Long Eaton, in the south-east corner of Derbyshire, and its neighbour Toton in south-west Nottinghamshire, separated only by the narrow river Erewash, were together the heart of Starbucky Territory in England.
Both were small rural settlements in Edward Starbuck’s day, which grew and industrialised significantly in the 18th and 19th centuries and today are mostly residential suburbs to the major city of Nottingham.
Most of the English Starbucks we have learned about in the 1550-1640 period were located in Long Eaton or Toton or appear to have moved from there. So these locations are vital to the quest for Edward’s roots.
Long Eaton is very watery.
The settlement began as Eaton (Aitune in the 1086 Domesday Book), a name that means ‘farm in marshy ground between streams’, an accurate description.[1] It was bounded by the rivers Trent and Erewash on two sides, with several streams running west to east, the main one being the Golden Brook with a small tributary on which Eaton was founded. It became ‘Long’ by the 13th century after the village had extended along that water course.[2]
This ties closely to Edward Starbuck’s watery skills exhibited in Dover’s early years, especially fishing and watermill building and operation.
It lay within the parish, peculiar and manor of Sawley.
Although technically a manor in its own right, Long Eaton was always a part of Sawley so all the complexities of Sawley’s jurisdictions (manor, parish, peculiar, prebend, soke) applied to Long Eaton as well.
Most of the Soke lands of Sawley lay in Long Eaton.
The Domesday Book of 1086 notes that 22 ‘sokemen’ lived in Long Eaton, most likely descendants and successors of Norse (Viking) settlers under the Danelaw.[3] For the time, that was a lot of families and a large area of ‘sokeland’. These families held their land freely and could sell and go elsewhere if they wished, without a lord’s permission. So, while in practice overseen by the Bishops and gentry, paying them an oath of loyalty and a tiny rent, they were otherwise free of the manor court. Hence: barely any appearances of Starbucks in the few surviving manor records or early property deeds for Long Eaton.
Starbuck is most likely a Norse surname and Edward was described in Dover as tall, well-built and strong (like a stereotype Viking), having probably grown up as part of a free-spirited, independent family and community: perfect for frontier life.
Church and chapel
Long Eaton had its own chapel, dedicated to St Lawrence, which was a chapel-of-ease to the parish church of Sawley All Saints, sharing a Curate to conduct services. If Edward himself or any of his direct forebears did live in Long Eaton, as we theorise, its likely they attended St Lawrence’s chapel for worship, though the building they would have known is long gone.
However, the chapel was not licensed to carry out baptisms, marriages or burials, so family records for Long Eaton residents would have been entered in Sawley All Saint’s registers, and none of those have survived before the 1650s (BTs only from 1672).
In 1654-1655, we see the last Starbucks in Sawley’s PRs, all residents of Long Eaton: a handful of burials and one baptism in 1655.[4] That baptism was the last known Starbuck of Long Eaton and Sawley: Thomas, son of Thomas and Elizabeth, who moved away from Sawley to marry, live and die in Nottingham.
Long Eaton Starbucks we know about
Long Eaton was a remarkably independent place, free of much of the usual bureaucracy and close governance that applied to most parishes and manors at the time. On the downside for us, it means we have few parish, manor and property records available to search for Starbucks in Long Eaton before Edward’s departure. However, these are Starbuck events we do know about:
| 1561, 12 Oct | Attenborough St Mary, Notts: Wiliam Starbuck of Long Eaton married widow Agnes Bradshawe.[5] It is likely they lived in next-door Toton, in Attenborough parish. |
| 1566 | Sawley manor rental: in Long Eaton, William Starbucke paid 4s 6d half-year rent for a messuage & land[6] |
| 1582/3 | Sawley manor rental: in Long Eaton, William Starbucke paid 4s 6d half-year rent for a messuage & land in his own occupation[7] |
| 1600/1, 27 Jan | Attenborough St Mary, Notts: John PIMM of Long Eaton married Alice Starbucke of Toton[8] |
| 1619, 24 Jun | London Apprenticeship: Edward Starbucke son of Thomas Starbucke yeoman of Long Eaton, Derbys apprenticed to Master Anthony Bristowe, Tylers & Bricklayers Company, London[9] |
| 1621, 27 Apr | London Apprenticeship: George Starbuck son of Thomas Starbuck farmer of Long Eaton, Derbys apprenticed to Master Rolando Trulove, Clothworkers Company of London[10] |
| 1623, 1 May | London Apprenticeship: George Tarbock [Starbuck] son of Thomas, husbandman of Long Eaton, apprenticed to Master Thomas Greene, Tylers & Bricklayers Company of London[11] |
| 1638 | Derbyshire Musters: Thomas Starbuck and William Starbuck listed in Long Eaton[12] |
| 1638, 12 Apr | PCC Will of Edward Burton of Long Eaton, witnessed by Robert X Starbuck[13] |
| 1638/9 | Sawley manor rental: in Long Eaton, William Starbucke paid 1d half-year rent for his copyhold [14] |
| 1651/2, 20 Feb | PCC Administration: Thomas Starbuck widower of Long Eaton died intestate, probate granted at the PCC in London to his son Thomas Starbuck Jr[15] |
| 1652, 16 Jun | Feoffment: Long Eaton manor, with tenants named, including Thomas Starbucker paying one peppercorn in rent[16] |
| 1655, 20 Jul | Sawley All Saints: Thomas Starbucke baptised, son of Thomas and Elizabeth of Long Eaton[17] |
| 1655/6, 23 Feb | Sawley All Saints: James Starbucke of Long Eaton buried[18] |
| 1657, Michaelmas | Sawley manor & soke rental: in Long Eaton, William Starbuck is listed[19] |
| 1657/8, 3 Jan | Sawley All Saints: William Starbucke of Eaton buried[20] |
| 1660, 5 Dec | Prebend of Sawley Peculiar: Administration of Thomas Starbucke of Long Eaton granted to his widow Elizabeth now married to Thomas Williams (or Williamson). The record names her minor children Thomas & Jane Starbuck as well as daughters named Williams[21] |
| 1670 | Hearth Tax for Long Eaton includes: Widow Williams (previously Starbuck)[22] |
| 1678, 17 Jun | PCC Will of Isabel Cooke widow of Long Eaton – Elizabeth (previously Starbuck) Williams was a witness[23] |
| 1680, 10 Aug | Elizabeth Williams (previously Starbuck), widow of Long Eaton, wrote her Will naming son Thomas Starbuck & daughter Jane (Starbuck) Williamat of Nottingham. Will proved at Sawley five years later, 2 Dec 1685[24] |
| 1681/2, 12 Feb | Richard Goldin of Long Eaton wrote his Will naming Elizabeth Williams (previously Starbuck), her dau Jane (Starbuck) Williamat and her son Thomas Starbuck (bequeathing him his father’s ‘great bible’.) Proved at Sawley 24 May 1682.[25] |
| 1686/7, 30 Jan | Nottingham St Mary: Thomas Stare Buck [previously of Long Eaton] married Mary Sleight of Nottingham. Thomas was noted in other records as a gardener.[26] |
Note that the copyholds of William Starbucks listed above were almost certainly held alongside more considerable sokeland ‘freeholdings’ which did not appear in these rentals.[27]
Conclusion
Considering the small number of extant records for Long Eaton (and Sawley), we know quite a lot about the Starbucks there. A comparison with Toton in Attenborough for which PRs exist from 1559 suggest that if we had PRs for Sawley up to 1654, we would be bound see comparable numbers of Starbucks there; probably two families over several generations, with ancestry stretching back centuries beforehand. Those families may well have included migrant Edward himself before migration, his parents and/or grandparents.
Author: Celia Renshaw
Morganhold blog: www.morgansite.wordpress.com
© 2023
[1] Domesday Book : A Complete Translation, Alecto Historical Editions. Eds: Dr Alan Williams & Professor G H Martin (Penguin, 1992; in hardback 2003), p743.
[2] Book of Long Eaton, by Keith A Reedman (Barracuda Books, 1979), p13
[3] Domesday Book : A Complete Translation, Alecto Historical Editions. Eds: Dr Alan Williams & Professor G H Martin (Penguin, 1992; in hardback 2003), p743.
[4] Derbyshire Record Office D2110/A/PI/1/1 Sawley All Saints parish register (1654-1812) viewed onsite and at Ancestry.co.uk: Derbyshire England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages & Burials, 1538-1812.
[5] Nottinghamshire Record Office – Attenborough St Mary parish register (1559-1643) viewed & photod onsite and at Ancestry.co.uk: Nottinghamshire England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages & Burials, 1538-1812.
[6] Derbyshire Record Office ref. D158/ME/143 (1566) Stanhope Family Collection – Sawley Rental
[7] Derbyshire Record Office ref. D518/MM/2 (c1582-3) Stanhope Family Collection – Sawley Manor Rental
[8] Nottinghamshire Record Office – Attenborough St Mary parish register (1559-1643) viewed & photod onsite and viewed at Ancestry.co.uk: Nottinghamshire England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages & Burials, 1538-1812.
[9] Findmypast.co.uk – London Apprenticeship Abstracts 1442-1850; originals held at Guildhall Library, London [Later records of this Edward Starbuck prove he was not the one who migrated to Dover and Nantucket]
[10] Findmypast.co.uk – London Apprenticeship Abstracts 1442-1850; originals held at Guildhall Library, London
[11]Findmypast.co.uk – London Apprenticeship Abstracts 1442-1850; originals held at Guildhall Library, London [This was probably a transfer of the apprentice from Trulove to Greene.]
[12] The Derbyshire Musters of 1638-9, parts 1 & 2, vols 46-47, both ed. Victor Rosewarne (Derbyshire Record Society, 2021)
[13] Prerogative Court of Canterbury – Will of Edward Burton yeoman of Long Eaton proved at London 20 Nov 1638. Held at the National Archives ref. PROB 11/178/470
[14] Derbyshire Record Office ref D518/MM/6 (Michaelmas 1638-9) Stanhope Family Collection – Sawley Manor Rental, viewed & photod 4 May 2016. It’s likely his main property was freehold in the Soke, in Long Eaton
[15] Prerogrative Court of Canterbury Administration indexed in PCC Administrations Vol 1, 1649-1654 (British Record Society vol 68, 1944), book viewed onsite by the author at the Borthwick Institute at York; also available at Findmypast.co.uk. Pdf copy of the original obtained by Keri-Lynn Kendall from the National Archives in 2022.
[16] Leicestershire Record Office ref. DE99/61 (16 Jun 1652) Buckley & Gresley Collection – Other Title Deeds & Associated Papers – Derbyshire – Long Eaton: Feoffment.
[17] Derbyshire Record Office ref. D2110/A/PI/1/1 – Sawley All Saints parish register (1654-1691) viewed onsite and at Ancestry.co.uk: Derbyshire England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages & Burials, 1538-1812.
[18] Derbyshire Record Office D2110/A/PI/1/1 Sawley All Saints parish register (1654-1691) viewed onsite and at Ancestry.co.uk: Derbyshire England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages & Burials, 1538-1812.
[19] Derbyshire Record Office ref. D518/MM/15 (1656/7) Stanhope Family Collection – Sawley Rentals
[20] Derbyshire Record Office D2110/A/PI/1/1 Sawley All Saints parish register (1654-1812) viewed onsite and at Ancestry.co.uk: Derbyshire England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages & Burials, 1538-1812.
[21] Staffordshire Record Office ref. P/C/11 Prebend of Sawley Administration & Inventory (5 Dec 1660) – Thomas Starbuck of Long Eaton. Images available at Findmypast.co.uk – Staffordshire Diocese of Lichfield & Coventry Wills & Probate 1521-1860
[22] Derbyshire Hearth Tax Assessments 1662-1670, vol 7, ed. David G Edwards with additional material by C A F Meakings, Derbyshire Record Society, 1982)
[23] National Archives – Records of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury – Wills & Letters of Administration – Will of Isabel Cooke widow of Long Eaton, Derbyshire, proved 17 Jun 1678, ref. PROB 11/357/99
[24] Staffordshire Record Office ref. P/C/11 Prebend of Sawley Will (2 Dec 1685) – Elizabeth Williams widow of Long Eaton, in the parish of Sawley, Derbys. Images available at Findmypast.co.uk – Staffordshire Diocese of Lichfield & Coventry Wills & Probate 1521-1860
[25] Staffordshire Record Office ref. P/C/11 Prebend of Sawley Will (24 May 1682) – Richard Goldin of Long Eaton, Derbys. Images available at Findmypast.co.uk – Staffordshire Diocese of Lichfield & Coventry Wills & Probate 1521-1860
[26] Nottinghamshire Record Office – Nottingham St Mary parish register (1559-1643) viewed & downloaded from Ancestry.co.uk: Nottinghamshire England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages & Burials, 1538-1812.
[27] Book of Long Eaton, by Keith A Reedman (Barracuda Books, 1979), p16: “The only land in Long Eaton owned by the manor was Davies Close (location unknown) and Mill Meadow, the mill by then having gone.” In other words, all the other Long Eaton (soke) land was held by freeholders.
