Welcome to my website dedicated to John Benham, who came from England to America in 1634 and he was a founding member of New Haven, Conn. in 1638.
Kevin Benham's father, Dale Benham, has a huge database of many of the Benhams here in the US, however the huge mystery is where our 'John Benham' came from in England and which family he belonged to. We don't even know who 'Mrs. John Benham' was.
Kevin picked up the gauntlet with hi dad and began to research the Benhams in England mainly prior to the 1700's. The history of our ancestry is incredible! By the year 1600 there were 22 towns that contained one or more Benham families and most of them had a John Benham living at the time. I do know for a fact that there was a Sir John Benham in 1626 that was a loyalist to King Charles I. We're pretty sure he was from Kingsclere. This seemed to be their seat of power back then. After King Charles was executed in 1649 through 1660, all of the tax collection was taken away from the 'Lords of Manor' everywhere and converted to the 'new system'. For example the hearth tax of 1662/70 that was repealed before the 2nd round of collection. This record (Hamshire area) from 1662-65 reveals that 1/3 of the Benham households had 'widow' listed as 'head of household'. And the largest household was in West Meon, Winchester with 6 hearths (fireplaces) and listed 'widow' as 'head of household'. This indicates to us that many male Benhams died during the civil war period.
The hunch is that my 'John Benham' lived in the Clerkenwell area of London until 1634. He was a puritan and had close ties with Rev John White and Rev John Davenport once they settled in New Haven. Both of these clergymen fled London in the early 1630's and I believe John Benham may have known them prior to New Haven. A lot of records show that my 'John Benham' was from either Dorchester or Plymouth, England. He sailed from Plymouth on the Winthrop Fleet and spent the 1st 3 years in the settlement of Dorchester, Mass. as an indentured servant making bricks. This was the price he had to pay for the voyage. Once he was made a freeman, he went to New Haven just as they founded it. He was one of the original 38 founders. My research has never found any Benhams living in either Dorchester or Plymouth, England prior to 1630. However, we were startled to find out there are two Dorchester Englands and the 2nd one is in the Berkshire/Oxfordshire area. There were Benhams in that area and Beenham (previously Benham) is close by as well.
All of the early references from the Doomsday Book of 1086 refer to John de Benham or Walter/Richard de Benham. This often meant John (or Walter/Richard) of the town of Benham. But not always...A lot of these ended up being just John Debenham and the town of Debenham is not too far to the east. Another interesting clue is the Wallingford link. After New Haven started growing, they expanded north and eventually founded Wallingford in about 1660. Just after I discovered the 2nd Dorchester, I discovered Wallingford, England just 5 miles to the south! The history of Wallingford England was substantial from 1086 to 1600 until they built the new bridge to the north and bypassed the town. I think it was Rev White that was from Dorchester, Berkshire and this may be where the naming of Wallingford came from.
Kevin's 'John Benham' and his wife (believed to be Mary) had two sons and a daughter probably named Mary. We are pretty sure that the daughter (the eldest child) did not survive to adulthood, but the records indicate that John's family of five went with the initial trip to establish New Haven. The two sons were named John and Joseph. Joseph must have been very young during the voyage. The reason I suspect Clerkenwell is because the earlist record of any Joseph Benham ever born (about 1634) reflects that he was born in the very small village of Steeple Ashton in Wiltshire. It states that John Benham of Clerkenwell was the father and Mary was the mother who was also born in Steeple Ashton. Joseph may have been born at the 'in-laws' (Mary's parents) while they were in route to Plymouth. This would have been a great place to rest during the journey. And probably the only Benham ever born there. And I could not find any death records of a Joseph Benham in England to match either. Also these records for Clerkenwell actually show a John Benham born in 1581 (my John Benham's father) and a death record in about 1660. They were no doubt being descreet and Steeple Ashton is not to far off of the beaten path from London to Plymouth. That beaten path goes through the heart of Benham country and Kingsclere is where the King would spend the night on his 2 day journey from London to Whales.
Back then, it was very traditional to name your 1st son after yourself. Well, the Benhams went one step further to insure that the name 'John Benham' was carried on. Here is the scenario: John Benham's 1st son would be named John Benham. His 2nd/3rd/4th sons were named traditionally something like William, Thomas, Richard. However, when these other sons would have their 1st son, more often than not, they would name him John and then the 2nd son would be named after themselves. I have seen this over and over in my research.
The tradition was carried on with the sons, John & Joseph. John/Sarah named their 1st son John and Joseph/Winifred named their 1st son Joseph. Their 2nd son was named John. Both of these Johns died young and both families named their next son John. Winifred is quite famous. She was accused of being a witch twice in 1692 and she is known as Winifred, the Witch of Wallingford. Also the name Mary is used quite often and this is why I believe our mystery woman's first name was Mary.
There is tons of Benham history on both sides of 'the pond'. For instance, we have found where TWELVE descendants of John & Joseph fought in the Revolutionary War in 1776 against a 'John Benham' who was a documented British prisoner of war. There were 159 Benhams that fought in the Civil War! Lucille Ball is most likely a descendant of my 'John Benham' and the great-great grandmother of the Wright Brothers was Catherine Benham. A Fredrick Benham, from England, was a steward that died on the Titanic. There were 3 USS Destroyers named after Admiral Benham. Benham & Froude, Benham & Sons the copperware makers, the Benham Motor Car. The list keeps growing.........Many thanks to Pat Benham for this latest little tid bit.......The great grandson of Rueben Benham (of Chichester, UK) was none other than H G Wells!
The purpose of this website is to publish what data we have found and to gather data from you! The correct coat of arms would be a good start! I have found two so far, but no way to validate either one. I encourage you to send this link to anyone who might be interested. This site is completely non-profit and NOT excepting any donations or sponsorships at this time.
Also, I strongly encourage everyone interested go to the: Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation to request your FREE DNA sample kit! This non-profit organization, that I just discovered, is building the largest database of human DNA, both Y-DNA and mt-DNA. One confirmed Benham is already in the database. The new test is very simple and FREE to anyone in the world. This could solve our mystery in a heartbeat!
While constructing all of the descending webpages and following each male line down through each generation, I discovered that most them did not make it into the 21st century. Of the two beginning brothers, John and Joseph, I have tracked all of John's male descendants down through every possible tree and I have only come up with four other families that have survived to present day. Joseph's side has many more descendants and it will track alot longer to filter through them. Many of the 'dead ends' that I encountered are where we don't have a death record for that male. Many times they would move away and the connections get lost. My Dad has list of 800+ Benhams that he is trying figure out where they 'fit' in. Most of them don't because of the fact that there were migrations of other Benhams in 1800 through 1880. There were five seperate Benham families that settled in the Pittsburg/Philly area in the mid 1800s. There were several families that settled in the Carolina/Virginia area as well.
From here the site splits into four areas. The first area contains all of the 'known' info about the puritan, John Benham and his descendants. The second area contains all of the info that I have for Benhams in England (by town) starting with the oldest known reference. This perspective will provide a genealogical view by town/date and reveal how the Benhams spread out from a central area over time. The next area is for people to add their names to the guest/email list and have access to a discussion board/forum.
