HEBBORN FAMILY HISTORY & NEWS - May 2002.
 

22nd MAY 1705

For a family that has such a strong tradition within the Police, it is hard to admit that my six times great grandfather got into a spot of bother with the law back in May 1705. Henry Heborn [B001] also described as Henery Hebron or Heeborn or Hebborn lived in the hamlet of Hockmore Street, which was part of the Parish of Iffley, but situated near to the heart of the village of Cowley, Oxfordshire.

On the 22nd May 1705 a group of more than twenty residents of Church Cowley, Temple Cowley and Hockmore Street, armed themselves with axes, ducketts and shovells, etc., and set about tearing down the fences around Magdalen Open Wood. I have deliberately refrained from using the term mob as the assailants listed in the indictment reads like a ’Who’s Who’ of old Cowley families:-

William Tirrell, yeoman. Abraham Pick, wheelwright.  William Dorsett, labourer. Richard Pick, yeoman.  John Pick, yeoman.  John Fisher, yeoman.  Thomas Dorsett, butcher. John Hurst, yeoman.  James White, yeoman.  John Preston, labourer.  Thomas Hester, labourer.  John Browne, cordwainer.  James Harepound, labourer.  A second Thomas Hester, labourer. Mary Brown, widow. Johanna White, widow. John Redhead, labourer. Thomas Remington jun., yeoman. Henry White, yeoman. Henry Heborn, labourer. Arthur Blea, yeoman. John Pick, labourer.  Walter Redhead, yeoman. Edward Woodbridge, blacksmith. and Walter Redhead, yeoman.

There is no indication why so many of the villagers decided to make this obviously concerted attack on the fence. I ask myself if this was an “‘open wood”, who had put a fence around it and why? 

All this comes to light from the records of the Oxfordshire Quarter Sessions [Trinity 1705]. A true bill of indictment was found against the defendants, but I have yet to discover their fate. The record does not show that a recognisance for good behaviour was agreed, and I cannot find them in the calendar of prisoners of Oxford Prison. Were they sent to the Assizes for trial, and if so what was the verdict?

Our Henry is proving an elusive character. Apart from his Court appearance, little is known of him. He had at least three sons by his wife Catherine: Henry Heeborn [C001] baptised 17 Nov 1695, Thomas Hebborn [C002] baptised 18 Feb 1699 and John Heborn [C003] baptised 19 Jan 1703 and buried 21 Jan 1703. The older Henry’s marriage to Catherine and his baptism have not come to light. Neither have the burials of Henry and Catherine been located. Their son Henry lived on in Cowley, and he gets a mention in the Quarter Sessions records for 1746, but not for any misdemeanour. In appealing against a removal order Robert Hine declares that he had rented a barn in Cowley from Henry for twenty shillings in 1743.    
John Hebborn.

The numbers in square brackets after names can be used to identify persons on Family Tree Charts and Databases. Persons in this article will be found on Family Tree Chart B001.