Bellamy History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

The name Bellamy came to England with the ancestors of the Bellamy family in the Norman Conquest of 1066. The Bellamy family lived in Shropshire. The name could also be derived as a nickname meaning my good friend Literally, the name is derived from the Norman-French word belamy, “fair friend,” which was used much in the depreciatory way in which we now employ “good fellow.” 1

Alternatively the name could have originated in Bellesme, a town of France. 2 So as proof of this latter origin, we note Ralf Belami in the Norman Exchequer Rolls of 1189. 3

Early Origins of the Bellamy family

The surname Bellamy was first found in Shropshire, where Robert de Belesme was given Shropshire Castle to hold for King William. Fifty years later he rebelled against Duke William’s successor, and successfully defended Shropshire Castle against King Stephen.

Also known as Robert of Belleme, the Earl of Shrewsbury, sometimes called Talvas, was the eldest son of Roger, Lord of Montgomery in Normandy, of Arundel and Chichester. “He was knighted by the Conqueror before the walls of Fresnay in 1073. In the revolt of Robert, the king’s eldest son, in 1077, he and many other young Norman nobles upheld his cause against the king. As long as the Conqueror lived he and other Norman lords were compelled to receive garrisons from into their castles. This disabled them from disturbing the peace of the duchy. Robert in 1087 was on his way to visit the king, and had gone as far as Brionne when he heard of the Conqueror’s death. He at once turned back, and turned the ducal garrisons out of his castles. ” 4

“Bellamy is a name that has long been established in Nottinghamshire. It occurred in the adjacent county of Cambridge in the reign of Edward I. , and is at present to be found in Huntingdonshire. ” 5

A well known name is early years, Chaucer noted in his famous Canterbury Tales ‘Belamy, fayre frynde’ (Belamy, fair friend.)

The Hundredorum Rolls of 1273 had two early listings of the family with different spellings: Hugh Belami, Cambridgeshire; and Roger Belamy, Oxfordshire. 6

Kirby’s Quest listed “John Belamy, Somerset, 1 Edward III” (during the first year’s reign of King Edward III. 7

“Other scattered notices of the name are forthcoming. In the Hundredorum Rolls of Edward I. we find Gilbert and Roger Belamy in Oxfordshire, Matilda Belamy in Dorsetshire, and Hugh and John Belami in Kent. John and Peter Belami were of Edenbridge, in the latter county, in 1317: and the family reappears in Dorset during the last century, when Edward Bellamy of Rampisham, a wealthy wool-stapler, bought Beuvill in Corscombe, and owned Evershot, Cheddington.” 3