1. Introduction
(Back to top)
Many of the earliest references to the BURBURY or BURBERY surname in Warwickshire occur in Coventry. However, I use "Coventry Burbury" to refer to a particular family that lived in the area around Spon End in Coventry during the late 18th century and early 19th century. One of the major points of interest in this family is that one of its members was Thomas Burbury, the weaver of Coventry who was transported to Van Diemen's Land (present-day Tasmania in Australia) for participating in a riot which resulted in the burning down of a weaving factory in Coventry.
2. The Earliest-known Ancestor - William Burbury of Coventry
(Back to top)
The earliest-confirmed ancestor of the Coventry Burbury family is a William BURBURY (abt. 1746--1822) who lived at Gosford Street in Coventry [1]. No baptism record for this William has been found and so I am unsure of his exact year of birth. However, he was buried in the parish of Holy Trinity, Coventry on 15 January 1822, and the parish register gives his age at the time as 76, so this suggests a year of birth of around 1746. I have checked the parish registers for Coventry Holy Trinity and Coventry Saint John, but there are no corresponding baptisms for a William Burbury around this time in either register. The Coventry Saint Michael registers for this period were destroyed during the Blitz of World War II and so I have not been able to check them. It is possible that the Bishop's Transcripts of the Saint Michael's registers at Lichfield in Staffordshire may hold some clues, but I haven't viewed them yet.
One possibility is that William was the eldest son of William and Mary Burbury of Bourton on Dunsmore. This couple did have a son William who was baptised on 21 January 1745 in Bourton on Dunsmore [2], and no further details on him are known that can be confirmed. Although William of Gosford Street married and lived in Coventry, his place of birth is unknown. Moreover, the date of 1746 is imprecise, because it is taken from his age (76) at the time of his death (in 1822) [1]. I have always assumed that because he lived in Coventry, he was born there, but this might not necessarily be so. Bourton on Dunsmore is only a few miles from Coventry.
An added incentive for making this identification is that another son of William and Mary of Bourton on Dunsmore was the Thomas Burbury who married Catherine Mitchel [2] [3], and this couple are candidates for the parents of William Burbury of Stoneleigh who was the ancestor of the Stoneleigh Burbury family. A long-held tradition in the Stoneleigh Burbury family holds that their family is closely related to the Coventry Burbury family. And so IF William Burbury of Gosford Street was the son of William and Mary Burbury of Bourton on Dunsmore, and IF Thomas Burbury and Catherine nee Mitchel were the parents of William Burbury of Stoneleigh, then the exact relationship between the Coventry and Stoneleigh families would become immediately apparent.
Click here to read a discussion of the link between the Coventry and Stoneleigh families
Click here to go to the information page for the Stoneleigh Burbury family
A tradition in the Coventry Burbury family places William Burbury of Gosford Street as the younger son of William BURBURY (1709--1779) who lived at Wootton Grange in Leek Wootton, Warwickshire. The story behind the tradition may have been started by Thomas Burbury of Van Diemen's Land himself, as a story to tell his children and grandchildren in order to cover up the fact of his convict heritage, and it was first written up and presented as fact in the Chronicles of the Burbury Family which were written by my great-grandfather Alfred Burbury [4]. However, this tradition is wrong. The tradition has persisted for more than a century, but it perhaps owes itself more to wishful thinking than fact. The fact is that William Burbury of Coventry's parentage is not known at this point in time. Thomas Burbury of Van Diemen's Land was a grandson of William Burbury of Coventry, and so it follows from this that the descendants of Thomas Burbury of Van Diemen's Land cannot legitimately claim his descent for themselves either.
Click here to read a discussion of the origins of this particular tradition and how it has been disproved.
Click here to view the Chronicles family tree that makes the erroneous claim
Click here to read the full transcription of Alfred Burbury's Chronicles of the Burbury Family
Click here to go to the information page for the Kenilworth Burbury family
William Burbury of Gosford Street married a girl called Hannah, according to family trees that were compiled by members of the Burbury family in around 1920 [5]. I assume that this lady was Hannah SALMON or SALMONS, as a marriage between William and Hannah was recorded on 1 March 1772 in the parish of Holy Trinity in Coventry [1].
William and Hannah had quite a few children, but not a lot is known about many of them. The names and baptisms of Elizabeth (b. 1775), Hannah (b. 1781), Mary (b. 1781), John (b. 1783), Sarah (b. 1784), Richard (b. 1785) and Joseph (b. 1788) appear in the Holy Trinity parish registers [1], but nothing further is known of these children. A Hannah Burbury was unmarried and living in Grove Place, Bedworth at the time of the 1841 census [6], and this is possibly William and Hannah's daughter, but this is unconfirmed. Richard may have been the one who married Martha PLUMPTON on 9 May 1809 in the oventry parish of Saint Michael [7], but again this is speculation. And according to a note on a handwritten family tree received from Burburys in New Zealand, the youngest son Joseph was killed in 1815 while fighting at Quatre Bras in France [5], but again this cannot be substantiated.
Two of William and Hannah's children are known to have married and had further issue, however. These were William (1775--1853) and Thomas (b. 1781).
3. Sergeant William Burbury and His Family
(Back to top)
William Burbury (1778?--1853) was a son -- probably the eldest surviving son -- of William and Hannah Burbury. His estimated year of birth varies slightly depending on which source is used. He was baptised on 1 July 1778 at Holy Trinity, Coventry [1]. However, the 1851 census gives his age as 76, which would put his actual year of birth as 1775 [8]. Moreover, the UK National Burial Index gives his age as 80 at the time of his death and burial in 1853, which would make his year of birth a bit earlier, in 1773 [9].
William was a Quartermaster Sergeant in the 4th Regiment of Dragoons. This fact is mentioned on a copy of his marriage licence [10], and also on a letter which he wrote pleading for his son Thomas' life [11] (referred to in more detail later in this article). He was most probably posted to the barracks at Chichester, and it was during this time that he met his future wife. There have been other claims made regarding William's army career; these claims appear in Alfred Burbury's Chronicles and state that he was an officer and that he fought at the Battle of Waterloo (1815) with Sir Fitzroy Somerset, and also that he later spent some time serving with the Yeomen of the Guard (the "Beefeaters") [4]. The Beefeater story is unverified and possibly true, but the claims to officer status are almost certainly fanciful and incorrect.
Click here to read a more in-depth discussion of William Burbury's army career
William married Sarah ALLEN by licence on 17th April 1806 in the parish church of Aldingbourne, Sussex [10] [12]. According to the marriage licence, Sarah was aged 21 or over at the time of her marriage, and she was described as living "... for several years past in the parish of Aldingbourne ...". It is likely that she was the Sarah Allen who was baptised on 6 March 1785 in Aldingbourne to parents Thomas and Anne ALLEN [12]. The name of a Thomas Allen, a victualler of Saint Olave, Chichester appears as William's guarantor in the marriage licence [10]. Perhaps William might have dealt with Thomas in his professional capacity as Quartermaster, and ended up marrying his daughter.
A handwritten family tree that has circulated among Burbury family members claims that William married a girl by the name of Sarah BIGGS [5], but I have not been able to find any other primary or secondary source to back this up. Two of William and Sarah's children had "Boniface" and "Biggs" as middle names [13], but apart from the single reference above, I do not know how they might have come by these names.
William and Sarah had quite a few children. Five of these children -- William (b. 1807), Ann (b. 1808), Thomas (b. 1809) [13], John (b. 1811) [7] and James (b. 1822) [14] -- have been know to previous researchers for some time. However, the list of their known children has been increased somewhat as a result of later research, and now includes Maria (b. 1814) [15], Caroline (b. 1826), Faith (b. 1829) and Hope (b. 1829) [16].
The first three children (William, Ann and Thomas) were baptised in the parish of Saint Olave, Chichester. Evidently William continued in his posting to Chichester for some years after his marriage. At a time when middle names were still not very common for children, the first two children had fairly elaborate names indeed. The first child was baptised "William John Boniface Biggs Burbury" on 7 February 1807, and the second child was baptised "Ann Biggs Boniface Burbury" on 15 March 1808. By the time William and Sarah had their third child, they appear to have lost the desire for fancy names, as the baby was simply baptised on 27 June 1809 as "Thomas" [13]. As mentioned above, I do not know where the middle names "Biggs" and "Boniface" came from. According to the International Genealogical Index (IGI) compiled by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints, there appears to have been a heavy concentration of families with the surname BONIFACE in Sussex in previous centuries, vastly more than for any other English county [17], so perhaps a clue lies somewhere there.
|
| Figure 4 - The Church of St Olave (now operated mainly as a religious bookshop) in Chichester, West Sussex, where the first three of William and Sarah's children were baptised |
William and Sarah eventually moved back to William's native Coventry, probably some time before 1818, as their eldest son William was buried in Coventry in that year [9]. Perhaps William resigned from the army around 1815 or a bit later, after the end of the Napoleonic Wars. He must have done an apprenticeship in the weaving industry before joining the army, as in the 1826 and 1829 parish register entries for the baptisms of his later daughters, and also in both the 1841 and 1851 censuses for Coventry, he is listed as a "weaver" living at Spon End in the parish of Saint Michael in Coventry [16] [18] [8]. He died in June 1853, and was buried in the London Road Civic Cemetery [9]. His wife Sarah had predeceased him by 15 years; she died in January 1838 and was buried in the parish of Holy Trinity [1].
There are some questions about William and Sarah's children that still need to be answered, as not a great deal is known of them. The known children are William, Ann, Thomas, John, Maria, James, Caroline, Faith and Hope (no daughter by the name of Charity has yet been found though [grin]). Following is an outline of what is known about each child.
Click here to read Thomas Burbury's individual biography
Click here to read about Thomas Burbury's trial and subsequent reprieve
4. Maria Burbury - A Controversial Child
(Back to top)
Maria Burbury (b. abt. 1814) was probably the daughter of Sergeant William Burbury and Sarah his wife. However, the identification of Maria has some problems, because of some conflicting information on her in the sources.
The first problem with Maria is that she was apparently born in London. The International Genealogical Index (IGI) contains a reference to the baptism of Maria BURBURY on 19 April 1814 in the parish of Bethnal Green, London to parents William and Sarah Burbury [15]. At first glance this could be anybody, so why should it be a reference to the daughter of our Coventry family?
The identification is backed up by other references that appear to be to this Maria, this time in the 1841 and 1851 censuses. Firstly, in the 1841 census, the household of a William BURBERRY [sic] living in South Side Spon End in Coventry. William's wife does not appear in this household, but several children do. These are: James (15), Caroline (15), Hope (14), Maria (15) and John (5) [18]. The 1841 census cannot be relied on for exact dates of birth, as ages were rounded up or down. However, the names of these children indicate that the household is that of Sergeant William Burbury of Coventry. Although the 1841 census does not show family relationships, James, Caroline and Faith have been confirmed as children of William and Sarah as mentioned earlier [16] [14]; therefore it would seem reasonable to assume that Maria and John are also close family members. If Maria was baptised in 1814 then the age give for her of 15 would seem to be out by ten years, which is excessive even for the 1841 census. And who was the child John?
Further clues can then be found in the 1851 census return for Coventry, Warwickshire. In this census there is a Maria BURBERY [sic] living in the household of a George BAGSHAW in Bailey Lane in the parish of Saint Michael in Coventry. She is aged 34, born in London, unmarried and employed as a ribbon weaver [21]. The place of birth of London suggests that this is the same person as the Maria Burbury who was baptised in the parish of Bethnal Green in 1814. The census return gives an estimated year of birth as 1817, but census returns are notorious for being inaccurate in terms of ages, so the two references might still refer to the same person, even with this discrepancy of three years.
If the identification of the two Marias as the same person is correct, then it indicates very strongly that the parents William and Sarah who were mentioned in the Bethnal Green register were also from Coventry. The only William and Sarah Burbury from this time with links to Coventry were Sergeant William Burbury of Spon End and his wife Sarah nee ALLEN. I do not know what William and Sarah were doing in London in 1814, but it is quite possible that William was serving in the a Yeoman's regiment such as the beefeaters or the Yeomen of the Guard at this time. Bethnal Green is not too far from the Tower of London and Saint James' Palace, so he could have been living in Bethnal Green during his term of service. This indictes the possibility that there might have bneen a grain of truth to Alfred Burbury's assertions in his Chronicles of the Burbury Family that William the father of Thomas served with the Beefeaters [4].
The 1851 census reference to Maria has her living in Bailey Lane [21]. Sergeant William Burbury was still alive at the time and is found in the 1851 census still living in Spon End. With him is a John Burbury aged 14 and born in Coventry who is described as William's grandson [18]. This would seem to be the same child as the John who was in William's household in the 1841 census aged 5. If John was William's grandson, who were John's parents?
A search of the parish registers for Coventry turns up only one likely candidate for the baptism of this John. The entry is in the register for the parish of Saint John in Coventry, where John Burbury was baptised on 3 February 1837 as the base-born child of Maria Burbury [16].
My conclusions from all this are that Maria was the daughter of Sergeant William Burbury and his wife Sarah, and she was born while William was in London, perhaps because of something to do with his army service. Maria went back to live in Coventry with the rest of the family, and had a child John who was born out of wedlock in 1837.
John grew up and married a Mary Ann. The details of this marriage are unknown, and I also do not know if they had any children. John and his wife were living in Newcastle under Lyme in Staffordshire at the time of the 1881 and 1891 censuses and John's employment was as a grocer [23] [24]. However, the couple were childless in both these censuses, and after the 1901 census where Mary is living by herself as a widow after John's death some time before [25], the known information on this branch stops.
5. Thomas the Publican of Gosford Street
(Back to top)
Thomas Burbury the Publican (b. abt. 1781) was a younger son of William and Hannah Burbury of Gosford Street, Coventry. William and Hannah appear to have had two sons named Thomas, but the first Thomas was baptised on 26 November 1772 and was subsequently buried in the parish of Holy Trinity in Coventry on 3 January 1773 [1].
The second son Thomas was baptised on 5 December 1781 in the parish of Holy Trinity [1]. The handwritten family tree that I call Tree C does not have the second Thomas listed, only the first. Nevertheless, this family tree calls Thomas an "Innkeeper, Gosford St." [5]
Thomas' date of death is unclear. He does not appear to be in either the 1841 census or the 1851 census. The 1841 census has not all been checked, and he might yet appear somewhere in there. One possible reference to him is in a Thomas Burbury who was buried in the parish of Ryton on Dunsmore near Coventry on 29 September 1831. The burial register lists this Thomas' age as 52, making him born in around 1779, and it also states that he was "of Coventry" [26]. So this could be the same Thomas, although I don't know why he would have been buried in Ryton on Dunsmore.
Earlier researchers had no further information on this Thomas at all, but I was fortunate to have been put in touch with a Rev. Ian Burbery of Swansea in Wales who is a descendant of Thomas, and he has provided me with some information on this branch of the Coventry Burbury family.
Thomas married Catherine BILLINGHAM on 3 August 1812 at Holy Trinity. They had at least three children: Thomas (b. abt. 1814) [1], William (b. abt. 1818) and James (b. abt. 1821) [17]. There was possibly another son William born in around 1817 who died in infancy, although no burial has been found. The two consecutive baptisms for sons William and parents Thomas and Catherine do appear in the IGI for the parish of Saint Michael [17].
5a. Thomas' first son - Thomas the Ribbon Manufacturer
(Back to top)
The eldest son Thomas (born 1814) [1] also lived in Gosford Street. His occupation seems to have varied throughout his career. The first reference to him is in the apprenticeship lists for Coventry, which show a Thomas Burbery [sic], son of Thomas (Victualler), apprenticed 21 May 1827 to Michael Bradbury, Ribbon Weaver; this was followed by two transfers:
In the St Michael parish register, he is described as a "weaver of St John Street" in the baptism entries for his children Richard (1835) and Emma (1837) [7]. However, in the 1851 census he is living in Gosford Street and describes himself as a "master carpenter employing 6 men" [27]. In 1866 at the time of his daughter Jane's marriage, he was listed in the marriage register as a "ribbon manufacturer" [28]. And then in the 1881 census he is living at Brookhill Farm, East Barnet in Herefordshire, and is once again a "(retired) weaver" [29]. There might possibly have been an association between Thomas and the firm of "Burbery & Merridew" who were located at Palace Yard, Coventry and who also had an office at 26 Wood Street in the City of London, where they were listed in the 1846 Post Office Directory for London as manufacturers and importers of ribbons [30].
Thomas married Mary Ann WARD (b. abt. 1810) on 27 August 1832 at St John, Coventry [17], and they had several children: Mary Ann (b. 1833), Richard (b. 1835), Emma (b. 1837), Thomas (b. 1839), Jane (b. 1840), Ellen (b. 1843) and Clara (b. 1847). There was another son born in 1849 according to the IGI, but the name of this son is not given [7] [17].
Early records tend to be fairly inconsistent in their use of spelling. In particular, surnames tend to get spelt in any number of ways for people within the same family, even for the same person and sometimes even within the same document! The Burbury family is no exception to this; the members of the Coventry Burbury family tended to appear with the BURBURY spelling more often than not, but the BURBERY spelling also appeared. However, Thomas the Ribbon Manufacturer represents a point in the story of the family where the spelling seems to have shifted from BURBURY to BURBERY and more or less remained there. So from Thomas' children onwards to the present day, this branch of the Coventry Burbury family is actually a Burbery family.
Thomas and Mary Ann's son Richard was the only child we know of to continue the family line for this branch. He married twice: firstly to Eliza CARELESS on 3 August 1856 at Saint Peter's Church in the Coventry parish of Holy Trinity [1], and secondly to Jane LATHAM [31]. Rev Ian Burbery located the marriage register entry for Richard and Eliza but he was unsure whether it was the same Richard. I feel it is the same Richard for several reasons:
Richard and Eliza had two children before Eliza died. These children were Mary Ann (b. 1858) and Thomas (b. 1860) [17]. Unfortunately both children died in infancy: Mary Ann in December 1858 aged 4 months, and Thomas in April 1860 aged 5 months. They were both also buried in the London Road Civic Cemetery in Coventry [9].
Richard moved to London after this. He remarried to Jane Latham sometime before 1875, as their son Thomas William was born on 6 February 1875 at 65 St Peter Street, Islington [31]. Ian Burbery has been unable to find a marriage registration for Richard and Jane, but possibly it took place in December 1874 in London. There is a marriage registration for a Richard Burbery at this time in the GRO marriage index (Reg. 1c/151, London City) but I have not seen the actual certificate.
Richard and Jane had a single child that is known to us. This was Thomas William Burbery (1875--1956) who married Minnie Rose nee Pearce (1874--1947) . They in turn had several children and quite a few grandchildren. However, their grandson Ian Burbery is the last male child of this branch, and Ian himself has two daughters, so possibly the Burbery surname will disappear from this particular branch of the Coventry Burbury family [32].
5b. Thomas' second son - William the Scenic Painter
(Back to top)
William (abt. 1818--1882?) was the middle son of Thomas and Catherine Burbury of Gosford Street [7]. He married a widow named Mary MADELY on 7 September 1841 at Kenilworth [22]. Nothing further is known of this particular marriage. If the identification of William described below is correct, then his first wife Mary must have died or otherwise disappeared from the scene, but no record of her has been found.
The next apparent reference to William is in the appearance of a William Burbery [sic] in Sydney, New South Wales in 1855. The first reference to him is in this year, when he married Elizabeth HART at St James Church of England in Sydney [33]. I have a copy of this William's death certificate, which gives the following facts about him:
This sounds very much like William the son of Thomas and Catherine. The place of birth of Coventry matches, as does the approximate year of birth (1819 against a baptism on 9 December 1818 for Thomas and Catherine's son [17]). The father's occupation, however, does not match, as the death certificate says William's father was a farmer, whereas Thomas was an innkeeper [5] [22].
In any case, William and Elizabeth do not appear to have had any children, so this branch of the Coventry family comes to an end here.
3. Thomas' third son - James the Otherwise Unknown
(Back to top)
Nothing at all is known of Thomas and Catherine's youngest son James other than his date of baptism [17]. The date of 1821 is intriguing, however, because it is very close to the date for another James Burbury -- the son of William and Sarah Burbury of Spon End who was a watchmaker and who went to Tasmania [14]. And it's also true that this second James was born in 1822 in Coventry, but no birth or baptism record has yet been found. Thomas and Catherine's son James appears in the IGI as being baptised on 29 June 1821 in the parish of St Michael [17], and the parent's names appear in the register (presumably taken from the Bishop's Transcripts, as the original St Michael's registers did not survive World War II). A tradition did exist among the Tasmanian branch of the Burbury family that there was some doubt as to whether James who came out to Tasmania was in fact the brother of Thomas Burbury the Convict of Van Diemen's Land. However, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, it can only be concluded that there were two James Burburys who were first cousins to each other.
Click here to read the personal profile of James Burbury who went to Tasmania
But, as the sub-heading for this section suggests, nothing further is known about James the son of Thomas and Catherine.
Future Areas for Research
(Back to top)
Other related links:
