This is a very unusual surname. We believe that it is a diminutive form of the ancient English personal name Bimm or Beam, recorded as early as the 7th century a.d. but this is pure conjecture and we do not any clear supporting evidence. What we do know is that in medieval times the words bimm or beam were used to describe a bridge or causeway made of beams of wood, and were also used as a personal name ostensibly for a tall, thin person. As the diminutives Bamlett or Bimlett the surname is quite well recorded in surviving church registers of England. The spelling is also found as Bamler, and is rare. It may be occupational and describe a bridge builder, or it may have been residential and describe a person from a place called Beam. This could be Beam in Devonshire or Beamsley, near Skipton in Yorkshire. Bamling like Bamlett may have translated as "Little Beam," or even a family called Beam, but strangely is not recorded in the registers of the city of London. This is rare indeed. Bamling is apparently first recorded in the town of Colne in the county of Lancashire as Boymlen or Boymlin in 1636. The registers then have a gap of nearly three centuries, which may have been because the nameholders were non-conformist and therefore not registered, although a family of Bamlings were recorded at Kirby Ravensworth, near Richmond, in the neighbouring county of North Yorkshire in 1764. The modern Lancashire recordings seem to date from January 6th 1901, when Josiah Moulton Bamling was baptised at the town of Shaw.

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