Orme Genealogy

Introduction | Origins | Rune-stones
Icelandic Sagas | Europe | Famous Ormes
Heraldry | Place Names | Related Surnames

Famous Ormes

Orme of Darlaston / Orme le Guidon (UK) 11th/12th centuries.

Orme's father, Richard the Forester, was the forester in charge of all of the new forest - which would have made him a very wealthy and powerful man. During (or near to) 1086, Orme was married to Alice - the daughter of Hervens, a Norman nobleman - and was given four caracutes of land in Lancashire and neighbouring counties. One caracute is the amount of land that one pair of oxen can plough in one year, four caracutes would make him a very important person.

He is the Orme responsible for the building of the church at Ormskirk and undoubtedly others too. When he joined the Crusades against the Saracens he became the standard bearer (le Guidon), and legends tell that he returned home with Saracen stone-masons who were involved in building the church of St. Chad in Stafford. Orm's home was at Darlaston, near Wolverhampton, the 'de Darlaston' family remained lords of the manor there until the 15th century.

Captain Robert Orme. 1725 - 1790 (UK)

Officer of Britain's Coldstream Guards. Aide-de-camp to General Braddock and exchanged letters with with George Washington. Wounded by the French (near Pittsburgh in America) in 1755, he returned to England, resigning his commission in 1756.

His portrait was painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds in 1756, it now hangs in the National Gallery in London.

Robert Orme 1728 - 1801 (UK)

East India Company Official and Historian, he was the author of several books that are still available at libraries.

Brigadier General William W. Orme. 1832 - 1866 (USA)

Born in Washington, D. C., William Ward Orme relocated to Illinois and practiced law in Bloomington. He was a member of the State constitutional convention in 1860, raised the 94th Illinois regiment at the beginning of the civil war, and was appointed as its Colonel. In 1862 he was promoted to Brigadier General of Volunteers, but failing health forced his retirement in 1864 and he then became Supervising Agent in the United States Treasury.

Sheriff Lindley H. Orme (USA)

Maricopa County Sheriff 1881-84 and 1895-98. He built the first Phoenix jail with incandescent lamps. During Sheriff Orme's term, repeated smallpox outbreaks required deputies to quarantine the town.

The Rt. Hon. the Baron Oram 1913-1999 (UK)

Albert Edward Oram was educated at Brighton Grammar School and the University of London (London School of Economics and Institute of Education). He became a teacher, but left the profession to become a research officer for the Co-operative Party, 1946 - 1955. He was a Labour and Co-operative Party MP for East Ham South from 1955 to 1974, Parliamentary Secretary, 1964 - 1969, and a Government Whip, 1976 - 1978. He was greatly interested in aiding development throughout the world and was a member of the Commonwealth Development Corp, 1975 - 1976, co-ordinator of the development programmes of the Co-operative Alliance, 1971 - 1973 and Chairman of the Co-operative Development Agency 1978 - 1981.

The Right Honorable the Baron Orme p.c. 1923 - 2005 (UK)

A Member of Parliament for 33 years, Stanley Orme's career encompassed ministerial positions under Harold Wilson and James Callaghan, culminating in a peerage and appointment to the Privy Council (the Privy Council advise the reigning monarch on matters of state). He was a man of integrity, who neither sought undue prominence for himself, nor wavered from his beliefs.