Edward Starbuck was English. This small fact is all we know for certain about his life before migration, even after many years of exhaustive research.
However, there are enough clues in the data to build a reasonably probable family tree.
Most likely baptism : 27 February 1603/4 at Derby
The only baptism found in England for an Edward Starbuck at a suitable date is this one from the parish register of All Saints’ church in the town of Derby, Derbyshire, for 27 February 1603/4:
The bottom line of the image reads, in Latin: “Bap. Edwardus filius Edwardi Starbuck bap, 27.” In English: “Baptised: Edward son of Edward Starbuck (on the) 27th of February 1603/4.”[1]
In the same town and parish of Derby, also at All Saint’s church on 7 June 1607, a William Starbuck, son of Edward, was baptised so he was probably a brother to Edward. Sadly, their mother was not named.[2]
Although these baptisms both happened at Derby, no evidence has been found that the family were resident in the town, then or at any time, so it is possible that both Edward and William were born elsewhere or that their parents lived only a brief spell in Derby.
Other siblings for migrant Edward
Close to a hundred parishes and chapelries within an 8-10 mile radius of Long Eaton in Derbyshire (heart of Starbucky Territory in England) were checked. The search established that the surname is rare: there were only ever a few Starbuck families around at any one time in this area in the 16th and 17th centuries, and of those, only a few individuals were named Edward. See this graphic for evidence of Starbuck numbers from 1550 to 1700 (surname variants such as Buck and Starre have not been included).
So when we found the following events in the parish registers of Nottingham and nearby Bingham, in Nottinghamshire, we reasonably deduced that these are likely to be migrant Edward’s siblings:
- Baptism 26 April 1606 Nottingham St Nicholas – Margerie dau of Edward Starbucke[3]
- Baptism 8 August 1608 Nottingham St Nicholas – Elizabeth the daughter of Edward Starbucke[4]
- Burial 23 August 1609 Bingham St Mary & All Saints, Notts – Ann the daughter of Edward Starbuck[5] [no baptism found]
- Gap of 9 years when other children may have been born
- Baptism 12 June 1618 Nottingham St Nicholas – Isabell dau of Edward Starbuke[6]
- Burial 9 January 1619/20 Nottingham St Mary – Issabell the daughter of Edward Stare Buck buryed[7]
- Burial 10 (or 7) January 1619/20 Nottingham St Mary – Anne the daughter of the same Edward Stare Bucke buryed[8] [no baptism found]
As we can see, the only sons in this suggested family were Edward and William, and the only daughters (probably) to survive were Margerie and Elizabeth, though we have no information about their later lives. We can also surmise that father Edward had a reason (perhaps for work or religious-leanings) for moving about in the Derby-Nottingham area. These are not long distances – the places mentioned in this post are only handfuls of miles apart from each other.
Edward’s parents
On 3 August 1620 at Nottingham St Mary, Ane the wife of Edward Starbuck was buried.[9]
The only marriage found for an Edward Starbuck to an Ann is this one:
Edward Starbuck and Ann Barnes married on 8 May 1603 at Nottingham St Nicholas, a date that fits with eldest child Edward baptised at Derby on 27 February 1603/4.[10]
It then appears that Edward senior remarried, though only briefly, with a possible third marriage to follow, and even an affair:
- Marriage 10 April 1621 Nottingham St Mary – Edward Starbuck & Susanna Hardwick marryed[11]
- Burial 16 June 1622 Nottingham St Mary – Shusanner the wife of Edward Starbuck buryed[12]
- Marriage 22 September 1625 Nottingham St Mary – Edward Star Buck and Mary Kirk marryed[13]
- 24 April 1626 Churchwarden Presentment, at Nottingham St Mary (among a long list of other naughty people): “Edward Storbuck roper & Maria Slater upon a fame of fornication together, the woman is great with child.”[14]
It is also possible that Edward junior (the migrant) was the one who married Mary Kirke (he was 22 in 1625) and/or conceived a child with Maria Slater. We do know from the entries that at least one of these Edwards was a roper, a watery trade, always carried out in ropewalks beside waterways.
Edward’s likely mother, Ann Barnes
Barnes was a fairly common name in Starbucky Territory, but our extensive researches have not discovered the baptism or birth, probably about 1582, of a suitable Ann for the marriage to Edward Starbuck in 1603.[15] It is fairly probable that she was from a Barnes family in Sawley, Derbyshire (7 miles south-west of Nottingham) which has no surviving parish registers before 1640. Referring to the common naming pattern of that period, with a second son named after the mother’s father, Ann could have had a father William.
Edward’s paternal grandparents
If he married Ann Barnes in 1603, Edward senior was probably born about 1582 or a bit earlier. No birth or baptism suitable for him has been found, but through a succession of other records we have discovered his most likely mother: Elizabeth nee Pepper, originally of Bunny near Nottingham, young widow of her first husband named Starbuck and mother of sons William and Edward Starbuck.
Elizabeth was of Breaston, in Sawley parish when she remarried as a widow Starbuck in 1588 in Bunny St Mary, Notts to Edmund Bludworth of Bingham (and after his death married twice more in Bingham before her own death and burial there in 1611).[16]
Full details of this discovery – and reasons for thinking Elizabeth was the grandmother of migrant Edward – can be found here:
Migrant Edward’s marriage and children
Although we can see that Edward possibly married Mary Kirke in Nottingham in 1625 and potentially fathered a child with Maria Slater at nearly the same time, documents in Dover and Nantucket name his wife in America as Catherine Reynolds. While it’s unknown whether Edward married Catherine after migration, there is a possible candidate back home in Starbucky Territory at the right time:
Catherine Reynolds, baptised 16 February 1606/7 at Southwell Minster, Nottinghamshire, daughter of Rev Humphrey Reynolds, puritan-leaning minister there and later at Cropwell Bishop in Nottinghamshire (9 miles east of Nottingham).[17]
As shown by Keri-Lynn’s posts to this blog about each of Edward’s children, calculations of their likely birth dates from American records suggest that he did marry and have his first three children (Sarah, Nathaniel and Abigail) in England before migration.
The probable baptism for eldest child, Sarah, is 21 March 1630/31 at Derby St Peter, daughter of Edward Starbuck.[18]
No births or baptisms have been found for Nathaniel and Abigail but those biblical names in the 1630s are strong indicators of puritan-leanings or dissent. If it is the case that Edward favoured ‘anabaptism’ even before migration, then these two children may not have been baptised as infants.
Our deduced family tree
From the evidence shown here, we can offer a probable family tree for Edward’s English roots:
Summary
Our researches indicate, with a reasonably high level of confidence, that:
- Edward of Dover and Nantucket was baptised at Derby All Saints in 1603/4 but was potentially born elsewhere.
- Edward’s parents were Edward Sr. and Ann Barnes who married in Nottingham St Nicholas in 1603.
- Edward Jr. had a number of siblings known from baptisms and burials in Derby All Saints, Nottingham Town and Bingham, Notts.
- Edward’s mother Ann died in 1620 and his father Edward Sr. probably remarried at least once, to Susannah Hardwick in 1621, and possibly again to Mary Kirk in 1625, these burials and marriages all recorded at Nottingham St Mary. No burial has been found for Edward Sr.
- Edward Sr. or his son Edward was probably the one, roper by occupation, who had a liaison with Maria Slater in Nottingham, who was ‘great with child’ in 1626.
- Edward Jr. could have married Catharine Reynolds, daughter of Rev. Humphrey Reynolds, minister at Southwell and Cropwell Bishop (both in Nottinghamshire) before migration.
- Whether with Catharine or another wife, Edward Jr. must have had three children before arrival in Dover: Sarah (c1630/1), Nathaniel (c1634) and Abigail (c1636). The given names strongly indicate dissenter leanings.
- It appears very likely that Edward Sr. (with a brother William) was born in Sawley parish, perhaps in Breaston hamlet, to a mother Elizabeth (nee Pepper of Bunny, Notts) and an unknown Starbuck, her first husband of four.
- The years between baptism in 1603/4 and migration to Dover are ‘silent years’, roughly 35 years with no evidence found yet to tell us about migrant Edward’s life – where he was, what he did and why he left England. However, we can suggest possibilities – see Edward Starbuck’s life before migration.
The note of caution
We know from all the sources explored that Edward was an established given name among Starbucks from early dates. We know that Starbucks lived in the Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire/Leicestershire area for centuries before migrant Edward’s time, potentially since the Vikings under the Danelaw (865-954). These facts together mean there could have been a number of other Edward Starbucks in different families around the same area at the same time as migrant Edward.
We also know that Starbuck families for generations were mainly centred in Long Eaton in Sawley parish, Derbyshire and in its close neighbour Toton across the narrow river Erewash in Attenborough parish, Nottinghamshire. The biggest problem for this research was always the non-survival of parish and probate records for Sawley and Long Eaton before 1654. It is therefore entirely possible that, invisibly to researchers now, migrant Edward was born in Long Eaton and baptised at Sawley All Saints church to unknown parents in a long, undocumented ancestral line of farmers and watermen in Long Eaton, or elsewhere in Sawley parish and manor.
However, having accommodated that possibility, after our ‘reasonably exhaustive research’ we are quietly confident the family line presented here is the most likely one to be true for Edward Starbuck born c1603 who migrated to Dover and then Nantucket.
Author: Celia Renshaw
Morganhold blog: www.morgansite.wordpress.com
© April 2023
[1] Derbyshire Record Office ref. D3372/1/1 Derby All Saints Register of baptisms, marriages & burials, Sep 1558-Mar 1712, viewed on-site 24 Apr 2016; image available at Ancestry websites.
[2] Ditto.
[3] Nottingham St Nicholas Parish Registers Vol 1 (1562-1645) held at Nottinghamshire Archives. Image available at Ancestry: Nottinghamshire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages & Burials 1538-1812-parish ‘Nottingham’, image no.43, viewed 19 Jan 2024.
[4] Nottingham St Nicholas Parish Registers Vol 1 (1562-1645) held at Nottinghamshire Archives. Image available at Ancestry: Nottinghamshire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages & Burials 1538-1812-parish ‘Nottingham’, image no.45, viewed 19 Jan 2024.
[5] Bingham St Mary Parish Register held at Nottinghamshire Archives ref PR7098. Image available at Ancestry: Nottinghamshire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages & Burials 1583-1812-parish Bingham St Mary & All Saints (1598-1688), image no.59, viewed 19 Jan 2024
[6] Nottingham St Nicholas Parish Registers Vol 1 (1562-1645) held at Nottinghamshire Archives. Image available at Ancestry: Nottinghamshire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages & Burials 1538-1812-parish ‘Nottingham’, image no.55, viewed 19 Jan 2024.
[7] Nottingham St Mary Parish Register 2 (1600-1636) held at Nottinghamshire Archives. Image available at Ancestry: Nottinghamshire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages & Burials 1538-1812-parish Nottingham St Mary, image no.165, viewed 19 Jan 2024
[8] Nottingham St Mary Parish Register 2 (1600-1636) held at Nottinghamshire Archives. Image available at Ancestry: Nottinghamshire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages & Burials 1538-1812-parish Nottingham St Mary, image nos.165-166, viewed 19 Jan 2024
[9] Nottingham St Mary Parish Register 2 (1600-1636) held at Nottinghamshire Archives. Image available at Ancestry: Nottinghamshire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages & Burials 1538-1812-parish Nottingham St Mary, image nos.167, viewed 19 Jan 2024
[10] Nottingham St Nicholas Parish Registers Vol 1 (1562-1645) held at Nottinghamshire Archives. Image available at Ancestry: Nottinghamshire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages & Burials 1538-1812-parish ‘Nottingham’, image no.97, viewed 19 Jan 2024.
[11] Nottingham St Mary Parish Register no.1 (1566-1624) held at Nottinghamshire Archives. Image available at Ancestry: Nottinghamshire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages & Burials 1538-1812-parish Nottingham St Mary, image no.89, viewed 19 Jan 2024.
[12] Nottingham St Mary Parish Register 2 (1600-1636) held at Nottinghamshire Archives. Image available at Ancestry: Nottinghamshire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages & Burials 1538-1812-parish Nottingham St Mary, image no.169, viewed 19 Jan 2024
[13] Nottingham St Mary Parish Register 2 (1600-1636) held at Nottinghamshire Archives. Image available at Ancestry: Nottinghamshire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages & Burials 1538-1812-parish Nottingham St Mary, image no.35, viewed 19 Jan 2024
[14] Ref AN/PB 302/307 Nottingham University Library Manuscripts & Special Collections – Nottingham Archdeaconry Collection – Presentment Bills 1620-43, Nottingham Deanery 1620-29, Easter 1626.
[15] A baptism at Wilne St Chad (in Sawley parish) on 9 August 1577 of Ann the daughter of William Barnes once seemed suitable for marriage to Edward Starbuck snr in 1603, but an Ann Barnes married Charles Tweles on 27 Nov 1598 at Wilne St Chad, and logically she was the 1577 Ann.
[16] Bunny St Mary Parish Register held at Nottinghamshire Archives. Image available at Ancestry: Nottinghamshire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages & Burials 1538-1812-parish Bunny St Mary the Virgin (1556-1723), image no.89, viewed 19 Jan 2024.
[17] Southwell Minster, Parish Register held at Nottinghamshire Archives. Image available at Ancestry: Nottinghamshire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages & Burials 1538-1812-parish Southwell St Mary (Minster) (1559-1682), image no.104.
[18] Derby St Peter Parish Register held at Derbyshire Record Office ref D1792/A/PI/1/1 (1558-1692). Image available at Ancestry: Derbyshire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages & Burials 1538-1812-parish Derby St Peter, image no.42.
