Bellingan name has french roots: Amiens - 1568

The first recorded Bellingan birth I have found is in 1568 in Amiens, France, that of Florent Bellingan. Florent is a male name in France, and I have assumed that this became latinised to Floris/Florus when the family moved to Driel. It was certainly a custom in 1600 Netherlands to do this. At the time Amiens was a major textile town, but I have not found any other evidence of the family existing in that town.

So, the family certainly did exist in France, but the links going back before 1568 remain a mystery. It could be that the family originally came from England during the 100 years war with France (1337 -1453), or perhaps Belgium, the Netherlands, or Germany.

There was one text I found, that was interesting, and while it doesn't provide a direct link with our family it does illustrate some of the problems of trying to trace a family name as spellings of names were far more variable in the past. The text was in a book published in 1782 in Paris with the approval of the King. The book was written by Le Grand d'Aussy and in the third volume of this book, Histoire de la vie privee Des Francais there are some interesting paragraphs.

The images on either side are from pages 196 and 197 in Volume III of the book. Halfway down page 196 mining activities since the 15th century are discussed, and it is only with 'le bon Henry IV' (13 December 1553 – 14 May 1610) that a policy is created whereby experienced people can be put in charge of developing the industry.

In a section on page 197, describing the industrial initiatives taken by Henry IV, the book talks of courtiers to the king, using their position to obtain positions within the new industries. From mining, the king wanted gold, and of course the courtiers wanted some to come their way as well. Several of them are named and thus one, Bellegarde, became Surintendant of mines, while Bellingan, Premier Valet-de-Chambre to the king, became Controleur-General. The text goes on to say that despite obtaining this advantage, the benefits amounted to little, because the hoped for minerals were not found.

Researching online for cross-references into the 'premier valet de chambre's of Henri IV, showed that Bellegarde was the Grand Ecuyer, and 'Bellingan' was actually Pierre de Beringhen, who apparently did profit from gaining the office of Controleur-General of Mines in 1601. Another online source says that the name Beringhen was pronounced and written in France as 'Bellingand' or 'Belinguant', which later appeared in Le Grand d'Aussy's book as 'Bellingan'! The Beringhen family were protestant, originating in Gennep and Venlo in the Netherlands.

Henry IV lived from 1553-1610, when he was murdered by a Catholic fanatic. He had been a Protestant and his court was filled with Huguenots. This had been a frequent source of aggravation to the Catholic majority in France. His first title was Henry III, king of Navarre from 1572-1610, and then Henry IV of France from 1589-1610.

The name Bellingan is not at all common in France, although Bellingant is an old name from Bretagne in the North West (Manoir de Kerbabu, Lanillis, Bretagne).

Our name then might be of french derivation from any of Bellingant, Bellingand, Belinguant, Berenghen, or possibly from Belgium (Beringen), Germany (Bellingen or Belingen), or England (Bellingham). I had always assumed that the last one of these was most likely, but now there are lots of other possibilities, that are closer to Amiens.