General Notes

[Joanne's Tree.1 GED.GED]

2  SOUR S332582
3  DATA
4  TEXT Date of Import: 14 Jan 2004


[daveanthes.FTW]

Name Prefix:<NPFX> Sir
Sir Dunning was a traitor to his Saxon heritage and wasappointed by the Norman invaders as the first Norman Lord of Lathom. He and his wife, Lady Marigard De Essex are from the 2nd generation in an unbroken line of 35 generations. They share this distinction with Lord Henry De Chester, Jr. and his wife, Lady Helen Tudor. He died of pneumonia.

The original meaning of the pla ce name Lathom or Latham was 'the barn house', which probably meant a warehouse or storehouse. The 2 earliest names were the Chapelry of Lathom, inCounty Lancaster, England, and Latham, in Yorkshire, England

The first oneto bear the Latham surname was a Saxon traitor named Dunning, who was living in County Lancaster about the time of the Norman conquest in 1066 A.D. Because of his collaboration with the Normans and his betrayal of his Saxon heritage, the Normans rewarded Dunning with the lordship of Lathom, the title of Earl, and with a knighthood. Thus Dunning, traitor to the Saxon people, became Sir Dunning Latham, Earl of Lathom in the Spring of 1067 A.D.

In both early English and American  records, the surname Latham or Lathom has taken on many different spellings. The most common of these are: Latham, Lathem, Lathim, Lathom, Lathome, Lathum, Le athom, Leethem, Lethem and Lathom. The probably reason for the various spellings in the fact that so many of our early ancestors could neither read nor write. Whenever it was necessary for a name to be written down by someone who could read and write, it was sounded out by different people differentlyand over the years as literacy improved, the wrong spellings have become the traditional way the various families chose to spell it. The spelling Latham is the one that is the most common usage and is surely the original spelling. In early English history, 7 distinct clans of Lathams emerged and could be found in the following counties, Lancaster, which was Sir Dunnings direct descendents, York, Somerset, Chester, Essex, Worcester and in London. Over the years the Latham family has been prolific, and many of them produced very large families indeed!

The average sized Latham family has been between 7 to 10 children. Early families have been founded both by landed gentry and by the lower landless classes referred to as yeoman.