Book by John e. Biby. Hope this isn't too large. There are a lot of errors in this book. Nita INTRODUCTION By way of introduction, a few words about the origin of the name Bibby, and when & where the name first made it's apperaance, may be of interest. In P.H. Reaney's book on British surnames the view is expressed that the name Bibby is a diminutive of Bib, a pet name of Isobel (or Isabel). Other authorities agree with this view. It was common custom when a child was born after the death of the father or when the name of the father was not disclosed for the child to be given the name or pet name of the mother as a surname. As to the date when the name Bibby first came into use as a surname, the fact that it is not found in the Doomsday book , which was completed during the years 1085 - 1086, suggests that it first made its appearance at some date after the Conquest in 1066. The earliest occurrence of the name that I have found is in a pipe-roll relating to Shropwhire dated 1196, in which the name William Bibbe appears. I have only found two other appearances of the name during the 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th centuries outside of the County of Lancashire. The name William Bibbi appears in a Assize Court Roll of Staffordshire dated 1288, and the name Robert Bybby appears in a rent toll of the Manor of Wakefield, Yorks, dated 1284. It is rather amazing that while the name Bibby or the like is found so infrequently in documents relating to counties other than Lancashire it occurs with considerable frequency in documents relating to Lancashire during the 13th, 14th, 15th, & 16th centuries. My source of information relating to the Bibby's living in Lancashire during these four centuries is the Victoria History of Lancashire, 1906, and the following are a few notes taken from this source. In the year 1292 Richard son of Bibby was non-suited in a claim against Robert, son of Ellis de Ribchester. In 1313 John de Warre granted to John Bibby two plots of land on the heath at Manchester. In 1356 Adam Bibby, demised, land at Ribchester to William de Bradley, ferryman, who was to hold it by paying 12 pence and ferrying men across the river. In 1348 William Bibby and his wife Cecily made a settlement of their land (in Manchester). In 1356 Richard Bibby gave his lands and burgages to William and Robert de Hunt. In 1377 - 1378 William Bibby died, and under an elaborate settlement his brother James became his heir. In 1365 Ellen, widow of John de Bolton, recovered land and rent in Coppull against John de Coppull and Anice, the widow of Thomas Henry, son William Bibby, and John de Ugnal. During the period 1479-1491 one James Bibby was a chantry priest in a Catholic Chapel at Standish, Lancs. One of his duties was to pray each day for the souls of the founder and his relatives. (page 191, Vol. V!, Victoria History of Lancashire.) In 1444 James Bibby complained that Thurston Robinson and Robert Chorlton of Chorlton cum Hardy had broken into his closes and houses at Reddish and taken away corn and grass to the value of L100. In 1552 Ruth Bibby claimed a messuage and land against Ralph Disconson, The said Ruth claimed a direct descent from Margaret Reddish. In 1596 William Dawson purchased land from Edward Bibby and Elizabeth, widow of Gilbert Bibby. In 1665 the South porch of Manchester Cathedral was rebuilt by a Manchester merchant named Bibby. It is noteworthy that although there is ample evidence as shown in the preceding paragraphs of Bibby's living in mid-Lancashire in the neighbourhood of Preston, Wigan and Manchester during the 13th, 14th; 15th, & 16th centuries I have not been able to find andy evidence of any family of this name living in north Lancashire (i.e. Lancaster, Wyresdale, and the Fylde), before 1608. The earliest evidence of any Bibby living in north Lancashire that I can find is an entry in the register of births at the Lancaster Parish Church of the baptism of John Bibby son of James Bibby on 1st January 1608. The conclusion I draw is that some enterprising Bibby from mid-Lancashire, perhaps in search of land, migrated northward in the direction of Lancaster at a date about 1600. In the center of the old village of Bolton-le-Sands, near Carnforth, stand a pair of dignified small stone houses, one of which is now converted to a village store and the other is a doctor'd surgery. In the stone lintel overthe door is inscribed "James Bibby Built these houses in 1745." ************************* Our family's roots are in Over-Wyresdale, the upper part of the valley of the Wyre, a stream that rises in the Forest of Bowland and crosses north Lancashire to empty into the Irish Sea at Fleetwood. Few of my readers will ever have been there and for this reason a brief description of the neighbourhood and of the origins of the family there might be usesful. The earliest record of Bibby's living in Over-Wyresdale is of the marriage at Lancaster Parish Church of John Bibby I to Annas Slayer, both of Wyresdale, before the mayor, on 1st July 1654, during the period of the protectorate of Oliver Cromwell. Their son John Bibby II,born 1656, is known to have lived at Marshaw, some three miles west of Abbeystead, at a point where the Wyre, still a mountain stream, emerges from the Trough of Bowland. There are several farmsteads at Marshaw, all deriving from the seventeenth century though with later additions, and it was at one of these that John Bibby II lived. It is rough country up at Marshaw. On the south side of the valley is heath, bog and moor; on the north side there is grass and a few trees. On a summer day it is a tranquil place, with the stream tumbling down over the boulders and a big view over the Lancashire plain to the west. You can buy heather honey at one of the farms. At week-ends you may see a few tourists exploring the Trough of Bowland, enjoying the silence or perhaps listening forthe call of the curlew. On a week-day your only companions will be the handful of people who work on the land. In winter it is windswept, bleak, wild and desolate. Probably John Bibby II, a tenant farmer, reared sheep and perhaps kept a few horses, cows and chickens as well. John BIbby II married twiceand outlived both his wives. We know little about him; what we do know, is from his will which has been preserved. Here it is: *********************************************** In the name of god amen--the seventh day of Agust 1729--I John Bibby of Marshaw in Over Wyersdale in the Parish of Lancaster and County of Lancaster being in perfect memory and remembrance praised bee god Do make and ordain this my last Will and testament in manner and form following - viz first I Bequeath my soule into the hands of Almighty god-hoping through the merrits of Jesus Christ my savior to Receive free pardon and forgiveness of All my sins and as for my body to bee buryed in Christion burial at the Discreshion of my execiter hearafte nnominated= Item - I give to my son James Bibby the sum of five shillings as Also my Best sute of gray Cloths that is Coat vest and breechis Item= All the Rest of my estate god Almighty hath been pleased to bless me with I give to my son John Bibby upon Condition that he shall pay all my Debts Legasees and funerall exp[emncis and makes him sole execiter of this my Last will and testament Revoking all other wills and testaments In Witness Whereof I have herunto set my hadn and seal the Day of yer first above Writen signed sealed and published in the presence of JOHN BIBBY William Jackson his mark Thomas Corles John Townley It is evident from the handwriting that William Jackson drew the will, probably on his friend's deathbed, for John died before the year was out, and his mark on the document suggeststhat he could neither read nor write. We can infer from the will that John Bibby II was survived by two sons, John III and James, and that John, the elder son, was the more fortunate. John Bibby III inherited the farm at Marshaw on the deth of his father in 1729. John Bibby III married Margaret Townley in 1717. He died intestate in 1739 at the age of about 55, having survived his father by only ten years, leaving a widow and six children, the youngest of whom was only four years old. Less is known of the younger brother James Bibby I, though heis dsescribed in the records as a husbandman and he was probably employed by one of the larger farmers in the lower and more fertile part of the valley. He had four chldren by his first wife Ellen Kitchen, who died in 1721, and at least ten more by his second wife Elizabeth Brewer, whom he married in 1722. His signature appears on the administration bond consequent upon his elder brother's death, showing that he was able to write. The record of the death of a James Bibby in 1758 probably relates to him. It may have been this James Bibby who was a churchwarden in Lansaster Parish Church in 1740. The farm at Marshaw passed to John Bibby III's third son, James Bibby II, who, as his will shows, was still at Marshaw, described as a yoeman, when he died in 1797. James married Sarah Ward in 1751 and there were seven children by this marriage. Whether the farm remained in the family after James' daeth, and if so far how long, is not known, though there is some evidence that Joshua, James' youngest son, lived there till he moved to Tewitfield in 1815 and that another James, a grandson, was still there in 1828. The sons and grandsons of the two brothers, John Bibby III and James B:ibby I, were sturdy and fertile and remarkable for their longevity. Most of them married and raised large families, and by the beginning of the nineteenth century there were a dozen of more families of Bibbys, a veritable tribe, living in the parish, all descendants of the two brothers. The parish records are incomplete and it is impossible to trace all the branches with certainty, but it is probable that our branch of the family is descended from James, the younger brother, rather than John. The largest village in Over-Wyresdale is Abbeystead, built of the local hard yellow gritstone in a little oasis of lush trees, a quiet hamlet of green and gold which, but for the want of a public house (a deficiency for which the Bibbys and the Pyes are still blamed), would remind one of a village in the Cotswolds. The parish records are full of the births and deaths of many generations of Bibbys, Pyes, Winders, Drinkalls, Brewers, Townleys and some others, families of the parish who inter-married frequently. The bodies of our ancestors almost certainly lie buried in the graveyard of the parish church, but few are marked by tombstones. The oldest tombstone is that of Edward Bibby, carpeter, of Emmetts, who died in 1815, aged 80, the youngest son of John Bibby III and an ancestor of Geoffrey Bibby who is now curator of the Museum of Pre-history at Aarhus, Denmnark, and the author of "The Testimony of the Spade and "Four Thousand Years Ago." During the second half of the nineteenth century the Bibbys began to migrate westward and northward to Ellel, Tewitfield, Cockerham, Lancaster, Kendal and of course to Quernmore, and by the end of the century there were none left at Over-Wyresdale. The last Bibby marriage recorded there was in 1856, but some of the old folk chose the churchyard as their last resting place; the last recorded burial was in 1940. JAMES BIBBY OF ELLEL The earliest of my Bibby ancestors known with any certainty is James Bibby of Ellel, the father of my great grandfather Edward Bibby of Conder MIll. James Bibby of Ellel had four children of whom my gr grandfather, Edward, was the eldest. The names and dates of baptism and places of baptism of the four children of James Bibby of Ellel are shown below: Edward son of James Bibby of Ellel Bapt. 11th Apr. 1779 at Cockerham, Peggy daughter of James of Ellel Bapt. 28th July 1781 at Lancaster James son of James of Ellel Bapt. 29th Aug. 1784 at Ellel Betty daughter of James of Ellel Bapt. 25th Dec. 1788 at Ellel It will be noted in the entry of one birth, that of Peggy, which was given to me by the County Archivist at Preston, the name of the mother is shown as Betty. A search was made for the marriage of James Bibby to Betty and the Rev. H.A. Bland, Vicar of Lancaster Parish Church, found the following entry in his marriage register: "James Binny of this parish, husbanman, and Elizabeth Askey of this parish, spinster married in this church by banns, this first day of July in the year 1773 by me John Spicer, curate. The marriage was solemized between us in the presence of William HOwson." *mark of James Bibby *mark of Elizabeth Askey From the mode of signature it is clear that James Bibby and his wife could neither read nor write. The identity of Edward Bibby, eldest son of James Bibby of Ellel, as my gr grandfather Edward Bibby of Conder Mill is proved beyond any reasonable doubt by the factthat the age at death given in my gr grandfather's death certificate agrees within a year with the date of birth of Edward, son of James Bibby of Ellel. Furthermore, in the census record telating to Conder Mill taken on 30th March 1851 the birthplace of my gr grandfather Edward is given as Ellel. NOTE: Nita Pearce In the upper right hand corner of the first page Candace Bibby wrote: This is a book of Bibbys' that emigrated to the US to WV in 1820 or 50. They're from Lancashire in England & are probably our family 200 years before 1800. signed Candace