Breaston in south-eastern Derbyshire lies within the parish of Sawley, with Long Eaton one mile to the east, and Draycott close by on the west. It was a small but quite prosperous village in Edward Starbuck’s time, farmed on the medieval Open Fields system, along with a few enclosures. It had its own ancient chapel-of-ease dedicated to St Michael, built in the 13th century. Breaston was on the Golden Brook stream that ran through westwards from Long Eaton to Draycott.
Breaston has no great claim to fame but it is important to the Starbuck story, for two reasons: Elizabeth, the probable grandmother of migrant Edward Starbuck, was living there in 1588; and Leofnoth Sterre, a pre-Conquest manorial lord in Breaston is the potential source of the Starbuck surname.
Granny Elizabeth’s 2nd marriage
Bunny St Mary the Virgin, Notts: 21 Oct 1588 – Edmund Blodworth of Bingham & Elizabeth Starbucke “of Breeson within the sucken [soke?] of Sawley, married by lic. from thence”.[1]
In other words, in October 1588, Elizabeth was a widow named Starbuck, resident in Breaston in the soke of Sawley, marrying Edmund Blodworth of Bingham at Bunny by a licence from the Peculiar Court of Sawley (which had authority to issue marriage licences and bonds).
As shown in the Edward Starbuck in England post, we have good reason to believe that this Elizabeth was his grandmother, born Elizabeth Pepper in Bunny c1560, who married an unknown Starbuck and had two children with him (Edward senior and brother William). Elizabeth was widowed twice more, by the deaths of Edmund Blodworth and 3rd husband John Worthington, and married a 4th time to Clement Clifford of Bingham, Notts, dying there in 1611.[2]
The nature of Breaston
We can perhaps deduce from the wording of the marriage entry for Elizabeth and Edmund that her abode was within the part of Sawley Soke that stretched a little beyond its main area of Long Eaton into Breaston and this perhaps was the free or “soke-holding” of her late Starbuck husband. It opens a window into the fluid nature of Breaston’s status and boundaries – in these early centuries, it seems never to have been sure of itself.
Centrally placed in the southern half of Sawley parish, it nevertheless had manorial status separate from the Episcopal and Prebendal manors of Sawley. In the 1086 Domesday book, Breaston was said to have three manors, one of them held before the Conquest by Leofnoth Sterre, a probable Saxon/Viking lord and potential source of the Starbuck surname.[3] By Elizabeth I’s time, however, there was just one Breaston manor, held by Babingtons, then Willoughbys (tied in with their manor of Risley), and passed on to Astons about 1649. Sadly, no manor records for Breaston are extant for the period 1550-1640.
From other Sawley area records checked, it’s apparent that the boundaries between Breaston and its neighbouring settlements of Long Eaton on the east and Draycott on the west were not crystal clear.
Breaston’s chapel of St Michael, is described in some histories as a chapel-of-ease for its ‘mother church’ of Wilne St Chad but in others as serving the Sawley “mother church” of All Saints. About equidistant from both, St Michael’s chapel probably served both flocks.
Parish records
Some of the Starbucks noted in St Chad’s register between 1540 and 1622 are described as “of Breaston” (and more of them probably lived there too), but if Sawley All Saints was also attended by Breaston folk, events for them no doubt were recorded in those registers too, and lost to us before the 1650s.
By Edward Starbuck’s day, St Michael’s chapel was licensed to perform baptisms and marriages, which were recorded in St Chad’s registers. However, its churchyard was not consecrated for burials so these all happened at Wilne St Chad. There was for centuries a mile-and-a-half long pathway across fields between Breaston and Wilne called the Corpse Way and it had ‘coffin-stones’ lining the route for bearers to rest themselves and their loads.[4]
The burial of a William Starbuck of Breaston was noted in Wilne St Chad’s register on 9 July 1588, the possible late husband of widow Elizabeth – but this was only three months before she married Edmund Blodworth on 21 Oct 1588. Certainly possible, especially if she had very young children to worry about, but it’s equally possible her Starbuck husband’s burial was at Sawley All Saints in the lost registers.
Breaston Starbuck references[5]
| 1583/4, 11 Feb Wilne St Chad | John Starbuck sonne of Wm Starbuck of Breston baptised |
| 1588/9, 9 Jul Wilne St Chad | Wm Starbuck of Breston buried |
| 1588, 21 Oct Bunny St Mary[6] | Edmund Blodworth & Elizabeth Starbucke of Breeson within the sucken of Sawley married by lic from thence |
| 1621, 3 Nov Wilne St Chad | John AVERY of Breaston & Ales Starbuck married |
| 1622/3, 26 Mar Wilne St Chad | William Starbucke of Breason buried |
| 1623/4, 6 Feb Wilne St Chad | Robert Starbucke of Breason buried |
| 1638, 12 Apr Long Eaton[7] | The Will of yeoman Edward Burton of Long Eaton was witnessed by Robert Starbuck, signed with his mark |
More records of Starbucks in Breaston may yet be discovered but it certainly appears that before Edward’s arrival in Dover (New Hampshire) c1640, few Starbuck families were resident here, and seemingly none afterwards. However, Breaston remains important to history as the likely location of Edward’s grandparents, the late Starbuck first husband of multi-married Elizabeth Pepper – and even possibly the origin of the Starbuck surname.
Author: Celia Renshaw
Morganhold blog: www.morgansite.wordpress.com
© March 2024
[1] 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.
[2] 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), viewed 19 Jan 2024
[3] Domesday Book : A Complete Translation, Alecto Historical Editions. Eds: Dr Alan Williams & Professor G H Martin (Penguin, 1992; in hardback 2003), p748
[4] Breaston – in old picture postcards, by Jean Crisp (European Library – Zaltbommel/Netherlands, 1983), p1 Introduction
[5] All Wilne St Chad events are from: Wilne St Chad register of baptisms, marriages & burials 1540-1624, ref. D2512/A/PI/1 held at Derbyshire Record Office. Also available at Ancestry: Derbyshire Church of England Baptisms, Marriages & Burials 1538-1812.
[6] 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.
[7] Staffordshire Record Office ref: P/C/11; online at Findmypast: Staffordshire Dioceses of Lichfield and Coventry Wills and Probate 1521-1860
