I have recently purchased a small book called "Village School Banstead and Henry Knibbs, Victorian Schoolmaster". It was written in 1981 by a lady named Irene O'Shea who is a member of the Banstead History Group. Whilst the book is just 12 pages long, it is very informative and reference is made to Henry Knibbs on almost every single page. Henry was the headmaster there from the age of 20 years in 1862 until 1904. I am pleased to have found this book as Henry is "one of mine", and therefore of particular interest to the other "Knibbs listers" connected back into the same line of Knibbs as me. The following is a small extract of the page which gives most detail about Henry and his family life. Whilst it does add some new information that we weren't previously aware of, it also adds a little confusion. We had it that Henry's first wife was Annie Elizabeth Warburton - a fact partly endorsed by the naming of a daughter Annie Warburton Knibbs. The book says that his first wife was Elizabeth Garrett, and we can see quite clearly from our records that there was a son named William Garrett Knibbs. Clearly, both names had some meaning in the family, so a little bit of digging required to solve the mystery. Don Mr. HENRY KNIBBS 1842-1908 Henry Knibbs was born in Dallingtan near Northampton. His father was engaged in farming, possibly a small-holder. He had at least one brother, Jim, and one sister, Elizabeth, who came with him to Banstead to help him run the school. She left after 2 years and later married a teacher, George Garrett, from Northamptonshire. He is remembered in the family for having built an organ in his spare time. The Trotman family were the squires of Dallington. Their daughter married Edward Valentine Buckle who succeeded his father W.L. Buckle as Vicar in 1865. The latter was Chairman of the school committee when so much difficulty was encountered in finding a suitable master. The Trotmans had encouraged Henry Knibbs to further his education and may even have paid for his teacher training at Cheltenham Training College. Thus, as a newly qualified teacher, he was offered the vacant post of schoolmaster at Banstead as a result of his connection with the Vicar’s daughter-in-law Mrs. Mary G. Buckle (nee Trotman). He married for the first time, in 1865, Elizabeth Garrett from Northampton. (She may have been related to George Garrett who married Elizabeth Knibbs.) They had two sons and four daughters. The eldest son, Henry George, married Isabel Dicker, a member of the Woodmansterne schoolmaster’s family. The marriage of Winifred Knibbs to another member of the Dicker family created a double connection between the two families. Henry junior died in 1902, when the log book records that his father was away from school for a week owing to his son’s illness and death. The other son, William, became an engineer and lived in Birmingham. The four daughters were all teachers at some time. The first Mrs. Knibbs died in childbirth in 1837. In 1839 Henry Knibbs remarried. His second wife was Miss Harriet Bennett who was born in The White Hart, Chipstead. Her brother kept The Mint at Banstead. She had worked as a lady’s maid with the Cathcart family who had a London house in Eaton Square. Like the first Mrs. Knibbs she taught needlework in the school. They had two children, Dorothy and Bernard. Dorothy also became a teacher, and Bernard worked for an insurance company. The School House provided a home for the Knibbs family until they grew in number and moved to a larger house. They rented Wingfield House in the High Street from the Lamberts and then moved to Wilmot Cottage in Park Road, also rented from the Lamberts. At this time, Woodman’s Cottage, next door but one, was occupied by one of the Knibbs/Dicker families, and the school house was occupied by Kate Marsden and her husband, a railwayman. She was sister to the second Mrs. Knibbs and acted as caretaker to the school. In 1900 Henry Knibbs bought Board Field which ran the length of Court Road between the churchyard and Lambert property. On this land he had built ‘Sixways’ and a pair of semi-detached houses, ‘South Lea’ and its neighbour. It was here that he lived during his short retirement until his death in 1908.