most historians simply refer to it as the "Old Religion". The chief god, among three of the most powerful in their pantheon of gods, was called by the Saxons Woden (called Odin by the Norse in Norway, Sweden and Denmark). The Saxons worshipped him at high places throughout Briton. Many of these sites took on his name in various forms. "Woden's hamme" or "Woden's ham" is Old English for a village names for Woden. There were several such communities in different counties in England, including four or more in Essex County alone. In addition, there were numerous other places such as hills, and even an earthern defensive wall stretching for several miles, etc. which were named for him in addition to communities or villages.
When William, the Norman conqueror conqured England in 1066, one of the first things he did was to make a census of the folk -- so he could make sure he was getting taxes from all of them. Several names on this roll were listed by place names such as Wodham, Woodham or Wadham: such as John of Wadham.
The next major "census" is the Hundred Rolls of 1273. This was actually a tax roll and listed the population by "hundreds", a subdivision of the counties or shires. The Hundred Rolls, written in Latin, for that year listed at least five different men as "de Wodeham" or "de Wodham", in parishes in Essex, Norfolk, Northampton and Gloucester shires and one in London. The "de" in Latin meant they were living in or were from a community by the name of "Wodeham".
But it was not until the 1400's that real "family" names came into general use among all the folk of England. All of the families took their name from the villages they lived in.
The earliest records on the family in Devonshire almost all use the spelling Wadham. As the family began spreading eastward from there, the name gradually took on the form Wodham and Woodham.
The vast majority of folk in the 1400's could not read nor write. Only priests and the so-called "nobility" could read. When the king ordered that the Church of England begin recording all births, marriages and burials in all the church parishes of the country in 1538, it still took decades before all the parish churches in the nation go around to doing this.
B
efore that, the only records on most "commoners" were a handful of deeds and wills, which were kept by the Roman Catholic churches and their successor, the Church of England.By the year 1599, the family name of Woodham, Wodham, Wodam, Woodam, Wadham, Waddam and others, along with those with an "S" on the end, can be found in the records of 20 English counties and London.
At one time, Essex County probably had more place names in honor of the old god Woden than any other county in England. Among these were the villages of Woodham Ferris, South Woodham Ferris, Woodham Hall, Woodham Mortimer and Woodham Walter. They were only very small villages in the 1500's and 1600's but today, due to the huge population expansion of London, they are growing rapidly.
Ironically, these villages no longer had any "Woodham" families living there by the 1600's, nor today.
More coming later...
to main History page
to Woodham Family Association HOME page18 June, 1998