John, son of Robert and Mary

John, son of Robert Hubberstey and Mary Culcheth:

We know from "A history of Blackburn, town and parish, 1877 that "John (who had issue, by his wife Elizabeth, Robert, James, John, Mary, and Joane)". That would mean that John and Elizabeth had 5 children but ... the records seem to show something more.

I went back to the registers and went through them page by page looking for different spellings or things that might have been missed. The first 5 children were listed in the Brindle register as Mary (1745), Robert (1746), Joanna (1750), John (1752), and James (1756) Huberche (which was the Latinised version of Hubberstey used by the priest at the time). As I continued this time in the Samlesbury records I found 4 additional entries with variant spellings but the same John and Elizabeth as parents. The spellings ranged from Hubisty to Hubbishy to Hubbisy to Hubbisty. The 4 children listed were Anna (1759), Catarina (1761), Elizabeth (1764) and Dorothy (1767).

It is again interesting to look at the names of the children. The first son was Robert and the first daughter was Mary (John's parents' names). The names of three of the later daughters, Anna, Dorothy, and Elizabeth, were the same as the names for the daughters of Robert and Mary Culcheth, tending to support the idea that these were also Hubbersteys.

So in total it looks like John and Elizabeth had 9 children. The three sons all married and had children, but only John's male line carries on to today through the John Hubberstey and Isabella Weaton (Waiton) line. 

I have not been able to find anything on the female lines except for the marriage of Catarina (d. 1839) to James Bolton. They had at least one son, James born 1796.

Note: The information on the three male children is a bit sketchy but I have tried to put together the story as best as I can. It is possible that some of the information may turn out to not be totally correct as some records are missing and I have had to make a few "jumps in logic" to fill in the blanks. While this is a bit risky the relatively few Hubbersteys in the area makes it a lot easier than for if we were trying to do this for other families.

1. Robert appears to have married Frances Southworth (b.1750 in Brindle). I have found records for three births; John 1772, Joannes (1777) and Anna (1775).  Anna married James Wilson in 1804 and had a child Frances also in 1804. Again tracing the names is fun. In this case Hubberstey was alternately written as Hubbyshaw, Hubbishaw or even Hubbershaw. Interesting too was that for Joannes one of the sponsors was William Hubberstey (possibly the William born 1754 to "William and Elizabeth" that I mentioned in the Willliam and Mary post).

Since John and Joannes were likely both John, it appears that John, born 1772, may have died young. Therefore the John who married Ellen Taberner in 1804 would have been Joannes (1777).  Together he and Ellen appear to have had 7 children; Robert (1804), Frances (1805) Joseph (1809), Elizabeth (1810), Anna Maria (1812) Ellen (1814) and Robert (1816).

Both Robert and Joseph eventually ended up in Bolton and possibly married two sisters.  Joseph married Hannah Suttle and they had two daughters Ellen (1845) and Frances (1843). Robert married Betsey Suttle and had a son, John T. (1846). He later married again and had a daughter Ellen (1859).

2. James looks to have married Jane Whittle November 10, 1777 at St. John Preston. The interesting part is that one of the witnesses was William Hubberstey. It makes one wonder if this may have been the William born in 1754. It is also the first case I have found of a Hubberstey marrying a Whittle ... but not by any means the last. Daughter Maria (see below) married Thomas Whittle and Robert and Mary Watson's son William married Deborah Whittle. Then around 1900 my great-grandfather's sisters married Whittles as well (Barbara married Wilfred and Margaret married John).

Their children included James (1780), Alice (1782), Maria (1784), Briggita (1788), and Joanna  (1796). Briggita married James Walker in 1807 and Maria appears to have married Thomas Whittle in 1809. I have not been able to find anything further on James (1780).

3. John. This is an interesting case! I originally thought that John married Margarite and had two daughters - Elizabeth (1776) and Margarite (1777), as these are the records for Samlesbury. This still may be the case, but it also looks like John married Isabell (Weaton/Waiton/Eaton) in 1780. Now whether this is the same John, or a different John we don't yet know. BUT an old copy of a family tree that was sent to me by another Hubberstey (oddly enough from the Bamber line) shows John as marrying Isabell (whose surname seems to have had various spellings as well).

What is a bit strange is that after marrying in 1780 there is no record of children until 1787, a rather long gap! Ultimately though this part of the line turns out to be quite important as many of today's Hubbersteys and all of today's Hubbersty's come from this line. It is also the line that gives us two clusters of Hubbersteys  / Hubberstys that exist because of the name being carried on by female Hubbersteys who had son(s) out of wedlock. Because there are so many connections I will put their story in a separate post - John and Isabell.

more to come