The data, which are arranged below in headed columns, were gathered from various printed and manuscript sources such as wills, freemen’s lists, religious records, charters and taxation records. The codes at the end of each row indicate where the information may be found (see below for list of codes). The sign * indicates that the person appears in a document relating primarily to someone else.

Where two dates are separated by ‘x’, this indicates that the manuscript cannot be dated accurately. The true date lies between the two extremes.

In most instances the original spellings of occupations etc have been retained, with modern equivalents placed alongside in some instances.

HISTORICAL NOTES:

The letters ‘De’ after a first name, as most of you will already know, is derived from the French meaning ‘from’ or ‘of’. So “John De Kilburn” should be read as “John coming from or adopting the place of Kilburn as his place of residence”.

However, up to the middle of the 13^th century, people bearing such surnames cannot be guaranteed as being of the same family or even related to one another, since surnames as such had not been fully adopted up until that time, or even later in some parts of the country. After the mid C13, though, there is a greater degree of certainty that all so named were related to each other.

Pay no heed whatever to the different spellings of the name, most of us already know that they were due to the whims of the clerks who wrote them! However, the York archives do show a degree of consistency in regard to spelling the KILBURN name and this is probably because records were kept over a long period in the area. Ironically, it is after the reformation that the greatest number of different spellings occurs, due to the fact that poorer records were kept after the dissolution of the monasteries. However, it is possible that those of the KILBURN spelling are descended from the earliest settlers from around the place of that name in the North Riding, whilst those of a different spelling are not. This is not to say though, that they are not related.

Why the place of Kilburn then? Well, the place was there before the family, so it was not named after an individual. There is no mystery as to where they came from, but you do need to have a little knowledge of the development of the (English) Catholic Church, particularly under Norman rule, to arrive at it.

Although the name can be traced from about the year 1070, we should skip the next fifty years or so to the time of Stephen, who reigned 1135-1154. Before he became king, Stephen introduced, in 1124, monks from Savigny in his County of Mortain in France to Tulketh in Furness.

These monks gradually spread throughout other areas of England, and by 1147, when their order amalgamated with the Cistercians, 13 houses had been set up. One of them was at Byland near Kilburn in what is now North Yorkshire: this happened between 1135 and 1138. Those that settled there would have adopted the name, not of the Abbey, which was often reserved for the Abbot himself, but of the nearest hamlet which was developed to serve the Abbey. So, William, the Wryght de Kilburn might have been descended from an early settler who arrived with the Savigny family of monks from Mortain and worked on the wagon wheels at Byland Abbey and lived in the hamlet of Kilburn. Other family names such as Stanley, Quarr and Neath appear to have been similarly established by 1151, 1132 and 1130 respectively.

It was after the amalgamation with the Cistercians or ‘White Monks’ that the (De) KILBURN name would have started to spread throughout the land. If you were to look at a map of the British Isles, showing Cistercian foundations and the houses of the Mendicant Friars between 1124 and 1300 you would be able to spot many of the place-names where the family of Kilburn has subsequently been found. These areas included the West Riding, Wensleydale, Durham and Cambridgeshire. The earliest reference to Kilburn in what is now the West Riding is at Kirkstall after 1147, in Wensleydale from Jervaulx (and the See of Durham) after 1150 and in Cambridgeshire from Sawtry after 1147. These were all Cistercian houses established by the Clairvaux family of monks, taking with them monks and other skilled labourers of the Savigny families of Kilburn. These White Monks and Friars, as they were to become known, also settled in York, where they were to be found until Tudor times and the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII.

The York Archaeological Society has found the remains and records of many of these earliest Kilburns concentrated in a particular area of York. If a modern map were to be laid over the Tudor map, we would find them in an area to the west of what in Tudor times was called the ‘King’s Fishpond’, south of The Stonebow, east of Fossgate and north of the river Foss. Their churches would have been All Saints, St. Peter the Little and Holy Trinity.

The reference to ‘Helewise’ in Sheffield with no accurate date is a point of interest: the actual date is most likely to be close to 1250. That Helewise (quite a popular women’s name in Anglo-Norman times), who came from Kilburn, was probably an Abbess from Byland and the record – available at Sheffield Public Library – refers to the proposed establishment of a School of Higher Learning (University) which, unfortunately, did not at that time materialise. You will also see that other, possibly related Kilburns (some of whom were probably resident in Sheffield) were involved in this proposal, so it can be assumed favourably that many of them were not illiterate.

Although the place of York is frequently to be found throughout the archive, it should not be assumed that the individual referred to lived within the City itself unless his occupation suggests this. The Diocese and Episcopal See of York extended over a very large area, as far north as its neighbour Durham. If the event being described had anything to do with the Church – and most did – then the hearing would most likely have been held in York also and the subsequent record kept at York.

The named towns, including York, should be read as the earliest established seats or houses of the non-ecclesiastical Kilburns. Therefore, places such as Helmeslay, Thresk, Byssopthorp (where the above-mentioned Wryght was most likely employed by the Bishop himself) Mydelthorp, Southkirkeby, Catton and York (these are the archaic spellings!), are where the researcher should look for KILBURN, spelt as such. At Hyngyne Grymeston, we find the spelling KYLBURNE between 1300 and 1500.

Where, in the archive it is stated nojob this should not be read as if they were unemployed, merely that no occupation was recorded as it was not relevant. Where, therefore an occupation was recorded, very often the proceedings relate to the occupation or it was necessary to note it to establish the individuals’ credibility.

Stephen Kilburn

July 2001

Most of the quoted sources are to be found at the York Minster Library or at the Yorkshire Archaeological Society in Leeds.

Codes:

YASRS: Yorkshire Archaeological Society

SS: Publications of the Surtees Society.

SRJ: Medieval Title Deeds for the City of York 1080-1530, Archive 3527, Data Archive, University of Essex. Also described in Sarah Rees-Jones, Database of Medieval title Deeds for the City of York, University of York, Occasional Papers in History, No. 3, 1996.

Dom or Domp: Title given to a member of the clergy or Monk of the Roman Catholic Church, not necessarily their given name at birth.

YCA: York City Archives.

Stell & Hampson: P.M.Stell & L.Hampson Probate Inventories of the York Diocese before 1500. Dean & Chapter of York (1998).

Corpus Christi: (Unless qualified by the title Dom or Domp) An event which took place in the R. Catholic Church. For example, where a male & female are represented by the same date, this could indicate a marriage.

HALL: A series of catalogues of charters, deeds, court rolls etc relating to Sheffield was published by T. Walter Hall. They are available in the Sheffield Public Library.

DJFC: Data of religious gilds kindly supplied by Dr. D.J.F. Crouch from: Piety, Fraternity & Power, unpublished D.Phil. thesis University of York, 1995.

YAJ: York Archaeological Journal.

ERAS: Transactions of the East Riding Antiquarian Society.

Freemen’s Roll: YCA, Register of Admissions to the Freedom of the City. D1.

BIHRBP: Borthwick Papers.

ATTREED: Lorraine C. Attreed, The York House Books, (Stroud 1991).

Transcribed with permission from a photocopy of originals supplied by Emma Wright by Stephen Kilburn, July 2001. Apologies for any errors, which will be rectified upon notification.