Balchin Family Society

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The BALCHIN FAMILY SOCIETY was founded in 1991 by Sir Robert Balchin, the late Professor William Balchin (formerly Professor of Geography at Swansea University) and the late Mrs Patricia Green (a very gifted amateur genealogist and herself a relation of Richard Balchin, an early nineteenth century surgeon and mayor of Godalming). Today it has a very hard-working committee drawn from family members from all over the country.

It is likely that all people with the surname Balchin are in some way related, for the Balchins are an ancient Surrey family which has clear, proven documented evidence for over twenty generations of direct male descent from that Henry who was living in East Worldham in 1327. The first written mention of the name (Sire Rogon de Balchen) is in a British Library manuscript dated 1191: a Latin deed drawn up by Bernard III, Count of St Valery in France. Within a few decades the Balchin family (spelled occasionally Balchen, Balchild, Balchyn, Balchyne), starts to appear in Surrey contemporary manuscripts.