Scottish Branches - Overview

The earliest Fairholm or variant, that we have found in Scotland so far, is an Alan, who was appointed as a Burgess of Edinburgh on 14th November 1488, when he was also a Gild (Guild) Member. There was an Andrew appointed as a Burgess of the city on 28th January 15541-1555, and, similarly, a George, a maltman, on 13th September 1570. These three, and another 16 men, were listed below a group of surnames - Fairholme, Fairum, Farme, and Farome, where each individual's surname was not indicated, for appointments in the period up to 1700.

The records of the General Register Officer of Scotland include many entries for Fairholm and Fairholme and other variations in Scotland. There were eleven distinct sets of parents in the early 1600s, all in Edinburgh. The earliest entry in the index for any of the families is a christening in 1606 - Agnes, the daughter of Andro & Agnes Fairholme.

© base map Corel Corporation

Charles Ferme (1566-1617)

Charles Ferme or Fairholm was the principal of the short-lived Fraserburgh university college - from around 1600 to his death in 1617.

Charles was born around 1566, but his parents are not known and he grew up with the family of Alexander Guthrie.  He attended Edinburgh University from 1584-1587.  He studies included philosophy and theology.  He learnt basic Hebrew.  From 1589 he taught at the university, but this ended when he took on the roles of minister at Fraserburgh and of the principal of the newly founded college in 1600.

Charles was a presbyterian.  When James VI re-established a functioning episcopacy in Scotland from 1600 Charles was opposed.  He was imprisoned several times for his actions against the new arrangements, which included attending a General Assembly of the church at Aberdeen in 1605, although James had prorogued it.  From 1605 until at least 1609 he was held at Doune castle, Stirling, Doune castle again and somewhere in the "Hielands".

After Charles' death one of his pupils and later the principal of Edinburgh University - John Adamson - published one of the two known works by Charles - A logical analysis of the Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Romans.  The work is a very detailed examination and explanation of the text of the epistle.  A printed version was produced in 1850.  It contains the original in latin and a translation into english. The front page of the latin version is shown opposite.  It states that "all the more difficult words, sentences, and phrases are exactly, fully, and clearly explained from the sacred scriptures."  

The other work known to have been written by Charles was Prelections on Easter, but no copy of it survives.

The recorded spelling of Charles' surname was varied.  In one of the introductory sections to the translation of his surviving work William Lindsay Alexander includes a footnote about the surname.  He assserts that it was actually Fairholm, but sets out several variations used by Charles and for Charles by others: Farholm, Pharm, Pharum, Ferum, Ferm, Ferme and Fermaeus.  In a letter dated 21 February 1605, Charles signed his name "Chairlis Ferm".

Information for this story is from the 1850 version of his printed work and the Dictionary of National Biography.

Photograph by mikhail pavstyuk on Unsplash

This page sets out what we have found about the early history of the Fairholm and Fairholme families in Scotland.

Several families moved South to England and at least one English family moved North to Scotland. We use the terms English and Scottish to refer to the origins of branches rather than their current locations. We have not yet found any evidence for a common ancestry between the English and Scottish branches

First recorded uses of the surname

The branches

We have been able to create four Scottish branches.  For ease of reference, we  named them based on where the branches were located:

> Edinburgh (formerly Main)

> Edinburghshire & Borders

> Firth of Forth (merged with Edinburghshire & Lanarkshire)

> Fife.

In addition, there is a 'branch' for Ferme.

Details on each of the branches can be found by using the Scottish Branches drop-down list in the menu at the top of the page. For further information or to find out which branch you belong to please email me at queries@fairholmfamilytrees.info.

From a copy on the Internet Archive (archive.org)