This surname is derived from a geographical locality. 'of Lathom,' a chapelry in the parish of Ormskirk, Lancashire The surname has ramified very strongly and spread far and wide, probably from lade or lathe, a barn. A distinguished family took their name from this place.

There appears to have been two old families of this name of different origin. (1) From the manor of Letham, now Leitholm, in the parish of Eccles, Berwickshire. Several of these Lethams appear in charters of Coldingham Priory (CCPC.), among the earliest being Ketell de Letham and his son Ketell, witnesses to a charter by Walthevus, earl of Dunbar (Raine, p. 26). Ketell's name is believed to be preserved in a corrupt form in Cattleshill in the parish of Polwarth. Robert de Letheham was one of the Scots prisoners of war taken at Dunbar Castle, 1296 (Bain, II, 742). Edward de Letham, one of the Scots hostages when Berwick was surrendered to Edward in in 1333, may be Edward de Letham who witnessed a confirmation charter of Snowdon to Dryburgh Abbey, c. 1350 (Dryburgh, 232). John Letham in the reign of Robert III obtained the lands of Letham by the forfaultrie of Patrick, earl of March (RMS., I, App. II, 1949). Robert Leithame held land in Glasgow, 1507 (LCD., p. 260), and in 1553 an annual rent in Glasgow was sold by Margaret Leithame (Protocols, I). James Leitham appears in Galtonside (Gattonside), 1663 (RRM., II, p. 75), Andrew Leitem in Aytoun, 1665 (Lauder), and John Lethom was miller at the Mylne of Minigaff, 1773 (Wigtown). (2) From the lands of Letham in the parish of Dunnichen, Angus. John de Letham witnessed a Fife charter, c. 1210 (SHR., II, p. 175), and Thomas Lethame was witness at Ester Moncreif, 1551 (Rollok, 73).

V. Leatham.

Of this great family, whose name is derived from the chapelry of Lathom in the parish of Ormskirk, Mr. Ormerod observes, that they have "for six centuries presided, with little interruption, over the civil government of Lancashire," and that after the succession of the house of Stanley to the representation of the family, they long exercised a corresponding influence over Cheshire." The pedigree usually commences with Robert Fitz-Henry, Lord of Lathom, who between 1189 and 1199 founded Burscough Priory; but Mr. Ormerod has successfully proved it to a period almost, if not quite coeval with the Conquest, thus :-I. Dunning-whether a continued possessor, or a Norman grantee, does not appear; II. Siward Fitz-Dunning; III. Henry Fitz-Siward; IV. Robert Fitz-Henry, above mentioned. The patronymical Fitz was continued until about the middle of the XIII. century, when the fixed surname of De Lathom was adopted. See Ormerod's Miscellanea Palatina, pp. 60, 61, 62. The orthography Latham is comparatively modem.

The Lathams are a very old and distinguished Cheshire and Lancashire family, that took its name from Lathom in Lancashire. Their Cheshire home was at Astbury from the 14th to the 16th century; afterwards they resided at Congleton (O.). For six centuries they presided with little interruption over the civil government of Lancashire (Lower).

The Lathams are referred to under "Cheshire".