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  Markham Coat of Arms / Markham Family CrestThe surname of MARKHAM was a locational name 'of Markham' a parish near Tuxford in County Nottingham. A locational name usually denoted where a man held his land, and indicated where he actually lived. The original bearer would take his name from the village, town or the area where he dwelt. This name would identify his whole family, and would follow them wherever they moved Following the Crusades in Europe a need was felt for a family name. This was recognized by those of noble blood, who realised the prestige and practical advantage that it would add to their status. Early records of the name mention Johannes Marcam, listed in the Yorkshire Poll Tax of 1379. Henricus de Markham was documented in the year 1400 in County Yorkshire and Thomas Markeham appears in County Lancashire in the year 1400. Henry Markham, registered at Oxford University in 1585. The acquisition of surnames in Europe during the past eight hundred years has been affected by many factors, including social class and social structure, naming practices in neighbouring cultures, and indigenous cultural tradition. On the whole, the richer and more powerful classes tended to acquire surnames earlier than the working classes and the poor, while surnames were quicker to catch on in urban areas than in more sparsely populated rural areas. These facts suggest that the origin of surnames is associated with the emergence of bureaucracies. As long as land tenure, military service, and fealty were matters of direct relationship between a lord and his vassals, the need did not arise for fixed distinguishing epithets to mark out one carl from another. But as societies became more complex, and as such matters as the management of tenure and in particular the collection of taxes were delegated to special functionaries, it became imperative to have a more complex system of nomenclature to distinguish one individual from another reliably and unambiguously. The associated arms are recorded in Sir Bernard Burkes General Armory. Ulster King of Arms in 1884 |
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