Lapham Name Study

Profile managers: Jennifer Lapham [send private message] and One Name Studies WikiTree [send private message]

How to Join

Please contact me Jennifer Lapham or post a comment below. If you have any questions, just ask. Thanks!

Inclusion

I have limited the study to people who were born with the name Lapham. The only exception I would consider, I think, would be families like the French Canadian LaPalmes (see below) who spelled it ‘Lapham’ when they moved to the United States.

Surname Variants

To the best of my knowledge there are no variants of the name, though I am sure misspellings abound. For example from 'Vital Records of Scituate Massachusetts to the year 1850' vol l pg 214 : New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston1909 :

"LAPHAM (see Laphum, Lappam, Lappham, Lappum),"

I've also seen 'Clapham', 'Slapham' & 'Sapham'.

It is frequently confused with ‘Latham’, which is a totally different name with a different meaning, apparently something like “Dweller in the Barns”.

According to Aldridge Lapham derives from a Roman word, "lapis" meaning "stone" and "haim" (ham, heim) meaning "home" or "hearth" which is why the 'p' and 'h' are pronounced separately. Thus the name means "Homestone " or "Hearthstone".

Alternatively the author & historian William B Lapham states in his "History of Paris Maine" page 262:

"Lapham, stone house or home; lapis, a stone and ham, house or home."

which is a bit more mundane.

Alternate Surname Origins

19 Nov '18 I found an online Genealogy at http://www.leveillee.net/ancestry/nicolas.htm that states:

"4. Notes for Nazaire Gaboriault dit Lapalme:

Note that the family was "using" the surname, Lapham, in the United States as early as 1861 in Shrewsbury and before Telesphore used it in Albany [New York] circa 1864. Many French-Canadians "anglicized their names in the United States. French speaking Canadians were looked down upon by English speaking Canadians and Americans. Very seldom, however, did French-Canadians marry outside of their heritage, this being apparent with the later generations of "Laphams". And it was quite upsetting to "Anglo-Canadians" if a son or daughter married someone "French". This occurred in the 1903 marriage of Silas Louis Lapham and Norah Agnes Goodspeed with the Anglo-Canadian Goodspeeds having next to nothing to do with Agnes Lapham for one half a century. The rabid separatism of current day Québec is one of the manifestations of the attitudes toward the French-Canadians by the rest of Canada. (by: Herbert Louis Lapham, Jr., 1996)"

Nazaire is shown as the father of Telesphore Gaboriault dit Lapalme who appears to be Silas Lapham father of Silas Noel Lapham.

30 Oct 2022 Note there is an orphaned family of 'Gaboriau Lapalme Lapans' beginning with Laurent Gaboriau Lapalme Lapan (1817-aft.1900) in WT that is likely related to this one. If somebody would pick up this ball and run with it so I don't have to I would really appreciate it!

3 Dec '18 I found this at http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Lapham:

"This interesting surname is of English locational origin from one of the estimated seven to ten thousand villages and hamlets that have now disappeared from the maps in Britain. The prime cause of these "disappearances" was the enforced "clearing" and dispersal of the former inhabitants to make way for sheep pastures at the height of the wool trade in the 14th Century. Natural causes such as the Black Death of 1348, also contributed to the lost village phenomenon. The placename is composed of the Old English elements, "Hlappa", an Old English personal name, or "Laeppa" (Old English) meaning tag, end and also a district. The second element "-ham", is the Old English word for a village or homestead but can also mean a flat low-lying meadow on a stream. The earliest recordings of the name are found in Devon in the 16th Century. James Bray married Elizabeth Lapham at North Molton on January 16th 1552. Clement Lapham married one Agnes Nycoll, there also on October 26th 1552. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John Lapham married Agnes pere, which was dated February 5th 1549, church register at North Molton, Devonshire, during the reign of King Edward V1, "The Boy King", 1547 - 1553. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling." © Copyright: Name Origin Research 1980 - 2017

Ancestors

There were three 17th century immigrant Lapham's all from England:

Thomas from Tenterton, Kent,

John from Devonshire and

a second John, from Norfolk, who had no descendants known to Bertha Aldridge who wrote "Laphams in America published in 1953,

Again, according to Aldridge: "...it is said that in earlier times the family flourished in Scotland and Wales."

Other immigrant Laphams Aldridge mentions in her appendices include:

Joseph Lapham, of a French branch, came to Canada with the British(sic) Army and was in Plattsburg in 1814;

William Forest Lapham was born in Bristol, England in 1866. He came to the United States in 1889. He married Alice Moon but she doesn't say where. He had siblings who may or may not have emigrated with or following him. The entry is unclear;

Charles Lapham was born in 1835 at Midsummer Norton, Somersetshire, England, son of WIlliam and Ann Mary (Harlow) Lapham. He came to the United States when he was eighteen and was followed some years later by his parents and children. [How many children was he likely to have had at 18? JLO] They settled in Wisconsin, and later emigrated to California (1889). Aldridge adds "It is thought that the ancestor of William of Somersetshire, and John of Devonshire were closely related. These two towns bordering each other.

Interestingly enough, I have just documented another Lapham immigrant from Midsummer Norton. Aaron Lapham (1808-1886) was born 15 Mar 1808 in Midsomer Norton, Bath and North East Somerset Unitary Authority, Somerset, England and died in Ohio. (Anybody familiar with "MidSummer Murders" on PBS?)

A more recent Immigrant is Thomas Lapham who was born in Ireland in 1832, and died in Colorado in 1888. He probably immigrated between 1873 & '79 because he appears in the 1880 US census with his family and the youngest child is listed as 8 years old, born in England. Thomas & his family were created as part of a cemetery project & then put up for adoption - so of course I did. If anyone finds they are related & wants to take them off my hands...

Famous Laphams, Ancestors and Relatives

Increase Allen Lapham the "Father of the U.S Weather Service", "Wisconsin's first great scientist", geologist and author.

Roger Dearborn Lapham Mayor of San Francisco, Chairman of the Board American Hawaiian Steamship Co, Captain: Company M 305th Infantry, 77th Division, during World War I, etc, etc, etc.

Lewis Henry Lapham co-founder of the Texaco Oil Company. Father of Roger Dearborn Lapham, grandfather of Lewis Abbott Lapham, great grandfather of author Lewis H Lapham (also Notable, still living), actor Christopher Lloyd (ditto).

Lewis Abbott Lapham an American shipping and banking executive.

Robert Blair Lapham served in the Phillipines during World War ll, awarded the Distinguished Service Cross by General Douglas MacArthur." Lapham was the third person, after President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and MacArthur, to receive the Philippine Legion of Honor."

Elbridge Gerry Lapham served in Congress as Republican Representative from New York. 1874-1881,elected United States Senator July 24, 1881-1885,

William Berry Lapham the author of 30+books of the history & genealogy of Maine as well as being a soldier, physician, postmaster, local official, state legislator, editor, and social reformer.

My personal favorite, non-Lapham, ancestor is:

William the Marshal c 1146-1219, "England's Greatest Knight" William had ten children - five sons and five daughters - who lived to adulthood, but none of his sons had any legitimate heirs. The Lapham descent comes through the Russells.

29 Apr 2021 - my late father's 110th birthday - I just found that this line has been disconnected in WT, I had thought it was pretty well documented and it may still be true - not being proven is not the same as being proven false. So take it with a large grain of salt - as I generally advise everybody to do, genealogically speaking!

The two famous relatives - not ancestors - that seem most 'popular' in the family are:

Susan B Anthony Suffragette

Benedict Arnold Revolutionary War General, Hero, Traitor

Another non-Lapham famous relative is Lizzie Andrew Borden (1860-1927) who may or may not have murdered her parents. Thank you Cindy for pointing this out.

There are many others, I will start listing them soon. But until then:

A lot of people have heard of Silas Lapham, a fictional character who built a house in William Dean Howells' "The Rise of Silas Lapham". Not a lot of people have heard of Charles Willard Lapham who really built a house in Georgia. "The Lapham-Patterson House, located at 626 North Dawson Street is a Queen Ann-style cottage built during the winter of 1884-1885 for Chicago shoe merchant Charles Willard Lapham. " It is unique and on the National Historic Register. Please see: https://www.thomasvillehistory.org/lapham-patterson-house-history/ It is well worth the trip.

(18 Nov '18) Actually I'm in the process of documenting a family with four Silas Laphams - Silas bc 1842; Silas Noel b 1864; SIlas Louis b 1884 and Silas WIllis b 1908. Who knew?

There must be something about Laphams & houses. I ran across an article titled "With love: New owners restoring Lapham House " at the website of the Dearborn Press and Guide ^[1]. It details the history of the house David Pardee Lapham (1851-1926) built in Dearborn in 1890.

On Names

Many families give their children the same name as other relatives. In addition to many Johns, Thomas', Daniels & Charles' we have:

• Constant Church - at least three - Lapham-721,Lapham-747 Lapham-785
• Elbridge Gerry - ditto - Lapham-378, Lapham-790, Lapham-792 and one Elbridge W, - Lapham-1230 and one Elbridge who died young not in WT
• Pazzi - at least three, two in WT - Lapham-495, Lapham-1506, along with a Nathan Pazzi Lapham-436, and a Thornley Pazzi, Lapham-833
• Vervion - two that I know of - Lapham-1571, Lapham-1574
• ZIna - at least two, - Lapham-738, Lapham-1435
• Duty - at least two - Lapham-232, Lapham-567
• Mowry - five in WT,Lapham-1523, Lapham-1525, Lapham-1527, Lapham-1528, Lapham-1551, along with an Oliver Mowry Lapham -1234 and a Simon Mowry Lapham-1433
• Alonzo - five in WT at this time - Lapham-413, Lapham-740, Lapham-977, Lapham-1381, Lapham-1384, in addition to one Deforest Alonzo Lapham-1392 and one Lorenzo called Alonzo - Lapham-872, There is also Alonzo Lapum Sanford (1845-1926), whose middle name is currently/was originally misspelled.

Speaking of Lorenzos - there are two in WT born in 1837, the one called 'Alonzo' in Massachusetts, the other in New York - Lapham-451, and at least one other ,not in WT, born in Michigan

Additionally I have spent months trying to sort out about three dozen Olivers, and I'm not done yet.

Goals

This is a One Name Study to collect together in one place everything about the Lapham surname and to trace the family relationships. The hope is that other researchers like you will join our study to help make it a valuable reference point for people studying lines that cross or intersect.

Task List

As of day one 23 Aug 2018:

1. Figure out what I'm doing.

2. Start doing it

One thing I know needs to be looked into:

There are orphaned, unconnected and unsourced Lapham profiles on WikiTree that were the impetus for me to start this project. Seeing as we are almost certainly all related I would really like to see them adopted, connected and sourced.

Many of the orphaned files are the Michigan Laphams that I know very little about. They were added in 2012 from census data and abandoned. If anybody can help with these I would really appreciate it. Update 7 Sep - I have adopted most of these. "If anybody can help...)" (see above)

As of 7 Sept:

I have completed a quick and dirty initial review of all the Laphams in WT.

I added the category label to all I could that didn't already have it;

I contacted PMs holding private files to suggest they add it;

I adopted (probably too many) that I think I can help;

I sourced and connected where I could easily;

I see for the first time how it is possible to get to 1,000 contributions in a month!

Sources

My main sources for information, aside from my father, are:

Aldridge, Bertha Bortle Beal. Laphams in America (Victor, N.Y., 1953) Note that the lists of children in 'Laphams' are frequently incomplete and/or not in chronological order.

Lapham, William Berry. Lapham Family Register, or, Records of Some of the Descendants of Thomas Lapham of Scituate, Mass., in 1635 (Sprague, Owen & Nash, Augusta, Me., 1873)

other, mainly 19th century, family genealogies

findagrave.com

records (not user submitted genealogies!) at familysearch.org

Background In the UK

The Oxford English Dictionary(OED ) illustrates the word "septentrial" meaning "of, or pertaining to the North," with this from 1622:

'When Waveney in her way, on this septentrial side...

From Laphamford, leads on her stream into the East."

According to Aldridge: "The arms reproduced and used by the descendents of John the Pilgrim Ancestor, is:

argent, a chevron azure, between three towers proper, a compass, or "Crest, a sinister arm in armor, holding a dagger all proper."

Regarding the symbolism of the arms, a chevron denotes protection; a tower, grandeur and solidity. It is a charge granted to him, who has faithfully held one for his king, or has captured one by force or strategem. A Scriptural reference may also be intended-"strong tower." The dagger like the sword may be an Emblem of the Crusades, and also of military honor, and it should incite the bearer to a generous pursuit of honor and virtue in warlike deeds. Regarding the colors of tinctures and the metal, argent denotes sincerity; azure, loyalty; and gold, generosity. Auth.: Genealogical Record of Charles B. Herendeen, Newark, N. Y."^[2]

About 25 years ago I had an artist who specialized in heraldry make a rendition of this and gave it to my father for Christmas. In place of a motto I had her use "Hearthstone". I believe she suggested that the compass could indicate it was granted to someone who built three castles rather than held or captured them. Somewhere I have a photograph that I will post here as soon as I find it among the reams (rooms) of pictures and stuff we have accumulated. The search may convince me it's time to downsize! UPDATE 5/2/19 I have the original, my husband is cleaning it up & brightening the colors, I will post it soon!

References used on this page

1. ↑ https://www.pressandguide.com/2010/01/04/with-love-new-owners-restoring-lapham-house/
2. ↑ "Laphams in America" compiled and written by Bertha Bortle Beal Aldridge Victor NY 1932-1953

• 'Vital Records of Scituate Massachusetts to the year 1850' vol l pg 214 : New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston1909
• "History of Paris Maine..." William B Lapham & Silas P. Maxim.Paris, Me., Printed for the authors, 1884
• https://www.thomasvillehistory.org/lapham-patterson-house-history/
• The Oxford English Dictionary (OED)
• http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Lapham
• http://www.leveillee.net/ancestry/nicolas.htm