Banbury is the second largest town in Oxfordshire. It is famed for its Banbury Cross, of nursery rhyme fame. Banbury is a very old market town. It had its first charter in 1185, in the time of Henry II, and it is thought that markets were held there long before that. Banbury lies in the upper valley of the Cherwell River. "Banbury lies in a country of regularly undulating hill and dale. The hills are level broad-backed ridges, so level that you may look across from one ridge to the next and see the trees on the one beyond that again. It is a countryside of soft colors and firm but gentle contours, without dramatic feature. In this it matches the climate which, though fickle, is rarely violent." [1]  In Banbury Wills and Inventories[2] the Southams are listed as an important family of Banbury:
 

"The Youicks were related to the Southams (or Sowthams). James Southam was one of the overseers to Thomas Youick and helped to draw up his inventory; he is described as "my kinsman". Some of the Southams lived in Neithrop, other in Banbury. The Neithrop branch survived until at least 1760, when two of them were allotted land by the Enclosure Act.
 

Robert Southam of Neithrop was the earliest; he was buried in Banbury parish church in 1594. He farmed in a fairly large way, over half the sum total of his inventory being the value of animals, equipment and a small stock of corn left in the barn at the end of winter or already sown. He had land at Sambourne which came to him through his wife and some more at Maidford. Part of the Maidford property was leased to his son George for 21 years at 4d. a year; the tenant of the rest was to be allowed to complete his lease, paying George an annual rent of 10s. Two other sons, Thomas and Harry, were to share the land at Sambourne. Robert's bequest to relatives also included malt, animals and sums of money. His wife Joan and son James were to be residuary legatees, on condition that Joan allowed her son to share the house; if she refused she was to have only 13.6s.8d.As Joan's inventory of 1604 consisted of a chest containing her linen and clothes, worth 6 pounds, and 3 pounds of debts owing her, she may perhaps have refused. Her husband left to James "the great black table that hath a cubbard in the hall", specifying that on James' death it was to go to someone of the name of Southam.
 
 

The family pride is also reflected in the will of Henry Southam of Banbury. His son John was to have the house when his mother died; in default of heirs male it was to go to James Sowtham, Henry's brother, and "to remain to the name of Sowtham for ever". The will emphasizes the seventeenth century parent's responsibility in the choice of their children's spouses. John and his sister Joan were to accept the advice of their mother and Uncle James, who were to determine their dowries accordingly "if they should become stubborn and disobediant children" in this respect. They appear to have conformed to custom for when Henry's widow Annis Southam died in 1619 all her goods were to be divided between her daughter Joan Hawes and her son John.
 
 

Another branch of the family appears in the will of the widow Gilliam Sowtham of Neithrop who died in 1605. She had two sons, William and Thomas, and three daughters; all her children were married. Each daughter was to have 20s. and a garment; Anne got the worst gown, Jan the "woorsar petycote" and Alice the best gown with 40s her mother owed her. Her best petticoat went to William's wife and her second best gown to Thomas's wife. William's daughter Gillian, a child of 6 was given her bed and bedstead furnished and her christening sheet; his other daughter Anne, a baby of 18 months, was left a fine sheet and two pillowslips. Great care went into Gillian's allocation of her clothes. Such bequests were valued by the recipient. The Sowthams stand out as individuals."
 
 

George Southam was born in Neithrop in the parish of Banbury in 1830. George's father, Justinian, was born in the village of Cropredy. Cropredy is a small village three miles north of Banbury. It is an area of rolling green hills dotted by sheep. Cropredy is like many others in the region, with houses made of marlstone and thatched roofs. Cropredy was listed in the Bishop of Lincoln's estate records. According to the author of Cropredy, A Village Trail, "The village had no resident landlord and was governed by the tenant farmers who had a personal interest in its development. Trade was allowed to flourish and has remained here ever since, but the settlement never acquired its own market as neighbouring Banbury did." [3] Local boys with the ability to learn were educated at the Williamscote Grammar School. The school was established at the end of the 16th century.
 

The town lies on the Cherwell River, which is crossed here by Cropredy Bridge. Cropredy Bridge was the scene of one of the great battles of the English Civil War of 1644. "From 1642, there was the Civil War, a time of terrible suffering when to the trials of siege and the quartering of troops upon householders was added a sever epidemic of plague, whilst buildings were destroyed accidentally by fire or deliberately in siege works."[4] Oxfordshire was the center of Royalist resistance, supporting the forces of King Charles I. Banbury, however, was strongly Puritan, and favored the Parliamentarian forces of Oliver Cromwell. On June 28, 1644 the armies of both forces were in the area of Banbury. The Roundhead (Puritan) army took Cropredy Bridge. King Charles' Cavaliers fought back, and drove the Roundheads back to high ground, at Bourton, above the village.
 

The Southams first appear in the Cropredy parish registers in 1701, when James and Elizabeth Southam of Little Bourton had their daughter, Mary, christened in August of 1701. James appears in the Vicar's Tithe Books in Great Bourton:
 
 

Nov 1703                                                                          Tithe

James Southam  1/4 yd land and odd commons               1s - 0d
 
 
 

James Southam

Nov 1705 - May 1707 1/4 ydland                                       0 - 9

Nov 1707 - May 1712 1 ydland                                          3 - 0

Nov 1712 - 1716   2 yd lands                                             6 - 0

Nov 1716 - May 1725    2 1/2 yd lands                              7 - 6

Nov 1725 - Nov 1727   3 1/2 yd lands                             10 - 6

May 1728 - Nov 1741  4 yd lands                                   12 - 0

to William Hunt
 

James Southam Snr. from Jm. Boucher

May 1740 -1743    1/4 ydland                                           0 - 9

Nov 1743 - Nov 1750       1/4 + 3d                                  1 - 0

May 1751 - Nov 1759      1/4                                            0 - 9

* Craftsman amount of land
 

James Southam of Gt Bourton appears in the Victuallers Record from 1758-1761, as the owner of a pub (possibly pub now known as the Bell Inn?)

Southams of Little Bourton
 
 
 

James Southam Jnr.

May 1743 - May 1748      2 3/4 yd lands                         8 - 3

Nov 1748 - May 1751      3 1/4 yd lands                         9 - 6

Nov 1751 - May 1753      4 1/4 yd lands                       12 - 6

Nov 1753 - May 1757      3 3/4 yd lands                       11 - 3

to Sheeler

James Southam Jnr.

Nov 1757 - May 1757        1/2 of Hows                          1 - 6
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Both James Southams appear in the 1753 Assessment:

Bourton Gt & Lt.

Southam James Snr.                                                 2s - 9 1/4 d

Southam James Junr.                                       £2 - 16s - 3

In the parliamentary elections of 1754, both James, senior and James, junior are recorded as voting for the Tory, or Old Interest candidates, Viscount Wenman and Sir James Dashwood.

Freeholders’ Names                    Abode                Vote
 

Southam, James, Senr.                Bourtons              W    D
 

Southam, James, Junr.                   do.                      W  D

After the Enclosures, the Southams appear listed as weavers, not yeoman farmers. The family fortunes seem to have fallen, like most others in the village, during the Industrial Revolution.

George Southam's ancestors, the Hunt, Toms, Giles, and Batchelor families appear from the beginning of the Cropredy parish registers. They lived in Cropredy, and in the townlands of Little Bourton and Great Bourton in Cropredy parish. 

George Southam was born in the hamlet of Neithrop in Banbury, in the year 1830. Banbury is described in this way: "In 1830the population of what now constitutes the Borough (what was the Borough and two hamlets) was 6,400 and the town was about 460 yards across. It was shaped like a triangular pennant flying from a pole in a westerly breeze, the pennant representing the shopping centre and the pole the north-south road where the professional people lived. Out of this population 130 families were employed in agriculture and about 700 in trade, manufactures, and handicrafts. Of the manufactures, plush weaving and horse girths were the most important." Plush weaving was an important industry in the town, but the weavers often lived near poverty. In the 1841 census George, age 10, is found living with the Hunts, his mother's family, in Bourton. They were weavers. George worked as a weaver, until he left for Utah in 1854.