Welcome to the History
of the Hambly Name



" ..... Hamley of Halwyn, now of St. Columb and Bodmin. This family, whose surname has been written Hamelye, Hamlyn and Hamblyn, is undoubtedly of great antiquity in the County of Cornwall where it appears to have been seated before the Norman Conquest...."

C. G. Gilbert Historical Survey of the County of Cornwall


" ..... Before the Normans conquered us, the Hamleys were an old family in Cornwall. The name was sometimes spelt Halwyn and that is the way it is mentioned in the Domesday Book. So old is the Hamley line, that some Cornish authorities consider the name is of Phoenican origin"

Wm. Keenan (In Britain's Great Shopkeepers Series) for the London Evening News, 12th Nov.,1957


'Hambly Landmarks'

Here at random are a few of our ‘personalities’. Could some be found in your ancestry, probably if they hailed from Cornwall or Devon where ‘Elder Line’ have established roots for seven centuries? One noted Historian recorded “ This land has never been without ‘John’ Hamley (or it’s variants, of course) continuously for over six centuries ”


** Hamelin de Boeton alias de Trewasac - Known to hold several Manors in Cornwall in the year 1190

** Master Hugh Hamelyn, Parson of the Church of Clent, 12th Feb., 1283 - Given letters of Protection

** Sir John Hamley - Sheriff in Cornwall in 1307; in 1337 given the Custody of St Michael's Mount

** John Hamley (1330 - 1398-9) Burgess of Bodmin ; Member of Parliament, Westminster, 1363; he was also Valet to the Black Prince and granted an Annuity of £20 for those services

** John Hambly (1578 -1627) Gentleman of the Moving Wardrobe to King James I & King Charles I

** The Blessed John Hamblye One of the 57 Martyrs - Executed as a 'Popish Priest' in 1587

** William Hamley - Left Bodmin 1760 to open his tiny Toyshop ('Noah's Ark) in London: now Hamleys PLC

** Lt.Gen. Sir Edward Bruce Hamley, KCB, (1824-93) Companion Legion of Honour & Five Crimean Medals, MP Birkenhead 1885-93, Close friend of Charles Dickens and Thackeray. Wrote The Channel Tunnel Alfred, Lord Tennyson dedicated a famed Poem prologue to him.

But there are other “Fascinating Finds” as we dig into our Studies in an A to Z miscellany of “Non-headline” people. What about hundreds of those “Ag Labs?” What too, of many Artisans & Artists; Bakers & Builders, Coroners & Carpenters, Doctors & Dustmen, Farmers & Fisher-folk, along with Justices & Judges, Learned & Literary folk, Masons, Miners & Masters; the great Mothers & Missionaries; Parsons & Poets, Quakers & Royalists, School-owners, Shepherds, Shopkeepers, Seaman & Soldiers; Tinners & Tinkers match Watchmen & Watchmakers - even Yeomen & Yacht-makers? Their Family trees and archives have a rightful place in our Nation's History, as created by folk who left their marks - with their skills - in a fascinating kaleidoscope of our West Country Family Heritage. We never forget our ‘strays’ to other Counties, and countless migrants whose descendants now span the World, nurturing roots planted everywhere in the Pioneering traditions of their fine forebears.