The Maxims

I would be very interested to hear about any information you may have on the Maxims I am doing a One Name Study on the name Maxim and am a member of the Guild of One Name Studies. Maxim appears in my husband's ancestry and what started out as just a bit of family history has just growed!

I am sure the Suffolk Maxims must be related to the Essex ones, but as yet, haven't had much success.

I was given the link to your site and think it's absolutely marvellous. I have done a search on the name Maxim and have come up with a lot of newspaper entries. All I've got to do now is fit the people in the news items with the names in my One Name Study. The war time ones were very poignant.

Posted by Tricia Campbell

I would like to comment on the Maxim family.

My great great grandfather was William Maxim, born in Foxearth in 1802. He
found his way to London around 1840 when he and two sons became cab drivers.
He died in St Pancras workhouse in about 1885.

I presume that he was barely literate and probably had a strong dialect
accent because by the time he gets to London his surname has become Maxam
and his place of birth Foxith.

One grandson Harry Maxam became a music hall artiste of at least moderate
ability as the 1901 census shows him in theatrical digs in Manchester.

With regard to the Essex/Suffolk branches, it seems to me that they are one
and the same as they come for the most part from areas that straddle the
county boundaries.

I will be delighted to exchange the rather fuller details I have to anyone
interested and likewise would like to hear other news of the Maxims. In
particular, I would like to know of any emigration to New England and
possible connection to Hiram Maxim born in Sangerville Maine in 1840,
knigted by Queen Victoria for inventing the machine gun, the steam driven
aeroplane, the carbon electric light filament and a patent hair
straightener!

posted by Brian Johnson