The earliest recorded use of the surname that we have found so far is Johannes and Magota ffayrhome who lived at Carleton, near Stayncrosse, in what is now South Yorkshire. They are entered in the Yorkshire Poll Tax Records for 1379. However, it cannot be assumed that they are very distant ancestors because Yorkshire surnames were particularly transitory and not necessarily hereditary. The idea of hereditary names took much longer to establish in the north than the south. The next use of the name is Nicolas Fairholme son of Nicolas. He was christened 28 February 1697 at Haydon Bridge, Northumberland. They lived at the hamlet of Lipwood. The same reservations apply. In addition, this could be a stray Scotsman.

The next use of the name is by George and Anne Fairhome and their daughters Elizabeth, Anne and Sarah and another couple, William and Elizabeth Fairhome. It is possible that William and George Fairhome were brothers, but we have not yet been able to confirm this. They were all living at Lowdham, Nottinghamshire from at least 1704. Lowdham is a small village on the edge of the Trent valley, about 11.5 kilometres in a straight line from the centre of Nottingham. In 1801 the population of the village was 553. It probably had not changed much over the previous hundred years. Both families are recorded as being paupers. William and Elizabeth represent the start of the first hereditary use of the surnames which we have found: their son John Fairhome who married Sarah, followed by John and Sarah's children, Sarah Fareholme and George Farehome. We suspect that John and Sarah Fairhome had four more children, but with the recorded surname of Fairin including a son, William. Further research may resolve this. If they did then it seems that they could be the ancestors of all the English Fairholm and Fairholme branches. We are continuing to investigate this.

In the late 1700s / early 1800s eight distinct families had emerged in Nottinghamshire. For ease of identification we have named them after the places in which they lived. There is a tree in the image gallery at the bottom of the page showing how all eight branches may fit together.

The four branches in the grey cells are all descended from William and Ann Fairholm who lived at Shelford in the mid 1700s. Shelford is a very small village on the southern edge of the Trent. William Fairholm from Shelford married Ann Miller from Upper Broughton, Nottinghamshire in 1769 at the parish church in Upper Broughton. The marriage register still exists with their entry in it. William is the ancestor of many of today's Fairholms and Fairholmes including our family and he is possibly the William Fairin born at Lowdham. William and Ann had four sons, but only three survived to adulthood.

Joseph and Ann moved out of Nottingham to New Radford, just to the west of the town. Nottingham eventually expanded to absorb the smaller settlement. Members of the family lived or worked in New Radford for over one hundred years. Joseph's great grandson - also called Joseph - was operating his coal dealing business from Windmill Street in 1936. There is more information about New Radford under the Radford branch.

More detail on each of the branches can be found by using the links on the grey tool bar at the top of the page. For further information or to find out which branch you belong to please email us at queries@fairholmfamilytrees.info

Note : Several Scottish families moved south to England and at least one English family moved north to Scotland. We use the terms English and Scottish to refer to the origins of branches rather than their current locations. We have not yet found any evidence for a common ancestry between the English and Scottish branches.

Image gallery for overview & early history
Click on an image for a larger version and information

Location map (gif) Nottinghamshire	Location map (gif) Places with family associations	Family tree (pdf) Possible linkage of all english branches
Original marriage register entry (jpg) William Fairholm & Ann Miller	Modern photograph (jpg) Parish church, Lowdham	Modern photograph (jpg) Street scene, Lowdham
Old postcard (jpg) Main Street, Lowdham	Modern photograph (jpg) Parish church, Shelford	Modern photograph (jpg) Street scene, Shelford