The Welbank name and close variants are rare. There are less than 20 instances of the name in the 1841 census and today fewer than 30 bearers of the name are recorded on the NHS register. Registration between 1837 and about 1920 confirms the low frequency of the name Wel(l)bank(s) (births 38, marriages 32 *). In contrast the IGI lists over seven hundred marriages and baptisms of Welbank and variants from 1561 to the 1800s, including:
Wellbank, Welbanks, Wellbanks, Welbancke,Welbanck, Wellbancke,Welbankes,Welbanke,Wellbanck.
The earliest recorded reference is of a WELLEBANK variant in 1276-1277 in the Lancashire pages of the Patent Rolls in The Calendar of State Papers of the fifth year of Edward I reign **. Other than this isolated occurrence the earliest references are found in some of the first parish registers which were started by Henry VIII in 1538. It is possible that the name derived from Walbank in Yorkshire about the time of the early registers and was the clergyman's interpretation of the spoken Wallbank name. Some early references are also found in Cognam in Norfolk (1559) and Halton Holegate in Lincolnshire (1575) but these are few compared with the larger number in Yorkshire, particularly in the parish of Wintringham, East Riding of Yorkshire where the greatest number are found from about 1561.
The relatively large number of Welbanks in the IGI compared with the rarity of the name after the early 1800s is surprising. It is possible that some families reverted to the Walbank spelling before or at the start of the census and registration.
The maps below show the distribution of Welbank marriages and baptisms in England. (Data extracted from the IGI)
1. Welbank and variants marriages (IGI).
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2. Welbank and variants baptisms (IGI)
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* Source : FreeBMD (http://www.freebmd.org.uk)
** Source :The Original Record. (http://www.theoriginalrecord.com)
Early References to Welbank and variants - other sources
A comprehensive list of references compiled by Paul Welbank can be found on his website : http://www.welbank.net/ (Entry to the Welbank genealogy section requires a password from Paul Welbank)
Some references from British History Online are listed below.
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