Author: ancestorquests

Estimated birth year based on Edward’s age of 86 at death in Nantucket in 1690

We have no definite evidence for any of Edward Starbuck’s first 35 years of life,  between his (probable) baptism at Derby in 1603/4 and emigration to Dover, probably sometime between 1638 and 1640.

From his children’s calculated birth dates, we know Edward must have married at least by 1630 and had three children in England by 1636. We believe that his eldest child Sarah was baptised in Derby in 1630, so if that’s correct, Edward probably stayed in Starbucky Territory, rather than seeking his fortune elsewhere. What might these ‘silent years’ have been like?

The earliest Starbucks found in our English research were in Sawley, Derbyshire, at the heart of Starbucky Territory.[1]

Historically, Sawley presents a complicated picture. Speak its name and you could be referring to any or all of its identities, as a Parish, Prebend, Rectory, Soke, Peculiar or Manor.

Today it is a modest town in a rural setting, overshadowed by the neighbouring City of Nottingham. But in Medieval and early modern times, it was far more important, financially rich and strategically important, with an ancient Viking history under the Danelaw. Like the other locations in Starbucky Territory, it was especially watery.[2]

Typically of many Derbyshire parishes, Sawley was very large with four chapels-of-ease. The mother church of All Saints was in Sawley village, with the chapelries located for the ease of more distant flocks to attend worship. The four chapels were Breaston St Michael, Long Eaton St Lawrence, Risley All Saints and Wilne St Chad.[1]

Everyone throughout the parish would have had the choice of worshipping at Sawley All Saints or a chapel-of-ease. For their baptisms, marriages and burials, however, the choice was between Sawley All Saints and Wilne St Chad. The catchment area for All Saints encompassed Long Eaton, Wilsthorpe and Sawley village, while St Chad’s area included Little (or Church) Wilne, Draycott, Breaston and Risley (although this had its own chapel built by the Willoughby family).

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 18^th and 19^th 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.

Draycott in south-eastern Derbyshire, close to the River Erewash and the Nottinghamshire county border, is not a world-famous location. It was one of the smallest of Sawley parish’s nine settlements, with only a handful of households in the early 17^th century when Edward Starbuck was born. So why does Draycott deserve the attention of every Starbuck researcher?

In 1937, Charles Edward Banks stated that Edward Starbuck migrated from Draycott in Derbyshire to Dover, New England – a singularly specific assertion. [1] Charles Edward Banks stated that Edward Starbuck migrated from Draycott in Derbyshire to Dover, New England – a singularly specific assertion. All other Great Migration historians say simply ‘Derbyshire’. Exhaustive research in the US has not unearthed a source or reason for Banks’ statement, but it clearly matters a lot to the Edward Starbuck story.

The nature of Draycott

Differing meanings have been suggested for place name, but one seems most likely considering its place in watery surroundings: it could mean ‘dry cottage’ matching its position on slightly higher and drier ground.[2] But it was still very close to the rivers and many streams where Edward Starbuck could have learned his skills of fishing and saw-milling.

It is an ancient place and a Liberty, mentioned as far back as the Domesday book of 1086 as a settlement in the manor of Sawley.[3] From then until the industrial revolution, it stayed small and rural without even a chapel of its own. Its residents attended the nearest church of Wilne St Chad, an easy walk of almost a mile to the south, past the curves of the River Derwent.

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 13^th 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.

The large and complicated parish of Sawley encompassed nine settlements. We know for sure that Starbucks lived in three of them: Long Eaton, Draycott and Breaston. As residents of Long Eaton, they would have attended the parish church, Sawley All Saints in Sawley village, while Draycott and Breaston Starbucks walked the mile or so to their church of Wilne St Chad.

We do not know whether Starbucks lived or worked in the other four settlements of Sawley: Hopwell, and Risley with Wilsthorpe and Woodhall Park. However, they were part and parcel of Sawley life in the 1550-1640 period, known inevitably to Starbucks like the back of their hands. Some may have lived in these places over the many centuries, unknown to us now simply through lack of records.

Hopwell was a Liberty that came under Wilne St Chad’s chapelry within Sawley parish. It was also a manor separate from Sawley’s, held from the late 14^th century until 1661 by the Sacheverell family. In the 16^th century, they built a substantial seat  here – Hopwell Hall. This was demolished and replaced in 1720 by a larger version set in a 90 acre park by Henry Keys, who had inherited the old hall from Jacynth, the last Sacheverell at Hopwell.[1] We found no records directly connecting Starbucks to Hopwell.

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.