The name Bygrave is a toponymic, surname, which is derived from nearby geographical features. It has Anglo-Saxon origins and arising in Hertfordshire were it is most likely they held lands and a family seat at Bygrave. Originally the surname was derived from the Old English word biggrafau which meant dweller by the ditch. There are records of a Leommaer Bygrave prior to the Norman Conquest (circe 1015) and the family still held the land at the taking of the Domesday Book - the land consisted of a village and a mill from the Bishop of Chester.

Current research identifies the earliest known ancestor of our Bygrave line as being Robert Bygrave of Sandon in Hertfordshire in the mid 1500s. My branch of the family finds itself in the West Indies in the late 1700s. Robert's 5 great granddaughter Jane Bygrave emigrates to Australia in 1853. 

The Bygrave ancestry goes back 14 generations and biographies exist for some members as indicated by links

• Robert Bygrave and Agnes Welche

  • Robert Bygrave and Anna Perman

    • Robert Bygrave and Avis

      • George Bygrave and Elizabeth Carrington

        • Robert Bygrave and Elizabeth Galer

          • George Bygrave

          • Robert Bygrave and Esther Tomlinson
            
            • John Bygrave Esq
            • /wiki/spaces/HFHW/pages/8749070
            • Thomas Bygrave Esq and Hannah Sill
              • Richard Bygrave
                • Jane Bygrave married Thomas Davis
                  • Louisa Jane Davis married Patrick McDermott
                    • Emily Louisa McDermott married Sydney Walter Jessop
                      • Esmond Earl Jessop
                        • My Mother
              • Ann Bygrave
              • Dr Thomas Bygrave and Elizabeth Jane Ham
                • Capt Thomas Middlemore Bygrave