Chapter 1 - Early Burberrys and the Harrowsley Family
Chapter 2 - The Focus Shifts to Newdigate
Chapter 3 - Burberrys of London
Chapter 4 - From Surrey to the World
Chapter 5 - Unplaced Surrey Burberry Families
Chapter 6 - Further Notes and Resources
1. Introduction
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As discussed in the first chapter of this article, the senior branch of the Burberry family flourished in Horne for several generations until the sale of the manor of "Harrowsley". During this same period, a younger branch of the Burberry family was establishing itself in the nearby parish of Newdigate in Surrey. And it was from this Newdigate family that the most of the Burberrys who are living today are descended. Newdigate was not very far from Horne, no more than about 15 kilometres or 12 miles as shown in Figure 2-1 at right. Throughout the early periods that we have traced the fmaily, they did stay more or less in the same area, centering on Horne but spreading out to Newdigate to the west and to Ifield and Worth in Sussex to the south-west. Figure 2-2 below shows the earliest-known generations of the Burberry family, and shows the two sons of William and Eleanor. The elder son William inherited "Harrowsley" in Horne, which was the main seat of the family at this time. The younger son John moved to Newdigate. |
 Figure 2-1. Relative Location of some Surrey Parishes |
2. Early Generations of the Burberry Family in Newdigate
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John Burberry, the founder of the Newdigate Burberry family, was the younger son of William Burberry of Harrowsley Manor in Horne, Surrey [1]. As the younger son, he would have not inherited the main part of his father's estate; as it was, John received a bequest of 100 pounds from his father's will once he had reached the age of 21 [2].
We don't know the reasons why John moved to Newdigate. Maybe the money he had received from his father was enough for John to purchase some land himself. Maybe he also received some money as a result of his marriage to Sarah GATFORD on 30 May 1697 in Horne [3]. John and Sarah must have continued to live in Horne immediately after their marriage, as John's name appears in a list of people of the parish of Horne who contributed to a fund for the "Relieving of Distressed Protestants of the Principality of Orange" in May 1704. John contributed one shilling to the fund [3]. It must have been soon after this that John and Sarah move to Newdigate, as the first appearance of the BURBERRY surname in Newdigate parish registers is the baptism of their daughter Mary on 17 April 1706 [4].
John Burberry farmed at Newdigate Place near Dorking, Surrey [5], and he served the Newdigate community in a civic capacity in many ways. He was an Overseer of the Poor in 1708, and he also served as a churchwarden from 1714 to 1716 and as a land tax collector in 1710 and 1718 [6]. He was buried in Newdigate Churchyard, where his tombstone states "Here Lyeth the body of JOHN BURBERRY Sen. who departed this life the 17th day of December 1746 in the 80th year of his age" [5]. A note on this trancription is that the Newdigate parish registers gave John's date of burial as 21 December 1745, not 1746 [4]. A small point perhaps, but it does need checking to see which date is correct.
There have been some difficulties in identifying the children of John and Sarah. Firstly, some family tree data compiled by the Newdigate Historical Society mentions a daughter Sarah who died in 1726 at Newdigate [6]. There is no other evidence, such as a baptism or burial record, that supports her existence. I suspect that this daughter Sarah was the result of confusion over the entry for the burial of a Sarah Burberry in Newdigate in 1724. The entry for this burial in the Newdigate parish registers clearly indicate that this Sarah was the wife of John [4]. (I'm sorry to so blithely kill off a poor young girl from 300 years ago, but I guess if she didn't exist, then she didn't exist!)
The second problem with John and Sarah's children is that no baptisms have been located for their two sons John and William. At least we know these two sons existed, because they are mentioned in John Burberry Senior's will. The will states:
"... all the rest and residue of my Estate of what Nature or Kind soever after payment of my debts and funeral expenses I hereby give and bequeath unto my two sons John Burberry and William Burberry whom I constitute and appoint sole Executors of this my last Will and Testament ..." [7]
Click here to read a transcript of John Burberry's will
The placement of the son John's name before his brother William suggests that John was the elder of the two. The Newdigate Historical Society data gives William a year of birth of 1702, but it is unclear to me where they got this date from. William died in 1752 and was buried at Newdigate, but I haven't got any notes from this indicating an age for William when he died, so the source for this "1702" date is still a mystery. Similarly, John died in 1764 and was buried at Newdigate, but the Newdigate Historical Society data hasn't even hazarded a guess at his year of birth [4] [6].
We know when the remaining three children of John and Sarah were born, or at least when and where they were baptised. They were all baptised in Newdigate: Mary in 1706 (but died in infancy), Thomas in 1707, and a second Mary in 1711. Mary also receives a mention in her father's will, as Mary Wood, and her bequest is a total of 80 pounds [7].
But here we strike another question about John and Sarah's children. If it is correct that Thomas (born 1707) was a son of John and Sarah (and the Newdigate parish registers indicate this [4]), then why wasn't he mentioned in his father's will? John Burberry mentions his daughter Mary Wood and his two sons John and William [7], but there is absolutely no mention of Thomas. The reason for this is probably that Thomas had already received his share of his inheritance by taking over the tenancy of Newdigate Place (nowadays called Home Farm), a property owned by the Duke of Norfolk [6].
Not much else is known about John (junior) and William, apart from the mentions they received in their father's will and their burials in Newdigate. John apparently left a will, a copy of which is on file at the Surrey Archdeaconry and Commissory Courts section of the Greater London Council Record Office in London [5], but I haven't yet obtained a copy of this will. He had a child Sarah who was mentioned in the will of her aunt Elizabeth Burberry (wife of Thomas) [8], but nothing further is known of her either. It is possible that she is the Sarah Burberry referred to in an entry in the IGI which has the baptism of a Sarah Burberry to father John on 23 November 1743. However, this baptism took place in Berwick-upon-Tweed in Northumberland, which was in the far north of England, a long way indeed from Newdigate [9].
Thomas Burberry, the third son of John and Sarah of Newdigate, was a farmer who also lived at Newdigate, and his will, proved in 1776, described him as a "yeoman", which suggests some measure of wealth [10]. The Newdigate burial register has a note in Thomas' burial entry which refers to him as a "very honest and capital farmer" [4].
Thomas died in 1776 and was buried at Newdigate. He left a will which mentions all of his children [10]. In fact in an age where infant and child mortality was more of a problem than it is today, it would appear that all of Thomas and Elizabeth's children survived childhood, grew to adulthood and got married -- with perhaps one exception, their son John who lived until his 53rd year, but who may have remained single [4].
Click here to read a transcript of Thomas Burberry's will
As mentioned earlier, Thomas himself was not mentioned in his own father's will, and I suggested that the reason for this might have been that Thomas had already received his share of his father's patrimony already. However, in cases where a child gets their share beforehand, it is common for the will to either mention this explicitly, or for the testator to give token bequests to such children to indicate that they weren't left out by accident. In Thomas' own case, he appears to have done exactly that: three of his sons (Thomas, Richard and William) received ten shillings each. Considering that their sister Sarah received one hundred pounds, another sister Elizabeth received sixty pounds, and a third sister Jane received a house with land, it looks very much like these three brothers were given token amounts to acknowldge the fact that they had already received the bulk of their bequests [10].
2. Thomas and Sarah (née ROBINSON) of Ifield
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Thomas Burberry was the eldest son of Thomas and Elizabeth Burberry of Newdigate. And although this chapter of the Surrey Burberry story ostensibly covers the families that lived in the Surrey parish of Newdigate, Thomas lived most of his adult life not in Newdigate, but in the relatively close-by parish of Ifield in the county of Sussex [11]. Thomas was born in 1733 in Newdigate, and married his wife Sarah Robinson on 13 April 1758, also in Newdigate [4]. After this, however, the baptism records for their children are found almost exclusively in the registers for the parish of Ifield, and Thomas and Sarah were both buried in the churchyard of Saint Michael's Church in Ifield [11] [12].
3. John and Sarah (née BURBERRY) of Newdigate
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4. William and Jane (née BURSTOW) of Newdigate
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5. Richard and Mary (née ROBINSON) of Betchworth
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6. Stephen and Sarah (née EDE) of Newdigate
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7. David and Amy (née KITCHEN) of Newdigate
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David Burberry was the youngest of the children of Thomas and Elizabeth Burberry of Newdigate. He was baptised in the parish of Newdigate in 1749, married Amy Kitchen in Newdigate in 1775, all of his children were baptised in Newdigate, and he was buried in Newdigate in 1790. So his whole life seems to have been spent living in Newdigate [4].
David receives significant mentions in the wills of both his parents. Although he was the youngest son, with five elder surviving brothers ahead of him, he and his next-oldest brother Stephen were named as joint executors and residuary legatees of their father Thomas' will and estate (although possibly the elder brothers had already received settlements) [10]. Similarly the two brothers Stephen and David were the trustees and residual legatees of their mother Elizabeth's will [8].
Click here to read a transcript of Thomas Burberry's will
Click here to read a summary of Elizabeth Burberry's will
Other than this, David has not left a particularly wide trail in the records that it has been possible to trace. Possibly he was involved in the family business of farming. One son Thomas (b. 1783) died young; some of his daughters married and may have continued their lines, but this has not been followed through.
David Burberry's two surviving sons, David Junior and John, however, left Newdigate and set themselves up in partnership in a fellmongering business at Loxwood, in the parish of Wisborough Green in Sussex. Fellmongering was the job of processing animal skins to produce items such as wool, leather, parchment and vellum, and was closely associated with the tanning trade. Nowadays the work of a fellmonger is done by machine, but it was a job that required considerable skill when done by hand. However, their partnership was brought to a close by David's death in 1815. David was aged 36, and his will made no mention of a wife and children; everything he had was left to his younger brother and business partner John [13b].
Click here to read a transcript of David Burberry's will
A good description of the trade of fellmongering can be read here
John of Loxwood presumably continued on with the business he and his brother had been engaged in, until 1831, when he and his family left England and went to America as part of the Petworth Immigration Project [14b].
David's will was also an important tool for establishing his brother John's identity in later sources. My research colleague Wendy Stott and I were having difficulty in separating this particular John from another John Burberry who was also born in Newdigate, and David's will was part of the key that helped us to work this particular problem out.
Click here to read the story of John Burberry of Wisborough Green who emigrated to the United States
Click here to read a discussion of the "other" John Burberry who married Sophia Marsh
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