Rampley.net

Rampleys in England

Births, Marriages and Deaths

For the birth, marriage and death entries from the Family Records Centre go here.

Where do they Live?

Geographically, Suffolk has always had the greatest concentration of Rampleys. These two maps show the evolution over time of the name in the UK (note that county boundaries changed in 1974). None are now living in Wales, although one was living there until 1999.

1901 (168)	2002 (244)

The Origins

The name Rampley seems to originate from West Suffolk, to where all branches of the family link back. The earliest probable trace I have is in Walsham le Willows in the 1283 list of taxpayers, where there is a Walter Rampolye. The first recorded Rampley "criminal" seems to have been Robert Rampolye, who seems to have been fined for trespassing in Walsham in 1316. Walsham is about ten miles from my ancestors' village of Sapiston.
Other important Suffolk villages for the Rampley name include: Ampton, Bardwell, Culford, Finningham, Old Newton, Rickinghall, Starston, Stowmarket and Stowupland. The main place in Norfolk is Thetford, right on the Suffolk border. Apart from Suffolk and Norfolk, the only places with Rampleys going back a couple of hundred years or more are Manchester and, of course, London.

The earliest exact name match I have found so far is from around 1350, where the list of people killed in Walsham by the Black Death included eight Rampleys.
The oldest family tree information I have was built from the wills available on this site, which produced a tree going back to about 1450. The oldest tree connecting forward to the present was sent to me by Bruce Rampley; Bruce has traced his family back to a Richard Rampley, who was married on 17 September 1618.

Size and Extent of the Family

In the 1881-1901 censuses in the UK, there were the following numbers of people (unadjusted numbers*):

*In reality, many of those registered as "Ramply" are in families that today spell their name "Rampley". For example, in 1901, the adjusted numbers are: 186 Rampleys and 7 Ramplys.

On the 2002 UK electoral roll, there were 242 Rampleys in England (plus 2 in Scotland).

I estimate that there are about 400 Rampleys in England today. See the home page for a graph of population growth in the US and the UK.

I now have
1600
Rampleys in family trees.
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