HEBBORN FAMILY HISTORY & NEWS -  November 2003

HEBBORNS IN HURLEY, BERKSHIRE.

Before 1974, the River Thames formed the boundary between the old counties of Berkshire and Oxfordshire. Until the advent of decent roads and the coming of the railway, the river was probably a valuable route south from Oxford. It is not surprising that Hebborn families are recorded in the registers of parishes on both banks of the river.

Christopher Hebborn [A001], my presumed but not proven 6 x great grandfather was settled in Iffley in Oxfordshire. He had married Mary Tayler in Radley, about four miles down the Thames on the Berkshire bank.

Joan Williams and I considered the possibility of the river being a preferred route south from Oxford, in the days when the roads were notoriously bad. Had ‘Hebborns’ lived on both banks of the Thames?  Perhaps, we might even find that Christopher had been born in one of the riverside parishes.

Joan undertook a search of the register transcripts of parishes on either bank of the Thames working south from Oxford. It was a daunting task requiring many hours of work. She was helped by the fact that a great chunk of Berkshire had been ceded to Oxfordshire in the 1974 boundary changes. This meant that the records of many Thames-side parishes formerly in Berkshire were available at the Oxfordshire Record Office.

All those hours poring over the records proved fruitful. Hebborns and all the usual variants of the name were coming to light on both banks of the river. Even as far south as Henley references were still appearing, although the Heyborne variants of the name were becoming more prominent as she worked further south.

Henley was the place where poor Kester [Christopher] Hebbern [A001] had been deemed a sick and old vagrant, and returned to his home parish of Iffley. This was a common practice in those days. It cost the Henley churchwardens £1.3s. [£1.15p] to send Christopher back to Iffley for the last few weeks of his life. I wonder what took him to Henley? Maybe he originally came from that area. So far, we have not been able to trace his baptism.

A few miles further south down the river we come to Hurley. This parish is still part of Berkshire.  The transcript of the baptism register revealed interesting entries:

26th October 1740 Sarah Hebborn daughter of Richard and Mary
18th March 1745 Elizabeth Heyborn daughter of Richard and Mary

I recalled a Richard and Mary Heborn/Hebern/Heborne/Hebourn having a family in Cowley, Oxon at about this time.  I looked at Chart B001 and discovered that the two Hurley children fitted neatly into gaps in the family of Richard and Mary of Cowley and Iffley. The Cowley couple had a child baptised Elisabeth in 1736, but she had died within a year.  There was no Sarah in the Cowley brood. The Hurley Sarah became [D021] and Elizabeth became [D022] and were entered on Chart B001 as the possible children of the Cowley family. Hurley did seem a long way from Cowley by 18th Century standards, but the way the children fitted so neatly into the Cowley family seemed more than a coincidence.

The breakthrough came last week, when Joan came up with a reference from the Index to Berkshire Marriage Licence Bonds that solved the mystery: “Richard Hebbourn of Hurley and Mary Stevens of same - marriage bond 1740.   She had conclusively proved that two Richard Hebborn/Hebbourns had married a Mary.* The precise details of the marriage of Richard of Hurley are still to be found. It does not appear to have been at Hurley. The marriage licence bond may disclose the place of the proposed marriage, and even the ages and of Richard and Mary. An age could help in identifying the baptism of Richard of Hurley.

A closer look at the Hurley transcripts reveal the baptisms of a Francis Hebburne in 1625 and Edmund Heyburn in 1636. The marriage of a William Hebborn and Ann Barrett on 11 Jan 1754 and the baptism of their son Thomas Hebborn in 1755 are also recorded.  There is also an Elisabeth Hebbard daughter of William and Anne, baptised on 20 Sep 1767. Could this be a transcription error? Was she the daughter of William Hebborn and Ann Barrett? A closer look at the transcription reveals the surnames Harbarte, Hebbard, Hebard, Hayberd, Heabbord, Haybard, Herborn etc. They all sound quite far removed from Hebborn and Heyborn, but I begin to think nothing is impossible in the misinterpretation of surnames in parish registers. I know that 17th and 18th century handwriting can be quite difficult to read, and contrary to popular belief, not all clerics wrote an impeccable and beautiful hand. A good look at the original registers by someone with the skill to read the writing is needed before we can judge whether these people belong to our ‘family’.

I hope this little piece helps to pinpoint some of the difficulties and pitfalls of putting together family history. It also shows that two heads are better than one when it comes to solving mysteries. Without Joan’s continuing pursuit of the truth, I would still be under the delusion that Richard and Mary of Cowley were the same persons as Richard and Mary of Hurley.

Thank you, Joan for all the hours of work you have put into unravelling the origins of our family.

JOHN HEBBORN


* Subsequent research revealed the marriage of the Cowley Richard and Mary. See article of August 2004, and Family Tree Charts A001 and B020