KIRWAN-MUFFETT
The surname Foulsham is one of the most ancient names to come from the Norman culture that arrived in Britain soon after the Norman Conquest of 1066. The name is derivation is noted as either:
From the Old French “fol”, which means “foolish,” and “jambe” which means leg. Thus the name was most likely originally used for a person who had a limp, or a malformed leg. Alternatively:
From the Olde English "fugol" meaning "fowl" or "bird", plus "hamm", this can also be translated as "a flat low-lying meadow by a stream". Locational surnames were usually acquired by a local landowner, or by the lord of the manor, and especially by those former inhabitants of a place who had moved to another area, and were thereafter best identified by the name of their birthplace
Records reveal that the Foulsham name was found in Derbyshire where they held a family seat. In the early 11th & 12th centuries the name was already well established in the Peak District and was one of the marauding families of the east Cheshire and Derbyshire forests which was controlled by Sir George Vernon, known as the “King of the Peak”.
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A Brief History of the Foulsham's
The surname is also recorded in the latter half of the 13th Century. One Simon Folsham was bailiff of Yarmouth in 1446, and Thomas Foulsham was rector of Clippsby, Norfolk, in 1490. The first recorded spelling of the family name in this area is shown to be that of Ernald de (of) Folsham, in the "Hundred Rolls of Norfolk". (In March 1279 King Edward I commissioned a great inquiry into landholding in England. The surviving returns were arranged by hundred, hence their name ‘the Hundred Rolls’, and give a picture of rural society which, in its level of detail, goes far beyond that found in Domesday Book)
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It is clear that our line of the Foulshams came from the Norfolk area, from census materials found they lived in the area of Wymondham
