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Ben Family History

This is an English medieval locational surname. It originates from the villages of High and Low Bentham in the former West Riding of Yorkshire, and near to the town of Settle in the famous Yorkshire Dales. The village name and hence the surname, derives from the pre 7th century Olde English 'beonet' meaning 'reedy or bent grass' and 'ham' a homestead or settlement. The surname is first recorded in the Poll Tax rolls of Yorkshire for 1379, when three people who may have been related and were most certainly land owners in Bentham appear in the register. These were: Johannes de Bentham, Ricardus de Bentham and Thomas de Bentham...