Flintham Hall Circa 1860
(Unfortunately not the ancestral home of the Flintham Family)
The English family name Flintham is classified as being of habitational origin. The phrase "habitation names" is used to describe those family names which find their origins in the location of the residence of the original bearer. In some instances, such names are derived from the name of the geographic location of the original bearer's home while others relate to a display of a sign above the door of his residence.
It is thought that the family name of Flintham indicates one who came from "Flintham" a village in Nottinghamshire, south of Newark. It is derived from the personal name "Flinta" and ham" meaning "enclosure or homestead". Variants of the name include Flincham, Flinton, and possible links to the name Flint.
"Flintham is a pleasant and well-built village, 6½ miles south-west by south of Newark, including within its parish 637 inhabitants and 2,110 acres of rich loamy land, at a rateable value of £3,324, which was enclosed about the year 1780, when 172 acres were allotted to the vicar, and about 300 acres to trinity College, in lieu of tithes, exclusive of 165 acres which had previously belonged to the said college. The greater part of the parish belongs to Thomas Blackborne Thoroton Hildyard Esq., but Francis Fryer Esq., Richard Hall Esq. and john Clark Esq. have also estates here. The Duke of Newcastle is lord of the manor, which he holds in fee of the King's Duchy of Lancaster, together with several others in this neighbourhood. His Grace has no land here except six acres allotted to him at the enclosure. Flintham Hall, which has been successively the seat of the Husseys, Hackers, Woodhouses, Disneys, Fytches and Thorotons, is now the residence of Thomas Blackborne Thoroton Hildyard Esq. It is a handsome modern edifice, erected on the site of the ancient mansion. It owes many of its present beauties to the late Col. Hildyard." [White's Directory of Nottinghamshire 1853]
An early reference to this family name is Anne Flyincom, daughter of Henry Flyincom, who was baptised in the church of St. Margaret Westminster in 1627. Research continues, most modern geographical research indicates that the name is concentrated around Mansfield in Nottinghamshire and in the rural communities surrounding the City of Lincoln.
Flintham Hall photograph with kind permission of Cathy Clarke from the album of Fanny Myers and is dated 1860.