Balchin Family History

Perhaps an altered form of Bolsham from Bilsham in Yapton (Sussex) recorded as Bul(e)sham from the 12th century whose name is from an Old English given name or nickname Bȳli (bȳl(e) ‘a boil’) in the genitive case with -es + hamm ‘watermeadow; enclosed place’ or hām ‘large estate farm’. Woolbeding where the earliest example of Balchin occurs is next to Midhurst (Sussex) where James Bolsham is recorded in 1606.

The will of a Peter Bolsham of Kirdford (Sussex) was proved in 1614 and a Walter Bulshyne (a scribal mangling of Bulsham?) is recorded in that neighbourhood in 1307. This might explain the naming of Bulchin's Farm in Kirdford, as suggested in Place-Names of Sussex. The family name Bulchin in Guildford, Surrey, and in Kirdford, Sussex, seems to be an alternative 18th- and 19th-century pronunciation of Balchin.

However, the Guildford connection also suits the alternative explanation for Balchin given in (ii). Perhaps an altered form of Balchild, a name that is first recorded in East Worldham (Hants) in 1327, about 16 miles from Guildford (Surrey), where it appears from the 1380s onwards. It is in Guildford and nearby villages where both Balchin and Balchild are found from the late 17th century onwards, an overlap which is much better evidenced than Balchin with Bolsham which only occurs in Kirdford.

The origin of Balchild is uncertain. It appears to be either a nickname containing Middle English child (Old English cild) ‘child, young man, knight, attendant, apprentice’ (see Child) or perhaps a topographical name containing Middle English childe (Old English *cielde) spring, but the identity of Bal- is difficult to determine. In relation to the nickname, Middle English balgh ‘tubby, round-bellied’ is a possibility; compare Fairchild, Goodchild, and Littlechild.