Genealogical notes of Barnstable families - citizen hylbom blog

GORHAM.
C'apt. John Gorhaiii is the ancestor of the numerous families
of the name of Gorham in New England, in the British Provinces,
in Rhode Island, New York, and other states in the Union.
His descent is traced from the DeGorran of La Tanniere, near
Gorram, in Maine, on the borders of Brittany. Several of the
family removed to England in the eleventh century, during the
reign of William the Conquerer. In England many of the name
were men of learning, wealth and influence. The immediate ancestors
of Capt. John were not men of note. His father Ralph
and his grandfather James resided at Benefleld in Northamptonshire,
where John was baptized January 28, 1620-1. James Gorham
of Benefleld, was born in 1550, married in 1572, Agnes Bernington,
and died 1576. Ralph, born in 1575, came with his
family to New England, and was in Plymouth in 1637. On the
2d of October in that year, "Lands to erect a house upon are
granted to Ralph Goarame, of some part of the waste grounds
about Edmund Bumpas or Philip Delanoys house."
Of Ralph Gorham or his family little is known. Only the
birth of his son John is recorded either at Benefleld or at Plymouth.
He probably had other children, evidently a son Ralph,
born in England, for he is called, Mai'ch 4, 1638-9, "the elder,"
showing that there were then two persons of that name in Plymouth.*
He is named in the Plymouth Colony Records June 4,
1639, and April 5, 1642, and thereafter his name disappears. At
the latter date he was sixty-seven years of age, and, if he was
living in 1643, his name would not be enrolled on the list taken in
August that year, of all between 16 and 60 that were able to bear
arms in the Colony. Ralph, the vounger's name, is not on that
list.
It is probalile that Ralph Gorham died about the year 1643,
leaving no widow, and an only child John who inherited his prop-
erty. This is inferred from tiie fact that no settlement of his es-
*20th Juno, 1635, Thomas Gorham, agpd 19, and John Gorham, aged 18 3'ears, were
passengers in the Phillip, Richard Morgan master, from Ijound to Virginia.
New England was sometimes called North Virginia. A Mrs. Kathrine (lorham presented
a petition to the Assemhly of Rhode Island 1680.