Ellom Article The following old newspaper or journal article (source unknown) is quoted verbatim and gives a history of the Elam surname and the variations thereon.



ELLAM

By Dr. George Redmonds

Ellam is a common Yorkshire name, although never as prolific as certain surnames such as Sutcliffe and Armitage. The vast numbers of these names, both apparently having a single family origin, have been explained as the result of a particular set of economic and social circumstances occurring in Halifax and Huddersfield in the last 450 years.

This same set of circumstances has also meant that names migrating into these towns during the earlier part of the period mentioned have ramified in much the same way. Ellam, however, which is now widely distributed throughout Yorkshire and has a noticeable concentration in Huddersfield, particularly in the Lindley area, is not in fact a surname native to the town, and its ramification there has taken place in the last 200 years.

Like many distinct West Riding names, Ellam has a geographical origin, and although there is a small locally "Ellum" in Ripon, dating back to 1300 at least, it is almost certain that the family name is derived from Elam in Bingley parish. This hamlet, first mentioned in 1189, was probably a grange of Kirkstall Abbey, and its situation near the River Alte suggests that the most recent derivation offered, i.e. "river-pool," is the authentic one. It is not certain at what date the family name developed, but it was certainly hereditary by the time of the 1379 Poll Tax, when it occurred in three neighbouring parishes. In two cases -- Agnes de Elom, of Steeton and Anabella de Elom, of Keighley -- there is no evidence of a family, but in the third, William de Elom, of Addingham, was listed as a married man.

Airedale did not remain for very long the family's main home, although deeds relating to the Calverley family show that Thomas Elom was living there in 1467. For some unknown reason they must have moved much further south, probably just after this date, for in 1478 John and Richard Elom were living at Thurnscoe, where their descendants continued to farm for hundreds of years. From Thurnscoe the Elams or Eloms, as the name was usually spelled, had spread by 1650 to a dozen neighboring villages, e.g. Adwick, Snaith and Doncaster to the east, Maltby to the south and Darfield and Wombwell to the west.

In the eighteenth century they were prominent in Leeds as merchants and it seems likely that the first Huddersfield Ellams came from one of these places. Although it is not possible to give an accurate date when this happened, it is certainly true that the name appeared nearly 200 years ago on rentals belonging to the Ramsden family, and since that date it has ramified so successfully that Huddersfield is now its main home.

It seems worth mentioning as a final point of interest that the double "L" of Ellam is comparatively recent, the first recorded example being in Tickhill in 1624.



Click here for a map of southwest Yorkshire which shows some of the towns mentioned in Dr. Redmonds' article