Origins of Upham

These verses, speculating on the origin of the name of Upham, were composed, and set to music, by Judge Nathaniel G. Upham, of Concord, New Hampshire (No. 287):

Up high, on an oak-crowned hill
Prepared with sedulous care,
H is home, in the olden time,
An old man erected there.
Many a year have I known his name,
Each passer-by calls it Up-hame, Up-hame!
Up-hame, Up-ham! Up-hame, Up-home!
However you call it, wherever you roam.
The sons of the old man, remember it still.
The name, how it came, from the home on the hill,
Up-hame, Up-ham! Up-hame, Up-home!

They’ll never forget it, wherever they roam.

*Upham is composed of the Anglo-Saxon words, ” Up ” and ” ham,” signifying a home, dwelling, or village. — BoszvortJ is Dictionary of the Anglo-Saxon Langitage Ray’s Proverbs atid Obsolete Words. In the age of Elizabeth the name was written with a final e,soon afterward this letter was dropped, and the name assumed its original form. — (N. G. U.)