RANSOM

RANSOM. RANSOME. From analogous corrui)tions, I should say, that this name was originally Ransham, though I find no jjlace so called. Mr. Ferguson, with his accustomed facility, finds the etymon in the O.-Norse ransamr, pra'dabuudus, piratical. " What curious changes," says he, "the whirligig of time brings round. AVe take our money to the descendant of the old sea-robber to take care of for us — Ransom & Co., bankers, Pall Mall. Another Eansome has turned his sword into a ploughshare, and become famed as a maker of agricultural implements at Ipswich."

Lower, Mark A (1860) Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom. London: J.R. Smith. Public Domain.