Lamden

This long-established surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational name from the lands of Lambden in Berwickshire, so called from the Olde English pre 7th Century "lamb", lamb, and "denu", dene, valley; hence, "valley where lambs were reared". Locational surnames, such as this, were originally given to local landowners, and the lord of the manor, and especially as a means of identification to those who left their birthplace to settle elsewhere. Roland de Lambeden witnessed a confirmation charter of Philip de Halyburton to the Abbey of Kelso, circa 1261. The high incidence of early surname recordings from Church Registers of Berkshire suggests that the name may also be of English topographical origin from residence in, or by a valley where lambs were reared, or locational from some minor, unrecorded, or now "lost" place once situated in Berkshire. On October 26th 1545, Leonard Lamden and Joane Metton were married at Stanford- Dingley, Berkshire, and on October 19th 1560, Alice Lambdin married a Thomas Fray at Bradfield, Berkshire. The surname appears in London Church Registers from the early 17th Century under the variant spellings: Lam(b)don, Lam(b)den, Lambdean and Lam(b)din, the earliest recording therefrom being the marriage of William Lambden to Martha Axtell at St. Mary Mounthaw, on November 21st 1619. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Henry of Lambden, chamberlain of the monastery of Kelso, which was dated 1260, during the reign of King Alexander lll of Scotland, 1249 - 1286. 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.