Toton and Attenborough, in the south-west corner of Nottinghamshire, are today pleasant residential suburbs of the City of Nottingham, spread alongside the extensive and watery Nature Reserve and Natural Park on the River Trent.
From the first written records, however, Toton (pronounced today as Toe-t’n) and Long Eaton together were the heart of Starbucky Territory in England – less than a mile apart, joined by footbridges and fords across the river Erewash. Here was where most Starbucks lived during migrant Edward’s time. Our sister-article about Long Eaton should be read alongside this one, to appreciate the joint importance of these two small places to the Starbuck story.
Toton was a Manor (including the settlement of Attenborough) and at the same time it was a township within the parish of Attenborough St Mary. Therefore, we have two primary sets of records to tell us about Starbucks in the 1550-1640 period. One is the Manor of Toton Court Books kept by the Stanhope family’s Stewards from the 1580s.[1] The other is Attenborough St Mary’s parish registers which begin in 1560[2]. In comparison to the virtual absence of data for Sawley and Long Eaton in this time period, Toton and Attenborough yield an embarrasment of riches – and show us the extent and nature of what we must be missing for Starbucks in Sawley and Long Eaton.
Manor of Toton (aka Tawton, Towton)
Toton appears in the 1086 Domesday Book, including a settlement called Aldene (Attenborough). It covered a total of 360 acres of land that included 100 acres of meadow, a plantation of willows and two water mills. The population of 24 households was made up by 1 chief tenant, 4 sokemen (freeholders), 16 villeins (agricultural workers holding strips of land in open fields) and 3 bordars (cottage dwellers, labourers).
The 4 sokemen, like the 22 in Long Eaton, were freeholders of soke-land, paying a small rent to the Manor Lord but otherwise free to sell, buy and move around without the Lord’s permission.[3] We don’t know exactly where the sokeland lay in Toton – though the Domesday entries say it was in Chilwell, while “belonging to Toton.”[4] It’s possible the area was once held by Scandinavians (Vikings) under the Danelaw before the 1066 Norman Conquest, and Starbucks in Toton could have descended from those Danes.
After the Conquest, Toton was held under an over-arching manorial aristocrat, the Lord of the enormous Peverel Honour. From the 13th to early 15th century, the family of Willoughby held the Honour. Nottingham University Library Manuscripts & Special Collections (NULMSC) now hold the Willoughby’s Peverel records within its Middleton collections, including Toton manor documents to 1424.[5]
The noble de Gray family held Toton (under the Peverel Honour) from 1208 to 1561 and were seated locally at Codnor Castle in Heanor parish (where Starbucks lived). Their long-standing legal agents and trustees (1480s to about 1501) were Thomas Leake (whose mother was a de Gray) and Roger Johnson – a man of possible importance to the Toton Starbuck alias Johnson story below.
Elizabeth I then granted the Manor to Richard Whalley of nearby Screveton, Nottinghamshire, who was permanently struggling with debt, most of it owed to the land-grabbing Stanhopes.[6] Around 1570-80, Whalley defaulted on the debt and Stanhopes acquired Toton Manor, adding Codnor Castle later as well.[7] As ever, they were poor record-keepers and surviving manor court records are scant. Fortunately, however, those we do have for Toton (held at Nottinghamshire Archives in Nottingham) cover much of our 1550-1640 period and tell us quite a lot about Starbucks.[8]
An interesting side note: the Peverel Honour court rolls for Toton in 1295 name a Peter Stare, who was fined 3d for having chickens in the Lord’s cornfields.[9] As our article about Starbuck etymology demonstrates, the surname was sometimes split into two, recorded as Stare Buck (and Starre Bucke), as well as evolving into (or simply continuing as) just Bucke or Starre. So that 1295 note might be our earliest sighting yet of a Starbuck ancestor, at a date when heritable surnames for non-nobility were only beginning to form.
Attenborough reputedly had a chapel on the banks of the Trent as early as 964 before the Norman conquest, and described in the 1086 Survey as half a church and priest – because it served the townships of Toton and Chilwell too (the other half), plus a part of Bramcote.[10] That early chapel was later overbuilt by the church of St Mary, still standing but with many additions and changes. Starbucks from all parts of the parish appear in the registers from 1560 to 1713 – except Chilwell where there were Bucks instead (so possibly related).[11]
Presentments in the records of the Archdeaconry of Nottingham (under the Diocese of York) exhibit considerable puritan dissent amongst Attenborough’s parishioners from 1609 until the Restoration in 1660.[12] Most notable were members of the Ireton family who occupied Ireton Hall, the former rectory next door to St Mary’s church. Famously, the Parliamentary General and regicide Henry Ireton (son-in-law of Oliver Cromwell) was born to parents German and Jane Ireton here in Attenborough, and the family earlier were sponsors of dissenting divine Arthur Hildersham at Ashby-de-la-Zouche, about 15 miles south-west of Toton in Leicestershire.
A Churchwarden Presentment of 1616/17 lists many parishioners for breaches of ecclesiastical regulations, including the Iretons:
Mr Henry PIM, Mrs Jane PIMM (words missing through damage), Robert DARKNOLL, Mr Benjamyn SMYTH, Mrs Mary SMYTH, Gabriell ELSTON and John GARTON do not usually resort to our church; George COMYN does not so decently & reverently behave himself in the church in time of divine service as he ought to do; Mr Germ[an] IRETON keeps his hat on his head in the most part of divine service contrary to the 17th article… there is a common fame that Mr IRETON, Thomas KEYWOOD and Ellen his wife, Thomas SHAWE and George [surname obscured by damage], in the absence of our vicar, received the holy communion last Easter at [the home of?] Mr ORME, vicar of Lockington, but not kneeling according to the [canon]; Mr IRETON’s child was baptised by the preacher of [words missing] without the sign of the cross; there is a common fame that Mrs IR[ETON] was not churched as it is prescribed in the book of common prayer.[13]
All of these behaviours are typically those of puritans at odds with the prevailing doctrines and rituals of the established Church of England. A particularly hard time was given to minister Gervase Dodson from his arrival in 1625.[14] In 1631 he was, with others indicted for ‘riotous affray’ and this was part of his own, exceedingly long and detailed, presentment to the Archdeaconry Court the same year:
“(I present) the said churchwardens, because they suffer the people, in contempt of my admonitions, to carry themselves irreverently in the church, some sleeping continually, others reading privately to themselves in time of prayer and sermon, others neither kneeling at confession nor standing up at the Creed, nor at any time once opening their mouths either to praise God or say Amen, nor to join in with the minister in the saying of the Lord’s prayer, the Creed, nor in [any part of] God’s service.”[15]
Starbucks of Toton and Attenborough – and Starbuck alias Johnsons
Starbucks appear in Attenborough St Mary’s register from 1561, one year after they begin. In these PRs and other records, we can see one main family in Toton for three generations until 1658, another in Attenborough village and one in Bramcote, plus a few stray individuals. There was a break in records during the civil wars (1642-1652) and Commonwealth (1652-1660) and poor record-keeping after 1660 until the 1670s. Therefore, we can’t be fully sure that Starbucks in the parish from the 1660s to 1713 are descendants of the pre-civil war ones, but it does look that way. And the line may have continued beyond 1713, but if it did, it was under a different name: Johnson.
In January 1588/9, this entry appeared in the parish register:
Hellena Starbuck daughter of William Starbuck alias Johnson of Toton baptised.
That is the first-seen record of an alias surname which appeared on and off in Toton until 1713, interchangeably written just as Johnson. The alias only happened in two places: in Toton and nearby Lockington, Leicestershire, where a Francis Starbuck alias Johnson from Toton had settled by 1614 – nowhere else.
Prior to 1588/9, all the Starbuck entries in the register were just that – Starbuck. So there had to be a good reason why an alias was added by 1588/9.[16] At these dates, it was rarely associated with deceit or criminality, especially when proudly retained over generations. At this time period, an alias usually occurred for one of two reasons (sometimes both combined):
- There was an out-of-wedlock event where the reputed father’s surname was added to the mother’s – particularly perhaps when the father was higher status and had acknowledged the child as his
- It related to inheritance, ensuring that family claims to land or property from all sides of a relationship were known and respected. For example, a widow might have been granted land or property by her late husband so when she remarried that part of her new family’s inheritance needed to be fully recognised.
We don’t know how the Starbucks of Toton became alias Johnsons and it may date back to before parish registers began.[17] But we know from modern Y-DNA testing that the present-day descendants of this alias family do not match the descendants of migrant Edward Starbuck. It is therefore probable they were by blood Johnsons rather than Starbucks and that this was known to be the case at the time by their neighbours and record-keepers. Certainly by the 1650s the family members were known only as Johnsons, apart from a last gasp alias entry in 1713, and from then on the probable descendants in the parish were all Johnsons.
Should we rule out this family from the Starbuck story?
The importance of Toton lies in its place side-by-side with Long Eaton in Sawley, divided only by the narrow stream of Erewash – there were way-crossings between the two. Essentially they were one place, together the location of origin of English Starbucks (or perhaps Stare Bucks). Most of their story is actually hidden from view in the long period between Viking settlement and the English Reformation. That is approximately five hundred years, and the Starbucks we know about in Sawley and Attenborough parishes for another two hundred years, up to the early 18th century, were the last ones to live there. The name has been sustained and expanded in England to the present day, still most numerously in the East Midlands, by descendants of those who moved away from the Toton-Long Eaton area.
Even though the final family in Toton/Attenborough were Johnsons, they are still testimony to the fact that this location, with Long Eaton, was the springboard for Edward Starbuck’s leap to the new world.
The families of Attenborough parish[18]
We begin with William Starbuck, who was of Long Eaton when he married widow Agnes Bradshaw at Attenborough on 30 June 1561. It is likely her late husband was Thomas Bradshaw of Toton who was buried on 29 September 1560, but their marriage and any children would have happened before Attenborough’s registers began.
William Starbuck = Agnes (Bradshaw)
Their children, born in Toton:
Twins Elizabeth & John both bap and buried in 1562
Son Roger bap 1564
Agnes appears to have died between 1564 and 1567
William Starbuck[19] then (apparently) married Ellen Alcocke in 1567
Their children, all born in Toton and as Starbucks – except youngest Hellena :
- Elizabeth born & buried in 1570
- Elizabeth bap 1573 [married Roger Boote of Alfreton, Derbyshire in 1597 & settled there]
- Jane bap 1576 [married Thomas Cooke in 1596]
- Alice [known from father’s Will] bn c1578 [married John Pim of Long Eaton in 1600/1]
- William [known from father’s Will] bn c1580 [married Dorothy Boswell in 1621/2 and continued as the last Starbucks (and Johnsons) in Toton]
- Francis [known from father’s Will] bn c1584 [married Elizabeth Rozzell from Draycot in 1612 – they settled and had 8 children in nearby Lockington, Leicestershire, first as Starbuck alias Johnsons, then Starbucks & finally just Johnsons]
- Hellena bap 1588/9 [as Starbuck alias Johnson, married Richard James of Ockbrook in 1615]
- Father William Starbuck alias Johnson died in 1602/3, leaving a Will that confirms the details of his children and their marriages up to that date.[20]
- Mother Ellen, known as Widow Johnson after William’s death, was buried in 1623/4 as Ellen Starbucke alias Johnson.
We have a rather amusing record of church-avoiding members of this family: there was an anonymous presentment to the Archdeaconry court in 1612 of: “Richard Boote Churchwarden of Attenborough for not presenting Francis Johnson of Toton and William Johnson of the same, who spent the time dancing when they should have been at divine service on Sunday 27 Sep, and also Robert Storbucke for the like.”[21]
Francis and William were Starbuck alias Johnsons. Unfortunately, we do not know who that Robert Storbucke was but perhaps a cousin from over the river in Long Eaton, joining in the fun. Toton historian Gill Morral theorises that this was Morris dancing![22]
Dancers or not, all the children appear to have settled away from Toton except William bn c1580 who inherited the Toton farmstead from his father and raised a family:
William Starbuck alias Johnson married Dorothy Boswell in 1621/2
William was recorded in manor and archdeaconry records mostly as Johnson, but occasionally as Starbuck or with the alias.
Their children (all born in Toton):
- George Starbuck alias Johnson bap 1624
- Helena Johnson bap 1630/1
- Anna Johnson bap 1633/4
- Francis Johnson alias Starbuck bap 1637, died apparently unmarried in 1658
William and Dorothy both died in 1658, with son Francis dying in between them. Both left Wills that were proved (as required during the Commonwealth) at the Prerogative Court of Canterbury in London.[23]
We have no burial records for any of them as the registers were barely kept during the civil wars and Commonwealth, and still chaotically up to the 1670s.
Son George Johnson probably married Mary Smalley in 1654 (after a possible previous marriage to a Margaret). His mother Dorothy’s 1658 Will mentions his four children born before that date, whose names are unknown. Other children in the registers from 1660:
- Henry Jonson, born 1661
- Mary Jonson, born 1665 [who had an out-of-wedlock son Joseph born & died in 1690]
- Francis Johnson born 1668
- Thomas Johnson born 1671
- Father George Johnson was buried at Attenborough in 1672.
- Mother Mary appears to have outlived him by many years buried at the age of about 80 in 1713 as Mary Starbuck alias Johnson.
It is possible that some descendants of George, including his un-named four children, continued to live in Toton or Attenborough with the surname Johnson.
Alongside the first William Starbuck of Toton, there was a Thomas Starbuck in Attenborough village, never known with the alias or as Johnson. He is named in manor rentals and parish registers from 1590 to 1619:
Thomas Starbuck and 1st wife Ellen (perhaps Ellen Selby who married Thomas Starbuck at West Bridgford, Notts in 1574.)[24] Their child: Mary Starbuck bap 1586
- An Ellen Starbuck wife of Thomas was buried at Attenborough in 1593/4, but then also was a Hellena Starbuck wife of Thomas in 1617, so perhaps Thomas had a 2nd wife with the same given name.
- Thomas Starbuck was buried in 1619, and it appears that Mary was his only child. Her fate is unknown.
The township of Bramcote was partly in the parish of Attenborough, but had its own church of St Michael where these Starbucks were recorded:[25]
Richard Starbuck (origin unknown) married Bridget HODGKINSON at Bramcote in 1601. Their children, all known as Starbuck:
- Margaret bap 1601
- James bap 1603
- Mary bap 1606 [married Henry GREGG in 1630]
- Thomas bap 1607/8
- William bap and buried 1609/10
- Richard bap 1610/11
- Robert bap 1613/14, buried 1642
- Alice bap 1616
- Bridget bap 1619 [married Robert Chambers in 1642]
- Mother Bridget was buried in 1641
- Father Richard was buried in 1650
After those burials, everyone with the Starbuck surname appears to have left Bramcote or died with burial entries lost in the dreadful PRs of civil war and Commonwealth period – except for one odd note at the bottom of a page of later date:
“In 1676 Richard the son of Joseph Starbook and Ellin his wife was baptised.” [Maybe he was a grandchild of Richard and Bridget.]
For more details…
A lot more can be said and analysed about Toton, Attenborough and these families, as can be seen in a detailed Timeline of events for the Starbucks, Starbuck alias Johnsons, and Johnsons of Toton and Attenborough up to 1700 which will have a future link to the media library. Until then, the author can be contacted with any questions.
Author: Celia Renshaw
Morganhold blog: www.morgansite.wordpress.com
© May 2024
[1] Nottinghamshire Archives collection ref. DD/39 Manor of Toton
[2] Nottinghamshire Archives Parish Register collection; available at Ancestry – Nottinghamshire Church of England Baptisms, Marriages & Burials 1538-1812 – Attenborough St Mary
[3] Its extent was 3 carucates of land – a carucate being approximately 15 acres, so 45 acres in total held by the 4 sokemen.
[4] Domesday Book – A Complete Translation, eds Dr Alan Williams & Prof G H Martin (Penguin, 1992; in hardback 2003) p771 [under XI, the Land of William Peverel]
[5] Nottingham University Library Manuscripts & Special Collections – Middleton (Willoughby Collection ref Mi) – Toton Manor ref Mi M 90-142.
[6] Richard was father of Edward Whalley, who with his son-in-law William Goffe, were among the signatories to the death warrant of Charles I. They managed to escape punishment as regicides after the Restoration of Charles II by hiding in New Haven, Connecticut.
[7] Stanhopes held many of the manors where Starbucks have been found in the 1550-1640 period.
[8] Nottinghamshire Archives ref DD/39/1-6 Manor of Toton 1596-1843.
[9] Cited by Gillian E Worral in Toton Revealed (2012) – Appendix: Court Roll Collection, from Nottingham University Library Manuscripts & Special Collections ref Mi M90 (court 22nd Jan 1295), transcribed & translated by Dominic Watson.
[10] Domesday Book – A Complete Translation, eds Dr Alan Williams & Prof G H Martin (Penguin, 1992; in hardback 2003) p771 [under XI, the Land of William Peverel]
[11] Nottinghamshire Archives Parish Register collection; available at Ancestry – Nottinghamshire Church of England Baptisms, Marriages & Burials 1538-1812 – Attenborough St Mary
[12] Nottingham University Library Manuscripts & Special Collections – Archdeaconry of Nottingham Collection – Presentments ref AN/PB (1587-1863) https://mss-cat.nottingham.ac.uk/Calmview/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=AN%2fPB&pos=19
[13] Nottingham University Library Manuscripts & Special Collections – Archdeaconry of Nottingham Collection ref. AN/PB 295/6/93 Churchwarden presentment, Attenborough, Nottingham Deanery
[14] A familiar name in Sawley townships where several Gervase Dodsons lived in the same period, so one of them was probably this cleric at Heanor & Codnor then Attenborough.
[15] Nottingham University Library Manuscripts & Special Collections – Archdeaconry of Nottingham Collection ref. AN/PB 303/123 (1631) Clergy Presentment, Attenborough, Nottingham Deanery
[16] It may have started earlier but there was a gap in the Attenborough registers between 1578 and 1585.
[17] Perhaps to Roger Johnson the attorney for de Grays of Codnor Castle who held Toton Manor up to 1561.
[18] All dates and references in this section are taken from the parish registers of Attenborough St Mary unless otherwise specified: Nottinghamshire Record Office parish register collection; now available on line at Ancestry – Nottinghamshire Church of England Baptisms, Marriages & Burials 1538-1812 – Attenborough St Mary
[19] Probably but not definitely the William Starbuck who had married Agnes Bradshaw – no burial was found for a William before the marriage to Ellen Alcock in 1567.
[20] Will of William Starbuck alias Johnson husbandman of Toton, Notts. Registered copy in Probate Registers held at Borthwick Institute, York – microfilmed copy viewed & downloaded there on 11 Oct 2016. Borthwick ref: 19 May 1603 – Starbucke als Johnson, William, Toton (Notts), husbn, Jan 17 1602. Vol.29 Fol.66
[21] Nottingham University Library Manuscripts & Special Collections – Archdeaconry of Nottingham Collection ref. AN/PB 295/3/89/2 Greasley & Attenborough, Nottingham Deanery, 10 Oct 1612 –anonymous presentment.
[22] Personal email 20 July 2022 from Gill Morral to the author.
[23] Will of William Johnson alias Starbuck husbandman of Toton, Notts written 17 April 1658 proved Prerogative Court of Canterbury, London, 11 February 1658/9, ref. PROB 11/286/556 and Will of Dorothy Johnson widow of Toton, Notts written 2 June 1658 proved at Prerogative Court of Canterbury, London 23 December 1858, ref PROB 11/285/463.
[24] Nottinghamshire Record Office parish register collection; now available on line at Ancestry – Nottinghamshire Church of England Baptisms, Marriages & Burials 1538-1812 – West Bridgford St Giles
[25] Nottinghamshire Record Office parish register collection; now available on line at Ancestry – Nottinghamshire Church of England Baptisms, Marriages & Burials 1538-1812 – Bramcote St Michael & All Angels
