From these periods surnames became hereditary spreading from the ruling classes to the common man.

Surnames fall in to four broad categories, with many of miscellaneous origin. Surnames based on first name, male or female such as Johnson (meaning son of John) or Williamson (son of William) are well known.

Those based on a place or locality from where an ancestor had originated can provide a clue to its origin, for example Lester from Leicester and Park a dweller by a park or enclosure.

Other names can be based on a nickname, which describes a particular feature or characteristic of the individual; Redhead for red haired, Long for someone tall and Truman for someone trusty and faithful. The use of surnames depicting the occupation or status of an ancestor such as Cooper for barrel maker and Smith for blacksmith generated many of the numerous surnames that have been handed down through the centuries.

The origins of Raynham name has not been established, one presumption was that it came from Norfolk where there are villages carrying the Raynham name. Although this may be correct no direct evidence has been revealed to confirm this, certainly none of the Raynhams in this document have any ancestors that came from Norfolk.

The Norfolk Raynhams are explored in the next chapter and cover the villages and the family whose family home was at Raynham Hall , South Raynham . The Domesday Survey of 1086  mentioned these villages under the name of "Reinham [2] ". One of the landowners Bartholomew de Reynham  gave his son Geoffrey  some land in1249, in 1306 Robert de Reinham  held tenements and lands in Reinham South.

In Chapter 2 reference was made to the index of Wills in The Commissary Court of London , edited by the British Record Society and entries for William Reynham, Joan de Reynham and her husband Robert de Reynham for the years 1382, 1388 and 1414 respectively.

There is one early reference to the Raynham name which predates John Raineham R140  (circa 1560 - 1634/35) appearance at Brettenham  with a Stephen Raynham of Nayland , Suffolk whose will was proved year 1514. [3]

The spelling variants of the Raynham name cannot be ignored and in the same publication from which the above Stephen Raynham was extracted a Robert Reynham, the Elder  for 1492 and Johanne Reynham  for 1495 was listed. Burial registers [4] for the parish of All Saints Sudbury, Suffolk for the year 1575 lists a Henry Raynum , no age is given.

In the same index nine further Raynums, covering the period up to 1617 were also listed; are these Raynham ancestors? Some share typical Raynham first names such as Robert and Thomas; others not so typical like Ralphe and Henry. Another Robert Rayneham of Stoke By Nayland , Suffolk left a will, which was proved in 1540 and the earliest known baptism was for a John Rayner in 1453 at Thorpe Morieux, Suffolk, and father being a Thomas Rayner.

The earliest reference to our John Raineham R140  was as a witness to the will [5] of Andrew Bloomfield a yeoman of Brettenham , the will being dated 10 May 1594.

In recent years a number of organisations have been selling computerised family name histories to those with an interest in their name. The document provide some background information to the origins of the name but no family trees.

Until recently the Raynham name was not in their databases but on a recent visit to Suffolk [6] a copy of a Raynham document was given to me and is shown below

A transcription of the text can also be read below, no changes have been made to the original text.

"One of the earliest written references to the surname Raynham and its variants Rainham, Raineham and Reynham date back to the fourteenth century and includes one Richard de Reynham who appears in the Select Cases in the Court of the Kings' Bench in London in 1318. This English surname is locative in origin, belonging to that category of surnames derived from the place where the original bearer once lived or held land. In this instance, the surname Raynham can be traced to the place names Rainham and Lower Rainham located near Gillingham in Kent or Rainham located near Romford in Essex. The second element of the name is derived from the Old English "ham" meaning an "enclosure, settlement" while the first element is at uncertain origin, possibly being derived from the Old English personal name Roegingas. Thus the surname signifies "one who lived at or near the settlement! of the people of Roegingas". Such names mere a common means of identification in the medieval period and over time as they were passed on from generation to generation they came to be used as independent surnames. A noted bearer of the name includes Eustace Frederick Raynham, Lieutenant, served in the South African war, 1900, and for his services he received the Queen's Medal with the London clasp, and was created a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order. In the London Gazette, 19 April, 1901, it states that "Eustace Frederick Raynham, Lieut., Kimberley Town Guard. In recognition of services during the operations in South Africa". The insignia was sent the Commander-in-Chief in South Africa, and were presented to him there. He became Secretary of the De Beers Consolidated Mines in 1917. The coat at arms described below are borne by the raynham family from Apledram in Sussex.

BLAZON OF ARMS: Argent a chevron sable between three escallops ermines.

Translation: Argent (white) signifies Peace and sincerity.
Sable (black) denotes Constancy.
Ermine represents Power.

Crest: An escallop as in the arms.

ORIGIN: ENGLAND"

Very little is added to the knowledge of the origins of the name of particular interest is the reference to Eustace Frederick Raynham R243 who happens to be Bill Raynham's R267 grandfather.

Over the years the Raynham name has been used for street names, buildings, businesses and off course used to identify villages, the most notable being the villages of East, South and West Raynham , Suffolk. These are described in more detail in the following chapter.

Of all the uses of the name perhaps the most unusual and coincidentally was the naming of a systems built tower block, built in 1959, the building has 11 floors and contains 75 maisonettes and is known as "Raynham House ". Below is a photograph of the tower block.

The building first came to my attention in Colm Kerrgan's book "A History of Tower Hamlets" A History of Tower Hamlets\"" [7] where the author directed the reader to Raynham House  to view a mural commemorating the meeting between the young King Richard 11  and his peasant subjects at Mile End. This was part of what was known as the "Peasants Revolt" of 1381 .

Raynham House  is part of an estate known as the Norfolk Estate [8] and reflects the immigrant Huguenots  who settled in the Norfolk area, after escaping from the French/Belgian border. They were of Protestant faith and were being persecuted by Louis X1V; many would have been Flemish lace weavers and wealthy merchants. The peak of this persecution was around 1572, having settled in Norfolk they traded in London, their route brought them via East London.

Many Huguenots  settled in Stepney and would have brought their memories of Norfolk with them. A map of 1819 [9] has a Norfolk Place listed and by 1847 this had changed to Norfolk Street, today a modern A to Z shows this to have changed to Massingham Street; Raynham House  is located close by.

What of the coincidence, here we have a tower block located in the very heart of where the East End Raynhams had been working and living for over 120 years, since Robert Raynham's R20  migration from Chelsworth  around 1820. In the same year of 1959 when Raynham House  was built, my family were living just a mile away in Palm Street, Bethnal Green  prior to our to Dagenham, Essex later that year.

The naming of streets and roads after place names is not unusual, whether some of the Raynham names that have been unearthed relate to actual individuals cannot as the moment be confirmed. Certainly it was thought that those in north London could be named after a Raynham who is believed to have been a local government councillor.

However a close inspection of the area and the map shows that many of the adjacent roads are named after place names throughout England, including the Suffolk villages of Brettenham  (Road) and Cavendish (Road).

Bishop Stortford, Hertfordshire, close to London Stansted Airport is an industrial estate with three road signs, one leading onto the estate "Raynham Road ", "Raynham Road Industrial Estate" and "Raynham Close". The origins of the names is not known although it is thought that it has something to do with a Norfolk connection, it would appear that Raynham Road [10] has existed in this area for sometime.

Modern A to Z map of London [11] has four Raynham entries, Raynham Road s at Edmonton, London N18 and Hammersmith , London W6, Raynham Terrace and Raynham Avenue also at Edmonton. In Raynham Avenue is the Raynham Primary School .

In Luton, Bedfordshire there is a Raynham Way Community Centre , [12] businesses are well represented with two Raynham & Co . Both operating a garage business one at Newport, Wales and the other in the town centre at Saffron Walden, Essex. The latter was in fact the business premises of Archibald Nelson Raynham R274 (1879-1956), John Nelson Raynham's father, the business has since been sold and the business no longer operates.

At Plymouth Devon a Raynham Court  is listed as a rest and retirement home.

The village of East Raynham , Norfolk  has the Raynham Farm Co. Ltd [13] based there, this livestock farm is part of the Raynham Hall  Estate , the ancestral home of the Viscount Townshend of Raynham . Please see next chapter for more details.

All the above relate to the Raynham name in the England and Wales, however in the USA is the city of Raynham, Massachusetts  and with many businesses using the Raynham name; indeed should you enter the Raynham name in an Internet search engine it is this town which has the most entries.

Much of the above information was extracted from the Internet that has greatly enhanced the Raynham research, with immediate communication with modern day related and non-related Raynhams.

Having referenced the Raynham place names it cannot be overlooked that there are two towns in England with the name of Rainham. In Essex  near the River Thames and not far from the Ford Motor Company at Dagenham is a small, urban town with its well restored church dating back to the Norman's. There are no known Raynham/Rainham connections.

The second Rainham is in Kent  close to the ex Royal Navy dockyard town of Chatham, adjacent to the River Medway. As with the Essex Rainham no connections with the town have been found.

It is unlikely that the origin of the Raynham name and its variants will ever be unravelled, it could be speculated that someone arrived with the Norman Conquest in 1066 and settles in the Norfolk Raynham area. At sometime prior to the mid 1500s our Norfolk Raynham ancestor may have migrated to Suffolk, possibly looking for work and settled there; pure speculation.

The variants of the Raynham name Reinham, Reynham, Rayneham, Raynum, Raineham are all fully acceptable and probable ancestral names but they do not confirm the origin of our name.