Well I did promise. You are invited to visit the website to see a rushed version which may need tidying up later. Follow the link from http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~knibbetc/page5 Some of Don's photos are alreadythere unedited at present, so just in the slide show. It took me an age to ypload just these and a long time it seems to show, so might cut down idc but meanwhile will try to upload all for you to see. We didn't ask him to let someone take a photo of him with his camera, so unless someone else has one, Don please send a photo of yourself, with or without dogs. bfn Alan Host at: <A HREF="http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~knibbetc/">THE K/NIBB/S ONE NAME STUDY website</A>

Alan / Michele Thanks very much for the day at Warwick. My father really enjoyed his trip out and is already asking about next years event. Plenty of contacts were made with other listers,with a definate lead for Don on a London branch. Thanks again to all who attended for making this a most enjoyable day. BFN Bob Knibbs

Alan, it's a pity that you can't link Warwick up with the rest of us non-English listers but I'm sure it can't be helped. However, I'll send off some questions that you might pass on to the gatherers and put on the website in due course. Hope it's a great success, and that everyone has a good time and I look forward to hearing about it from those that attend. Cheers, Stuart -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Friday, 28 September, 2001 4:07 To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [K/NIBB/S] Warwick Attendees! Ana and all. At the last minute, I've learned that we won't be able to have a 'phone link. Health and Safety implications of trailing wires, although I said we'd fix above head height. Video conferencing was only ever a possibility if we had accepted a venue such as The Motor Museum which was rejected on price grounds. I had hoped though that we could use the Mailing List in the usual way on the day but that won't now be available. I will endeavour to post a report to the website with photos as quickly as humanly possible after the event. I will announce this via the Mailing List. Also can I suggest that when people get home from the event they go on-line asap and give their personal views. So if folk get back home say 8pm Sat evening that would be 3pm US Eastern Time. bfn Alan > I plan to be at my home via computer. What time is the gathering at? There's > 5 hour difference between US and the UK, right? It is 1:35 pm here right > now > in the US which means it's roughly 6:35 pm in the UK now, correct? Can you > mail me the computer conferencing info, please. > ============================== Visit Ancestry.com for a FREE 14-Day Trial and enjoy access to the #1 Source for Family History Online. Go to: http://www.ancestry.com/subscribe/subscribetrial1y.asp?sourcecode=F11HB

Alan R.R.C. stands for Royal Red Cross. Our genealogical library has a book with information about this cross. I will go down next week and borrow it so that I can read all about this award. I have more K/Nibb/s questions but will leave them until next week as well. bfn Joyce

In a message dated 27/09/01 19:38:19 GMT Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: > Great. Did you get the pictures I sent? Can I send picture attachments via > Knibbs root mail? > I received one set and am taking a copy printout to Warwick. Sorry it's physically not possible to send attachments with list messages. bfn Alan

Looking forward to the weekend Alan What was the latest on food , do you suggest we all bring a plate of nibbles? See you there Chris Riley Bicester -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: 27 September 2001 15:11 To: [email protected] Subject: [K/NIBB/S] Warwick Attendees! Well Saturday's gathering is close at hand. I don't think I have given the number in High Street of the Friends Meeting Centre. Well it's 34 which might be useful for anyone approaching from the Tourist Office end of the street. Please make it a priority to sign the K/NIBB/S Gathering Register and collect a badge from the check-in desk. If we work on the assumption that 36 people will be present that works out at just œ1 per head to cover the room hire. However, that is based on the number who have expressed their intention to come - some might not be able to make it on the day for one reason or another. So there will be a raffle with a small prize to raise extra funds, which in any event will help towards other expenses eg non-consumables, coffee, soft drinks - sorry definitely no alcohol permitted on the premises which might be as well re driving. Any excess profits can go to 'good causes'. bfn Alan ============================== Join the RootsWeb WorldConnect Project: Linking the world, one GEDCOM at a time. http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com DISCLAIMER: This email, together with any attachments, is for the exclusive and confidential use of the addressee(s) and may contain legally privileged information. Any other distribution, use or reproduction without the sender's prior consent is unauthorised and strictly prohibited. If you have received this email in error please notify the sender by telephone, fax or email immediately and destroy the message without making any copies

Alan The three Knowle baptisms that you ask for are all for children of my grandparents, Thomas (1881-1956) and Ethel Louise (1883-1971) KNIBB. 1909 Betsy (Betty) born May 31 1909, baptised July 2 1909 (Married Albert Henry Hampton) 1911 Nellie May (Mick) born Feb 21 1911, baptised April 13 1911 (Married Howard H Hooton) 1912 Ivy Annie born October 30 1912, baptised November 17 1912 Ivy died December 3 1924 as a spinster. Betsy and Nellie May are also deceased but I don't have the dates of their deaths or marriages to hand. Will obtain. Robin

Alan, Great. Did you get the pictures I sent? Can I send picture attachments via Knibbs root mail? Ana

Ana and all. At the last minute, I've learned that we won't be able to have a 'phone link. Health and Safety implications of trailing wires, although I said we'd fix above head height. Video conferencing was only ever a possibility if we had accepted a venue such as The Motor Museum which was rejected on price grounds. I had hoped though that we could use the Mailing List in the usual way on the day but that won't now be available. I will endeavour to post a report to the website with photos as quickly as humanly possible after the event. I will announce this via the Mailing List. Also can I suggest that when people get home from the event they go on-line asap and give their personal views. So if folk get back home say 8pm Sat evening that would be 3pm US Eastern Time. bfn Alan > I plan to be at my home via computer. What time is the gathering at? There's > 5 hour difference between US and the UK, right? It is 1:35 pm here right > now > in the US which means it's roughly 6:35 pm in the UK now, correct? Can you > mail me the computer conferencing info, please. >

Alan, I plan to be at my home via computer. What time is the gathering at? There's 5 hour difference between US and the UK, right? It is 1:35 pm here right now in the US which means it's roughly 6:35 pm in the UK now, correct? Can you mail me the computer conferencing info, please. Ana

Robin > I have examined the post-1812 Knowle register and noted all KNIBB(S) > entries. They are all connected with my direct ancestors John KNIBB > (c1796-1871) and Jane KNIBB (nee WAGSTAFF, c1797-1871) and their > I went through them this morning and found all bar 3. Can you place baptisms in 1909, 1911 and 1912? I have my suspicions but perhaps you can confirm for me. There was one in 1859 which stumped me for a while, until I realised that William and James William in the database are one and the same person. I can demonstrate on Saturday. I don't have Ann Maria's 1865 baptism in the index - perhaps she was given a name other than KNIBB. > > I have recently found an entry in the 1841 census of Solihull, > Warwickshire > (HO 107/1129 folio 13) for a Jane KNIBBS (or maybe KNIBB, the final 'S' may > be a flourish by the enumerator!). Her age is given as 15 (approx in 1841 > census, she could be between 15 and 19) and she was born in Warwickshire. > She > is living at Hockley Road, not with her family but with a schoolmistress > and > an apprentice surveyor, and her occupation is only given in abbreviated > form > as FS. I am nor sure what this means (Female Servant?), I will have to look > it up. > Sounds good but I don't think she married dying 01 qtr 1885 as Jane KNIBB. bfn Alan

In a message dated 27/09/01 16:48:20 GMT Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: > What was the latest on food , do you suggest we all bring a plate of > nibbles? > > One person told me they would bring 'enough for themselves and a little bit more'. Here's an extract from a previous message I posted to the list but perhaps I should have put more emphasis on finger type buffet. ''I suggested people bring a dish of something savoury and/or sweet and that we pool everything together. We might be inundated with sausage rolls or chicken legs and no salads or vice versa and ne'er a trifle in sight but these things usually work out ok. Or, in advance, post your intended offering to the mailing list to avoid too many duplications. We can always pop out to the shops to supplement if really necessary.'' bfn Alan

Well Saturday's gathering is close at hand. I don't think I have given the number in High Street of the Friends Meeting Centre. Well it's 34 which might be useful for anyone approaching from the Tourist Office end of the street. Please make it a priority to sign the K/NIBB/S Gathering Register and collect a badge from the check-in desk. If we work on the assumption that 36 people will be present that works out at just œ1 per head to cover the room hire. However, that is based on the number who have expressed their intention to come - some might not be able to make it on the day for one reason or another. So there will be a raffle with a small prize to raise extra funds, which in any event will help towards other expenses eg non-consumables, coffee, soft drinks - sorry definitely no alcohol permitted on the premises which might be as well re driving. Any excess profits can go to 'good causes'. bfn Alan

Alan and all Listers I have examined the post-1812 Knowle register and noted all KNIBB(S) entries. They are all connected with my direct ancestors John KNIBB (c1796-1871) and Jane KNIBB (nee WAGSTAFF, c1797-1871) and their descendants. I didn't find any KNIBBS in this register that weren't from my lot so you should have had all the records from me already. Will talk to you about this on Saturday hopefully. I have recently found an entry in the 1841 census of Solihull, Warwickshire (HO 107/1129 folio 13) for a Jane KNIBBS (or maybe KNIBB, the final 'S' may be a flourish by the enumerator!). Her age is given as 15 (approx in 1841 census, she could be between 15 and 19) and she was born in Warwickshire. She is living at Hockley Road, not with her family but with a schoolmistress and an apprentice surveyor, and her occupation is only given in abbreviated form as FS. I am nor sure what this means (Female Servant?), I will have to look it up. This Jane is the perfect candidate for my Great Great Grandmother, the mother of my illegitimate Great Grandfather Edwin KNIBB (1848-1939) who was the grandson of my Great Great Great Grandparents, the above mentioned John (1796-1871) and Jane (1797-1871) KNIBB of Knowle. However, I cannot find any baptism in the Solihull or Knowle parish registers of the Jane mentioned in the 1841 census, or in any of the adjoining parishes. Unfortunately she was born to early for civil registration. Also I cannot find her in the 1851 census for Warwickshire although she might have married after my Great Grandfather Edwin was born in 1848 and be there under a different surname, or died in childbirth but I can't find records. I would be most interested to hear from anyone who might have any other records that relate to this 1841 census Jane and possibly link her to my family. It is my life's ambition to find this missing link!! Finally an apology for the appalling syntax in my last posting, I wrote, regarding a KNIBB marriage that 'it had been omitted out in the GRO index'. Slapped wrists for Robin! Robin Knibb

Today I took Harriet to an Open Day at Warwick University, no less. While she attended a talk, I visited the University Library where I found a copy of W B BICKLEY's book 'A Register of the Guild of Knowle'. I duly found, in the year 1514, a record of the admission of John and Lewis KNYB of Fenny Compton. Also admitted, as I knew from Philip STYLES book, were their wives. A bonus was that their names were also given, Cristian and Margery respectively, although all entries appear in Latin. A likely link to Muriel's early K/NIBB/S will not have escaped you. I do have a record of a John KNIB's Will of 1544 but his widow was Agnes. So is this the same John or another? Previously I had assumed John and Lewis were brothers but now that I have the name Cristian, it's possible they were father and son, or perhaps more distantly related. Either way, Cristian may have died and John remarried (to Agnes) between 1514 and 1544. BICKLEY's book and another about Knowle gave me a good insight into the history and actvities of the Guild which had a religious background. It was not a craft guild but 'an association of persons banded together for mutual aid and protection'. It would almost certainly have existed for charitable purposes as well. I will update the website entry shortly. The second book I mentioned contained an index of names in the Knowle Parish Registers, the earliest and latest K/NIBB/S being in 1687 and 1912. Unfortunately only the entries up to 1812 are actually set out in the book and the only one of these is the 1687 marriage of Richard KNIBBS of Bewsall (Beausale?) and Judith MARTIN ie the rest are after 1812. If anyone has access to the Knowle registers between 1812 and 1912, perhaps they could get in touch so I can pass on the other 23 (sic) dates in which K/NIBB/S appear. bfn Alan Alan Jackson - List Administrator and host at <A HREF="http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~knibbetc/">THE K/NIBB/S ONE NAME STUDY website</A> Did you know? Earlier postings to the list are archived at http://archiver.rootsweb.com/KNIBB-L/ Please follow log-on instructions when you first visit!

Here's a formatted version of Muriel's list - The following are records of KNYBBE sheep farming on Burton Dassett Hills from 1450- 1560 1450's John and Richard KNYBBE rent meadows for sheep farming on Burton Hills. 1540 Jhon KNEB purchases 2 Kyne (cattle) from Peter Temple Sheep Farmer of Burton Dassett 1540 Yonge KNYBBE buys 2 Kyne & 1 stryke whett (measure of wheat) from Peter Temple 1540's KNYBBE of Knyghtcote buys 4 Kyne & 2 stryke whett from Peter Temple 1540's KNYBBE pays 2 stryke of whett for pasture land to Peter Temple 1548 Jhon KNYBBE of Fenny Compton pays 23s and 4d for 10 sheep to Peter Temple 1548 Jhon Knebe pays 3d to Peter Temple's Bailiffs Account 1550 Jhon Knebe pays 6s 5d to Bailiff's Account

Hello again - I realise the sheep account table in my 1st message is offline so here is another try! I thought I would share the following before 29th September meeting. I am particularly linterested in very early KNIBBS, the social history of their times and tracing their movements. I found references to them in 14-1500s and list them below. Maybe DNA testing at some time would be a useful tool to check whether there is one common root for us all. I checked the Lay subsidy Roll of 1332 and found there were no K/NIBB/S recorded in any Warwickshire Parish. The Subsidy was a national tax taken by King Edward III and the records for all Warwickshire Parishes are complete and published by the Dugdale Society. The researchers state that villeins, which included 'bond Men' and 'shepherds' etc, were most probably taxed as well as Freeholders making the list one of the most complete national 'censuses' of the time. If there was a K/NIBB/S anywhere in Warwickshire in 1332 he was not identifiable although he could simply be William the shoemaker, John of the Hall or Simon the Miller etc. Examination of the Lay Subsidy Roll for Oxfordshire might reveal K/NIBB/S in Banbury etc. in 1332 The earliest record presently known is of John Knybbe in 1370. in the 44th year of the reign of Edward III. In a deed written in Mediaeval French, John leases for his lifetime the Manor of Fenny Compton in Warwickshire, plus lands rendering 'ten quarters of corn yearly'. In 1374 and again in 1399 a John KNYBBE of Fenny Compton witnesses a deed of sale and a deed of a gift. It is impossible to tell who John of the Manor was, nor where he came from but by 1370 he had enough wealth to rent the prime messuage or house in Fenny Compton. Fenny is a mile from Burton Dassett. He appears after the Bubonic Plague had decimated 40% of the Warwickshire population and when labour and tenant farmers were in great demand - More on this below The following are records of KNYBBE sheep farming on Burton Dassett Hills from 1450- 1560 1450's John and Richard KNYBBE rent meadows for sheep farming on Burton Hills. 1540 Jhon KNEB purchases 2 Kyne (cattle) from Peter Temple Sheep Farmer of Burton Dassett 1540 Yonge KNYBBE buys 2 Kyne & 1 stryke whett (measure of wheat) from Peter Temple 1540's KNYBBE of Knyghtcote buys 4 Kyne & 2 stryke whett from Peter Temple 1540's KNYBBE pays 2 stryke of whett for pasture land to Peter Temple 1548 Jhon KNYBBE of Fenny Compton pays 23s and 4d for 10 sheep to Peter Temple 1548 Jhon Knebe pays 3d t! o Peter Temple's Bailiffs Account 1550 Jhon Knebe pays 6s 5d to Bailiff's Account 1551 Jhon Knebes and the Wayner pay 5d for rent * The above from 1540, are taken from the Sheep Accounts of Peter Temple, Sheep Grazier and London Skinner of Burton Dassett. Lease of a meadow in 1540 was 2-3d per week. Sometimes it was paid for in wheat or barley and ½ stryke of wheat paid 4 weeks rent. Burton Dassett and the Hills KNYBBE'S are recorded as sheep farming on Burton Dassett Hills from the 1400 - 1500's. The Hills are a mile from Fenny Compton, nine miles from Banbury and fifteen from Warwick. Today the Hills are a beautiful country park with magnificent views in every direction and well worth a visit. So too is the strange and lonely Burton church with its steeply sloping floor and mediaval wall paintings appearing from under the plaster. The village has gone but the church and the views have changed little in the 600 years since John and Richard and their descendants walked the hills and tended flocks. Burton Dassett is described in the Doomsday Book when it was already a well developed settlement. Prosperity increased and gradually a lane of houses spread down the hill from Burton church to Southend and Northend. The growth of Southend was encouraged by the Lord of the Manor, John de Sudeley who with a Royal Charter, established a weekly market and annual fair in 1267. This was so successful that by the early 1300's Burton Dassett had the 3rd highest number of tax payers after Coventry and Warwick. Today Southend is one of the deserted villages of Warwickshire. In 1986 it was excavated by archaeologists prior to the building of the motorway and they discovered remains of many mediaeval houses, with an estimated population of around 800. Aerial photography shows many houses were also once around the church on the hill with its Holy Well. One reason for the decline of Southend was the Plague or Black Death in 1348 which claimed the lives of 40% of the population of Warwickshire and many villages disappeared completely. After the plague, agricultural labourers were in short supply and land was left untended and desolate for several years. Many men were freed from serfdom and acquired tenancy of farms . Burton Dassett was seriously affected and documents speak of deserted houses in the previously prosperous Southend. A few years after the Black Death, John KNYBBE acquires the tenancy of Fenny Compton Manor which is about one mile from Burton. John is the first recorded KNYBBE. Was he a survivor of the Plague and a freed man, or did he come from outside the County? In the years to follow whilst the KNYBBE's are sheep farming on Burton hills and settling in Fenny Compton, Burton Southend continued to decline. The final stage came in 1497 when the Landlord, Sir Edward Belknapp, illegally evicted the last 12 households with lands attached and enclosed 600 acres for sheep farming. This happened throughout the English countryside and many peasants with small holdings were made homeless and faced starvation. Sheep required less labour and produced high profits from the wool trade with France and Flanders. The wool from Cotswold sheep on the Burton Hills was some of the best in the country and in great demand. By 1540 Peter Temple a Sheep Grazier and skinner with contacts with London merchants had acquired the Burton Lands. The KNYBBES are still there and John and his son are named in the Peter Temple's Sheep accounts. The fate of other K/NYBB/S? Not all men were freed after the Plague and the Peasants Revolt of 1381 following the Poll Tax of 1380, indicates the continuing poverty of the villein or serf which went on for centuries. This clearly includes many K/NIBB/S who we find as agricultural labourers trapped in poverty and illiteracy right into the 1800's. The following qotes describe how the peasants lived and I thought would be interesting. Froissart's chronicles of the times record, 'It is the custom in England for the nobles to have strong powers over their men and to hold them in serfdom. They have to till the lands of the gentry, reap the corn and bring it to the big house, put it in the barn, thresh and! winnow it; mow the hay and carry it to the house, cut logs and bring them up, all forced tasks; John Ball a leader of the revolt, preached outside churches to the peasants in 1381 "Good people, things cannot go right in England and never will, until goods are held in common and there are no more villeins and gentlefolk. In what way are those whom we call lords, greater masters than ourselves? How have they deserved it? Why do they hold us in bondage? They make us produce and grow the wealth which they spend? They are clad in velvet and camlet lined with squirrel and ermine, while we go dressed in coarse cloth. They have the wines, the spices and the good bread: we have the rye, the husks and the straw, and we drink water. They have shelter and ease in their fine manors, and we have hardship and toil, the wind and the rain in the fields. And from us must come, from our labour, the things which keep them in luxury. We are called serfs and beaten if we are slow in our service to them,. Let us go to the king and show him how we are oppressed. If we go in good earnest and a! ll together, very many people who are called serfs and are held in subjection will follow us to get their freedom. The King did not give them their freedom and the agricultural labourer suffered at the hands of the wealthy Landlords for another 500 years through the mass pauperisation of the agricultural and Industrial Revolutions. Best wishes to all and looking forward to meeting some of you on Saturday. Muriel Bolton ============================== Join the RootsWeb WorldConnect Project: Linking the world, one GEDCOM at a time. http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com

Hello to all on the List I thought I would share the following before 29th September meeting. I am particularly linterested in very early KNIBBS, the social history of their times and tracing their movements. I found references to them in 14-1500s and list them below. Maybe DNA testing at some time would be a useful tool to check whether there is one common root for us all. I checked the Lay subsidy Roll of 1332 and found there were no K/NIBB/S recorded in any Warwickshire Parish. The Subsidy was a national tax taken by King Edward III and the records for all Warwickshire Parishes are complete and published by the Dugdale Society. The researchers state that villeins, which included 'bond Men' and 'shepherds' etc, were most probably taxed as well as Freeholders making the list one of the most complete national 'censuses' of the time. If there was a K/NIBB/S anywhere in Warwickshire in 1332 he was not identifiable although he could simply be William the shoemaker, John of the Hall or Simon the Miller etc. Examination of the Lay Subsidy Roll for Oxfordshire might reveal K/NIBB/S in Banbury etc. in 1332 The earliest record presently known is of John Knybbe in 1370. in the 44th year of the reign of Edward III. In a deed written in Mediaeval French, John leases for his lifetime the Manor of Fenny Compton in Warwickshire, plus lands rendering 'ten quarters of corn yearly'. In 1374 and again in 1399 a John KNYBBE of Fenny Compton witnesses a deed of sale and a deed of a gift. It is impossible to tell who John of the Manor was, nor where he came from but by 1370 he had enough wealth to rent the prime messuage or house in Fenny Compton. Fenny is a mile from Burton Dassett. He appears after the Bubonic Plague had decimated 40% of the Warwickshire population and when labour and tenant farmers were in great demand - More on this below The following are records of KNYBBE sheep farming on Burton Dassett Hills from 1450- 1560 1450's John and Richard KNYBBE rent meadows for sheep farming on Burton Hills. 1540 Jhon KNEB purchases 2 Kyne (cattle) from Peter Temple Sheep Farmer of Burton Dassett 1540 Yonge KNYBBE buys 2 Kyne & 1 stryke whett (measure of wheat) from Peter Temple 1540's KNYBBE of Knyghtcote buys 4 Kyne & 2 stryke whett from Peter Temple 1540's KNYBBE pays 2 stryke of whett for pasture land to Peter Temple 1548 Jhon KNYBBE of Fenny Compton pays 23s and 4d for 10 sheep to Peter Temple 1548 Jhon Knebe pays 3d to Peter Termple's B! ailiffs Account 1550 Jhon Knebe pays 6s 5d to Bailiff's 1551 Jhon Knebes and the Wayner pay 5d for rent * The above from 1540, are taken from the Sheep Accounts of Peter Temple, Sheep Grazier and London Skinner of Burton Dassett. Lease of a meadow in 1540 was 2-3d per week. Sometimes it was paid for in wheat or barley and ½ stryke of wheat paid 4 weeks rent. Burton Dassett and the Hills KNYBBE'S are recorded as sheep farming on Burton Dassett Hills from the 1400 - 1500's. The Hills are a mile from Fenny Compton, nine miles from Banbury and fifteen from Warwick. Today the Hills are a beautiful country park with magnificent views in every direction and well worth a visit. So too is the strange and lonely Burton church with its steeply sloping floor and mediaval wall paintings appearing from under the plaster. The village has gone but the church and the views have changed little in the 600 years since John and Richard and their descendants walked the hills and tended flocks. Burton Dassett is described in the Doomsday Book when it was already a well developed settlement. Prosperity increased and gradually a lane of houses spread down the hill from Burton church to Southend and Northend. The growth of Southend was encouraged by the Lord of the Manor, John de Sudeley who with a Royal Charter, established a weekly market and annual fair in 1267. This was so successful that by the early 1300's Burton Dassett had the 3rd highest number of tax payers after Coventry and Warwick. Today Southend is one of the deserted villages of Warwickshire. In 1986 it was excavated by archaeologists prior to the building of the motorway and they discovered remains of many mediaeval houses, with an estimated population of around 800. Aerial photography shows many houses were also once around the church on the hill with its Holy Well. One reason for the decline of Southend was the Plague or Black Death in 1348 which claimed the lives of 40% of the population of Warwickshire and many villages disappeared completely. After the plague, agricultural labourers were in short supply and land was left untended and desolate for several years. Many men were freed from serfdom and acquired tenancy of farms . Burton Dassett was seriously affected and documents speak of deserted houses in the previously prosperous Southend. A few years after the Black Death, John KNYBBE acquires the tenancy of Fenny Compton Manor which is about one mile from Burton. John is the first recorded KNYBBE. Was he a survivor of the Plague and a freed man, or did he come from outside the County? In the years to follow whilst the KNYBBE's are sheep farming on Burton hills and settling in Fenny Compton, Burton Southend continued to decline. The final stage came in 1497 when the Landlord, Sir Edward Belknapp, illegally evicted the last 12 households with lands attached and enclosed 600 acres for sheep farming. This happened throughout the English countryside and many peasants with small holdings were made homeless and faced starvation. Sheep required less labour and produced high profits from the wool trade with France and Flanders. The wool from Cotswold sheep on the Burton Hills was some of the best in the country and in great demand. By 1540 Peter Temple a Sheep Grazier and skinner with contacts with London merchants had acquired the Burton Lands. The KNYBBES are still there and John and his son are named in the Peter Temple's Sheep accounts. The fate of other K/NYBB/S? Not all men were freed after the Plague and the Peasants Revolt of 1381 following the Poll Tax of 1380, indicates the continuing poverty of the villein or serf which went on for centuries. This clearly includes many K/NIBB/S who we find as agricultural labourers trapped in poverty and illiteracy right into the 1800's. The following qotes describe how the peasants lived and I thought would be interesting. Froissart's chronicles of the times record, 'It is the custom in England for the nobles to have strong powers over their men and to hold them in serfdom. They have to till the lands of the gentry, reap the corn and bring it to the big house, put it in the barn, thresh and! winnow it; mow the hay and carry it to the house, cut logs and bring them up, all forced tasks; John Ball a leader of the revolt, preached outside churches to the peasants in 1381 "Good people, things cannot go right in England and never will, until goods are held in common and there are no more villeins and gentlefolk. In what way are those whom we call lords, greater masters than ourselves? How have they deserved it? Why do they hold us in bondage? They make us produce and grow the wealth which they spend? They are clad in velvet and camlet lined with squirrel and ermine, while we go dressed in coarse cloth. They have the wines, the spices and the good bread: we have the rye, the husks and the straw, and we drink water. They have shelter and ease in their fine manors, and we have hardship and toil, the wind and the rain in the fields. And from us must come, from our labour, the things which keep them in luxury. We are called serfs and beaten if we are slow in our service to them,. Let us go to the king and show him how we are oppressed. If we go in good earnest and a! ll together, very many people who are called serfs and are held in subjection will follow us to get their freedom. The King did not give them their freedom and the agricultural labourer suffered at the hands of the wealthy Landlords for another 500 years through the mass pauperisation of the agricultural and Industrial Revolutions. Best wishes to all and looking forward to meeting some of you on Saturday. Muriel Bolton

Muriel > I am particularly linterested in very early KNIBBS, the social history of > their times and tracing their movements. I found references to them in > 14-1500s and list them below. Maybe DNA testing at some time would be a > Thanx very much. Thought provoking and the basis for a good discussion at Warwick. The Fenny Compton and Burton Dassett references fit in with the research carried out by Dennis KNIBB who emigrated to Canada. However, much of what you set out is new and most illuminating. Pity he's so far away and not got a computer to comment direct. I'm sure though that others will pick up on some points. bfn Alan

ROBIN MANY THANX. MICHAEL VINDICATED AS I WAS CONFIDENT HE WOULD BE. I'VE PASSED ON INFO TO DIANE ROWLAND. BFN ALAN