HEBBORN FAMILY HISTORY & NEWS – April 2003

AN APRIL ANNIVERSARY.

The Oxfordshire Family History Society CD ROMs of parish register transcripts are proving a gold mine of new information. While browsing through the marriage entries of Oxford, St Mary Magdalene, my eye was taken by the following entry:
 “8th April 1733 Richard Heborn of Yeifley and Mary Harley of this parish - Banns.”

I was prompted to take a fresh look at the frustratingly vague Chart A001. It showed the children of Richard Hebborn [C004] and his wife Mary.  The only other information about the parents was that Richard was buried at Iffley on 19th March 1751.  So, did this marriage fit in? “Yeifley” was obviously yet another version of what we know as Iffley. Richard and Mary’s first two children were baptised at Iffley.   Thomas Heborn [D009] was baptised on the 30th January 1733. This was NOT before the marriage, but nine months after. In those days, the year did not end on the 31st December but on the 24th March. By our reckoning, the baptism was on 30th January 1734.  The reference to Iffley and the date of baptism of the first child fit in nicely with what we already knew.

Later children were baptised in Cowley, but the parents are described as “of Yeofley”. It seems likely that Richard and Mary resided in the hamlet of Hockmore Street, which was at the bottom of Church Lane, Cowley [now Beauchamp Lane]. Although it was very close to the ancient parish church of St James, Cowley, it was a detached part of Iffley parish until 1885. Hebborns lived in Hockmore Street for many generations. The last Hebborn homestead in Hockmore Street was bulldozed to make way for the Cowley Centre.

Two children baptised just across the Thames from Iffley, in the parish of Hurley, also seem to fit into the family. They are Sarah Hebborn [D021] and Elizabeth Heyborn [D022]. Proving they are from the same family will be difficult. Their parents are recorded as Richard and Mary, and they fit neatly into gaps between the other children.   

Infant mortality among Richard and Mary’s children appears to have been very high, even by eighteenth century standards. They seem to have liked the name Thomas and Christened three boys with that name; Thomas Heborn in 1733/4 [D009], Thomas Heborne in 1739/40 [D012] and Thomas Heborne in 1747 [D0014], but none survived childhood.  Well that’s what I thought until I found a marriage licence bond between Thomas Heybourn, 25, labourer of Cowley and Mary Palmer, widow of Kingsey, Bucks. dated 17th May 1764. The groom’s age matches the baptism of Richard and Mary’s son Thomas Hebborn [D012]. I had assumed this was the Thomas buried on 8th February 1739 as another son was Christened Thomas on 21st January 1747.  All very confusing, particularly as we have another stray Thomas Heborn [D024] bequeathed one shilling in the will of his father Henry Heborn [C001] in 1763, but no matching baptism.  

Here we have the family historian’s nightmare of the recurring forenames, and no ages recorded in the burial registers. It makes it very difficult, sometimes impossible to sort out which members of the family died in childhood and which survived.  You just have to accept that some mysteries will never be solved, but trying to find the answers can be exhilarating or frustrating. That was why finding Richard and Mary’s marriage entry gave me such a buzz.

John Hebborn.   

The numbers in square brackets after names can be used to identify persons on Family Tree Charts and Databases. See Family Tree Chart A001.  Since this article was written, new information has come to light. This is reflected in the second series family tree chart. See also article of August 2004.