Booth
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Booth Genealogy
Booth comes from the Old English both, a cowhouse or a herdsman's hut. The name could refer either to the location or be an occupational name for a cowherd or a herdsman. The word was originally of Scandinavian origin and tended to be found in areas where the Scandinavian influence was most marked.
Booth occasionally appears in its travels with an "e" (i.e. Boothe).
England. Booth developed locally as a surname, in Lancashire and in the adjacent counties of Cheshire, Derbyshire and the West Ridings of Yorkshire. This pattern was evident in the 14th century and continued in later centuries. Even by the end of the 19th centiury, roughly 80 percent of the Booths in England were to be found within this region.
Booths from Dunham Massey in Cheshire have been traced back to Barrowford Booth in Lancashire in the 13th century. This family married well and bacame part of local Cheshire gentry. George Booth played a part in the national politics of his time, being a member of the delegation which invited Charles II back. A generation later, Henry Booth was tried but acquitted of high treason after James II had lost his throne. This Booth line petered out soon after.
In 1767 Thomas Booth left his farm in Warrington and travelled to Liverpool to seek his fortune. By the age of thirty he had become a successful corn merchant and by forty he owned his own trading vessels. However, his offspring did more. His second son Henry helped George and Robert Stephenson develop the first railway locomotives. Charles, like his father, became a corn merchant. His son Charles built up the Booth Steamship Company, a business which made him a wealthy man. But Charles Booth is most remembered today for his social work, as this memorial reveals:
Another Booth, William Booth, had a less easy road. His father, from Belper in Derbyshre, went bankrupt and William set off on his own to London. There he became a Methodist preacher. However, dissatisfied with its protocol, he decided to start his own mission. In 1865, he and his wife Catherine opened their first Christian Revival Society in the East End of London. This place, intended to be a gathering place for the poorest and neediest in society, grew to be the Salvation Army. Although its early years were lean ones, the Salvation Army eventually flourished and Booth himself received widespread respect and admiration throughout the country.
Booth wrote in his book In Darkest England and The Way Out:
Another Booth evangelist, Joseph Booth from Derby, fared less well. He struck out for Africa in 1892 as a missionary. However, when there, he aroused the hostility of other missionaries and the colonial authorities by advocating higher wages and more political power for Africans. They eventually banished him back to England.
A more exotic Booth line started with John Booth, a Jewish silversmith in London whose ancestors had been banished from Portugal because of their radical political views. He mixed with the radical set in London, including John Wilkes a well-known agitator at the time. His son, Junius Brutus Booth, from whom came the famous theatrical family, took off for America in 1821 with his mistress (who eventually bore him ten children) and toured the country as an actor. He died aged 56 on board a steamboat on the Mississippi. One of his sons, Edwin Thomas Booth, founded Booth's Theatre in New York; another, John Wilkes Booth, is forever known as the assassin of Abraham Lincoln. Back in England, the Booth line has extended to the actor Tony Booth and his daughter Cherie, the wife of the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
America. Family tradition has it that three Booth brothers from Cheshire came to America in the 1630's; William to Barbados, John Booth who settled on Long Island, and Richard Booth who was one of the founding fathers of Stratford, Connecticut (Donald L. Jacobus's 1952 book Genealogy of the Booth Line recounts this family line).
Also from Cheshire came Thomas Booth who arrived in Gloucester County, Virginia in the 1630's and James Mather Booth who arrived a century later and became the first mayor of Marietta, Ohio in 1825. John and Charity Booth moved from Virginia to Kentucky around 1805. And Charles Boothe was at this time one of the first settlers in Wayne County, West Virginia. Richard and Elsie Booth were Mormons who made the long trek from Lancashire to Salt Lake valley in 1857.
Select Booth Miscellany
Select Booth Names
George Booth started Booth's rebellion and then was part of the delegation which invited Charles II back to the throne.
John Wilkes Booth, an actor, was the man who assassinated Abraham Lincoln.
Charles Booth, a Victorian philanthopist, spent the latter part of his life documenting and publicizing the plight of the urban poor in London.
William Booth was the founder of the Salvation Army.
George Booth from Lancashire took the stage name Formby, as his music hall father had, and became hugely popular with his ukelele playing in the 1930's.
Cherie Booth is the wife of the former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair.
Richard Booth is the self-proclaimed King of Hay on the Welsh border and the creator of the world's first book town.
Select Booths Today
Select Index of Names
The Origin/Spread of Surnames
Booth comes from the Old English both, a cowhouse or a herdsman's hut. The name could refer either to the location or be an occupational name for a cowherd or a herdsman. The word was originally of Scandinavian origin and tended to be found in areas where the Scandinavian influence was most marked.
Booth occasionally appears in its travels with an "e" (i.e. Boothe).
Select
Booth Resources on
The
Internet
- Booths of Cheshire. Booths in Cheshire.
- William Booth of the Salvation Army. Booth biography.
- Would You Prefer a Booth, Mr. Lincoln?. America's first acting family.
England. Booth developed locally as a surname, in Lancashire and in the adjacent counties of Cheshire, Derbyshire and the West Ridings of Yorkshire. This pattern was evident in the 14th century and continued in later centuries. Even by the end of the 19th centiury, roughly 80 percent of the Booths in England were to be found within this region.
Booths from Dunham Massey in Cheshire have been traced back to Barrowford Booth in Lancashire in the 13th century. This family married well and bacame part of local Cheshire gentry. George Booth played a part in the national politics of his time, being a member of the delegation which invited Charles II back. A generation later, Henry Booth was tried but acquitted of high treason after James II had lost his throne. This Booth line petered out soon after.
In 1767 Thomas Booth left his farm in Warrington and travelled to Liverpool to seek his fortune. By the age of thirty he had become a successful corn merchant and by forty he owned his own trading vessels. However, his offspring did more. His second son Henry helped George and Robert Stephenson develop the first railway locomotives. Charles, like his father, became a corn merchant. His son Charles built up the Booth Steamship Company, a business which made him a wealthy man. But Charles Booth is most remembered today for his social work, as this memorial reveals:
"During many years he devoted the
leisure of an arduous life to a study of the condition of the poor in
London. He diligently sought for a foundation for which remedies
could be securely based and he lived to see the fulfilment of part of
his hopes, in the lightening of the burder of old age and
poverty. To those who lived under his influence, he brought
unfailing help and joy. He leaves them a precious example."
Another Booth, William Booth, had a less easy road. His father, from Belper in Derbyshre, went bankrupt and William set off on his own to London. There he became a Methodist preacher. However, dissatisfied with its protocol, he decided to start his own mission. In 1865, he and his wife Catherine opened their first Christian Revival Society in the East End of London. This place, intended to be a gathering place for the poorest and neediest in society, grew to be the Salvation Army. Although its early years were lean ones, the Salvation Army eventually flourished and Booth himself received widespread respect and admiration throughout the country.
Booth wrote in his book In Darkest England and The Way Out:
"My only hope for the permanent
deliverance of mankind from misery either in this world or the next is
the regeneration or remaking of the individual by the power of the Holy
Ghost through Jesus Christ. But in providing for the relief of temporal
misery I reckon that I am only making it easy where it is now
difficult, and possible where it is now all but impossible, for men and
women to find their way to the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Another Booth evangelist, Joseph Booth from Derby, fared less well. He struck out for Africa in 1892 as a missionary. However, when there, he aroused the hostility of other missionaries and the colonial authorities by advocating higher wages and more political power for Africans. They eventually banished him back to England.
A more exotic Booth line started with John Booth, a Jewish silversmith in London whose ancestors had been banished from Portugal because of their radical political views. He mixed with the radical set in London, including John Wilkes a well-known agitator at the time. His son, Junius Brutus Booth, from whom came the famous theatrical family, took off for America in 1821 with his mistress (who eventually bore him ten children) and toured the country as an actor. He died aged 56 on board a steamboat on the Mississippi. One of his sons, Edwin Thomas Booth, founded Booth's Theatre in New York; another, John Wilkes Booth, is forever known as the assassin of Abraham Lincoln. Back in England, the Booth line has extended to the actor Tony Booth and his daughter Cherie, the wife of the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
America. Family tradition has it that three Booth brothers from Cheshire came to America in the 1630's; William to Barbados, John Booth who settled on Long Island, and Richard Booth who was one of the founding fathers of Stratford, Connecticut (Donald L. Jacobus's 1952 book Genealogy of the Booth Line recounts this family line).
Also from Cheshire came Thomas Booth who arrived in Gloucester County, Virginia in the 1630's and James Mather Booth who arrived a century later and became the first mayor of Marietta, Ohio in 1825. John and Charity Booth moved from Virginia to Kentucky around 1805. And Charles Boothe was at this time one of the first settlers in Wayne County, West Virginia. Richard and Elsie Booth were Mormons who made the long trek from Lancashire to Salt Lake valley in 1857.
Select Booth Miscellany
If you would like to read more, click on the miscellany page for
further stories and accounts:
Select Booth Names
George Booth started Booth's rebellion and then was part of the delegation which invited Charles II back to the throne.
John Wilkes Booth, an actor, was the man who assassinated Abraham Lincoln.
Charles Booth, a Victorian philanthopist, spent the latter part of his life documenting and publicizing the plight of the urban poor in London.
William Booth was the founder of the Salvation Army.
George Booth from Lancashire took the stage name Formby, as his music hall father had, and became hugely popular with his ukelele playing in the 1930's.
Cherie Booth is the wife of the former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair.
Richard Booth is the self-proclaimed King of Hay on the Welsh border and the creator of the world's first book town.
Select Booths Today
- 63,000 in the UK (most numerous in Yorkshire)
- 16,000 in America (most numerous in Florida)
- 18,000 elsewhere (most numerous in Australia)
Select Index of Names
The Origin/Spread of Surnames