HEBBORN FAMILY HISTORY & NEWS -  December 2004

CHRISTMAS WEDDINGS AND CHRISTENINGS

I notice that one of the TV soap operas is hoping to boost its Christmas Day ratings by showing yet another dream wedding. According to soap tradition, the happy event will probably bear more resemblance to a disaster movie than real life. Preferring fact to fiction, I thought I would see if there was a tradition of Christmas Day marriages among our Hebborn ancestors.

Was Christmas Day traditionally a time for weddings? Looking back on  the thirty years that I spent as a Registrar, I could not recall a single Christmas Day wedding, although I did have to turn up for work on Boxing Day on more than one occasion. I expect now, with the relaxation on marriage venues there will be an increase in festive season marriages.

I decided to go to the HFH&N database and view all the Christmas weddings listed.  Of the 1344 marriages listed only 13 were celebrated on Christmas Day. Allowing for some duplication of entries, that is about 1% of the total number. I tend to view all statistics with some suspicion, agreeing with the politician who said there are lies, damned lies, and statistics. I would not expect you to believe my rough estimate as a statement of fact. Remember our database can only include events when we have access to some form of record. There are hundreds more references waiting to be collected by our small band of Hebborn enthusiasts and sadly, hundreds of records that have been lost or destroyed.

Of those we have collected, the earliest Christmas Day wedding was in 1660, when Martha Eborne married Hugh Chaddock at St Giles, Cripplegate in the City of London.  Over one hundred years passes before the next Christmas wedding is listed in 1769, when John Eborne wed Mary Newcombe at Walsgrave on Sowe, Warwicks.  This is the only Christmas Day wedding we have listed during the 18th Century, although you will find two weddings on St. Stephens Day/Boxing Day.

During the 19th Century, Christmastide seems to have become a more popular time to get married. Of the thirteen Hebborn weddings listed on Christmas Day, eleven took place between 1829 and 1893.  There were also five Boxing Day weddings between 1822 and 1888.

Why should this be?  Was it because holidays had replaced Holy Days? Bank holidays were not introduced to the UK until 1871, but the trend had started long before then.  Perhaps, this apparent upsurge in Christmas weddings can be explained by the fact that we have collected a higher proportion of references from the 19th Century.  

I then looked at Christmas Day baptisms on the database. I found only fifteen. That was to be expected in the years covered by the database, Anglican baptisms normally took place within a month or two of birth. It was not normal to wait around for Christmas before presenting the infant at the font. There do seem to be exceptions, perhaps where the parson hadn’t caught up with the erring parents. I decided to look at each Christmas Day baptism on the database for clues, and as so often, I got sidetracked by what I found.

I discovered that and Isaac Ebourn [Cabbu] and Jacob Ebourn [Cabbt] sons of Francis and Elisabeth or Elisa, had been baptised on 25 Dec 1706 at Wallington in Hertfordshire. Were they twins? Past experience had shown that you should not jump to that conclusion just because they were Christened together. The Wallington register also revealed that Francis and Elisabeth had an older son, Pitches Ebourn [Cabbs], baptised on 30 Mar 1701. What an unusual given name. I was not familiar with a Wallington in Hertfordshire, and looked at the Parish Atlas. I found that it was in the north of the county, close to the Cambridgeshire border.  An adjoining parish was Sandon, where I discovered another of Francis and Elisabeth’s sons – Thomas Eborn [Cabbr], baptised Christmas Eve 1704. I wonder did Francis and Elisabeth have a preference for Christmas Christenings, or were their off-spring born at that time of year. An examination of the original register might reveal dates of birth. Is there anyone in Hertfordshire willing to join our small band of researchers?

As an after-thought I decided to look at the small number of Cambridgeshire references we have gathered. Perhaps Francis and Elisabeth had moved into the next county. I found no further reference to them, but one entry stopped me in my tracks. It was the Burial of Pitches Eburn, age 1, at Ely in 1803. Surely, there must be a connection with the Wallington family.   Yes, we are looking for help in Cambridgeshire too.

Back to weddings and more familiar territory, there are three Christmas Day weddings in Oxford listed:
1870William Hebborn [G006] and Harriet Howe at St Thomas.
1893       William’s daughter Elizabeth Sarah Hebborn [H047] and George Edward Musk
at St Ebbe.
1895Betsy Hebborn [H034] and George Lewis Dunn at Holy Trinity.

Finally, on Boxing Day 1888, George Hebborn [H015] married Sarah Hillsdon at Cowley, St James. Sarah bore George five children, but was widowed when she was only forty years of age. She was a grandmother many times over before she died on Christmas Eve 1943. It was two days before the 55th anniversary of the day she walked down the aisle with George. A few days later she would be laid to rest with her husband in St James’s Churchyard in Cowley. The story of George and Sarah reminds us that amidst the joy of Christmas there is also sadness in our midst. 

John Hebborn.

William Hebborn [G006] and his daughter Elizabeth Sarah will be found on Chart F007
Betsy Hebborn [H034] is on Chart H040 and George Hebborn [H015] on Chart H015