ENGLAND

For the birth, marriage and death entries for England 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.

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. Like many others, the Rampolye family in Walsham was quite badly impacted in 1349 by the Black Death.

Walsham is about ten miles from my own 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 OF THE FAMILY

In the 1881-1901 censuses in the UK, there were the following numbers of people (mostly in England, 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.

SCOTLAND

There have never been more than a few Rampleys in Scotland at any one time, and no single family seems to have settled there. On the 2002 electoral roll, there were only two: one in Aberdeenshire and the other in Edinburgh.

A search on Scotland’s People only returns six matches (see below). However, a search of the (what I thought should be the same) records office in Scotland, via “Scottish Link” from the Family Records Centre, London, UK (now closed) returned the following eleven records:

BIRTHS

MARRIAGES

DEATHS

SCOTLAND’S PEOPLE

This website is hosted by the General Register Office for Scotland. It’s almost exclusively a paying site, but the free search for Rampley returns:

• OPRI & SRI Birth & Christenings (1 January 1553 – 1902): 2 records
• OPRI & SRI Marriages (1 January 1553 – 1927): 1 record
• SRI Deaths (1855 – 1952): 1 record

The main spelling variations Ramply and Ramplee return nothing.

WALES

RAMPLEY

According to my records there has been only one Rampley birth in Wales (in 1990 in Swansea). Other than that family, to my knowledge only one Rampley has lived in Wales (although under her married name), and she died in 1999. In the censuses of 1881, 1891 and 1901, and on the 2002 UK electoral roll, there were no Rampleys in Wales.

RAMPLEE

There have been two Ramplee births and one Ramplee marriage recorded in Wales, but I don’t think the family lives there any more. One Ramplee death was recorded in Wales.