Family name origins & meanings
- English (Yorkshire) : metonymic occupational name for a maker of habergeons, Middle English, Old French haubergeon. The habergeon was a sleeveless jacket of mail or scale armor, which was also worn for penance.
- Born in Beverley, Yorkshire, England, James Habersham emigrated to the infant colony of Georgia in 1738 with his friend George Whitefield. Together they established what is believed to be America’s first orphanage. Habersham was married in Bethesda, GA, in 1740 and had three surviving sons, all of whom were educated at Princeton and became ardent patriots.