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The Maybury Family
An overview of our research and findings
December 2008


Early focus on the family of Francis Maybury of Virginia - Our research began in the 1950s with an emphasis on the family of Francis Maybury who arrived in Virginia by 1679. At the same time we began compiling information on other early Mayburys and Mayberrys in America.

Early attempts at Maybury research in England - Beginning about 1995 we made numerous attempts at research in England in the hope of discovering the origin of Francis Maybury. These efforts all proved fruitless.

The Maybury DNA Project - Early in 2003, we initiated the Maybury DNA Project to take advantage of new scientific tools available to genealogists. It soon became clear that most Mayburys, Mayberrys, Mabrys, Maberrys, etc., share a common ancestor, who almost certaily lived in England.

Research breakthrough with help from Maybury cousins in England - In 2003 we also began hearing from Maybury descendants who live in England. With their help we have produced an amazing amount of new information, enabling us to gain a fairly comprehensive picture of the Maybury family in England and Ireland.

Bill and Doris Maybury of Herefordshire have done extensive work on Bill's ancestor, William Maybury, a skilled iron worker who planted the Maybury family in County Kerry, Ireland in 1671. They have also spent countless hours exploring English records, family data, academic sources, etc. on the wider Maybury family. They have made field trips to County Record Offices and other places to gather information on our English ancestors. They have often been joined in this effort by their friend, Eirlys Spawton, an excellent genealogist who has been extremely helpful in our efforts to reconstruct the relationships of the early Maybury generations and track their movements in England.

John and Lettice Tanner of Berkshire began several years ago to compile a listing of Maybury records from early parish registers in England. The list, now more than 100 pages long, has grown to include, not just baptismal, marriage and burial records, but Bishop's transcripts, wills, court records, and other documents. These records have been gathered through online sources, local record offices, visits to the British National Archives, the Society of Genealogists, etc. John's transcriptions of 16th and 17th century documents have been extremely helpful as has his ability to sort out the relationships of the early Mayburys.

Help from iron industry scholars - The coordinated efforts of our English cousins has also led us to the help of a number of scholars with expert knowledge of the development of the iron industry:

  • Jeremy Hodgkinson of the Wealden Iron Research Group has helped us to locate various kinds of information about our early ironworker ancestors.
  • Mr. Brian Awty also of the Wealden Iron Research Group, has shared his special knowledge of the early iron industry in Sussex as well as the role played by skilled ironworkers who were imported from France in the 16th century. Mr. Awty had already reconstructed much of the family of our common ancestor, John Meberie (sic), a hammerman, in Sussex. This was a major breakthrough for which we are very grateful.
  • Peter King is an economic historian with a special interest in the iron industry between 1500 and 1815. He contacted us to share information about some of the specific forges where the early Mayburys were employed.
  • Chris Evans, an historian at Glamorgan University, has helped us to understand the iron industry in the Forest of Dean. His articles have also helped us to understand the patterns behind the movements of iron workers from one location to another.
  • We have also had valuable help from professional researchers whom we engaged to locate information about the Maybury family, particularly in Shropshire and in Derbyshire.


Overview of significant findings

Our study of English parish records led us to the conclusion that the common ancestor of all the Mayburys -- however the name is spelled -- was John Meberie (sic), a skilled ironworker who married Margaret Bourder at Brightling, Sussex in December 1565. Shortly after the mid 17th century some of his descendants began emigrating to Ireland and America -- and later to Australia. These conclusions are supported by the our study of the DNA of modern Mayburys.

John and Margaret Bourder Maybury were the parents of four sons and three daughters when Margaret died in February 1576. She and three of John Maybury's children are buried at St. Dunstan's Church in Mayfield, Sussex (picture at left). John Maybury's second wife was Alice Fuller, by whom he had two more children. In the late 1590s the iron industry, having depleted most of the forests of the Weald, began to move to other parts of England. By about 1600 John Maybury and two of his sons were working in Staffordshire and Derbyshire. John may have been working near Ellastone in Staffordshire when his wife, Alice, died in May 1603. John then married a woman named Eleanor, by whom he had at least one more child, William, born in Monmouthshire in 1606.

John Maybury also had two illegitimate children, a daughter and a son, who were born about 1570 and 1573 in Sussex. Thus he was the father of seven sons and six daughters. The Maybury name has been passed on through at least three of his sons, Nicholas, Clement and John (1577).


The children of John Maybury

The children of John Maybury and his wife, Margaret Border, are named in the will of Margaret's brother, Richard Border, which was proved in Sussex in 1582.
  1. Joan Maybury [by Margaret Border] - probably born in 1566 or 1567, the oldest child of John and Margaret Border. was likely named for her maternal grandmother, Joan Border. Johan Maybery (sic) was married to James Turnys on 4 June 1593 at Burwash, Sussex. On 22 March 1593/94 was buried at Etchingham, Sussex after giving birth to a son, who was baptized the same day.

  2. Nicholas Maybury [by Margaret Border] - was born about 1567 or 1568 at Brightling or Etchingham in Sussex. Nicholas, like his father was a hammerman. He married a woman named Marye (Mary), who died in 1633 in Whittington, Shropshire. We know that in 1633 he was a hammerman atf Fernhill forge near Oswestry in Shropshire. Nicholas was buried on 13 March 1634 also at Whittington, Shropshire.

  3. Elizabeth Maybury [by Margaret Border] - was baptized at Etchingham, Sussex on 30 January 1568/69. She died in January 1592/92 at Etchingham and was unmarried.

  4. John Maybury - a "base born child of John Mayberie", was baptized on 13 August 1570 at Etchingham, Sussex. The parish record does not identify the mother. He very likely the John Mayberie (sic) who was buried on 5 May 1593 at Bexhill in Sussex.

  5. Richard Maybury [by Margaret Border] - was baptized on 10 September 1570 at Etchingham, Sussex. Richard died in infancy sometime in the year 1572 and was buried at Mayfield, Sussex.

  6. Dorothy Maybury [by Margaret Border] - was baptized on 17 January 1571/72 at Mayfield, Sussex. Dorothy died in infancy and was buried on 5 February 1571/72 at Mayfield, Sussex.

  7. Christopher Maybury [by Margaret Border] - was baptized on 1 March 1572/73 at Mayfield, Sussex. He is probably the same Christopher Maybowrie (sic), whose daughter, Elizabeth, was baptized at St. Botolph's Parish in London on 3 August 1600. Beyond that we have found no other record of Christopher Maybury. He may or may not have had other children.

  8. Awdryan Maybury - "a base born daughter" was baptized to John Maybury sometime in 1573 at Mayfield. She apparently lived only two months and was buried at Mayfield the same year. There is nothing in the record to identify the mother.

  9. Mary Maybury [by Margaret Border] - was baptized on 25 April 1574 at Mayfield, Sussex. No additional record of Mary Maybury has been found.

  10. Clement Maybury [by Margaret Border] - was baptized on 4 December 1575 at Mayfield, Sussex. He was a hammerman and is known to have worked at Wednesbury, Staffordshire, where he had several children baptized, and also at Parkend Forge in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, where he had a child baptized in 1617. Just over two months after Clement Maybury was baptized, his mother, Margaret Maberye (sic) died. Four months later, his father Jonathan Maberye (sic) married his second wife, Alice Fuller at Mayfield. Alice was the widow of William Fuller.

  11. John Maybury [by Alice Fuller] - was baptized on 6 April 1577 at Mayfield, Sussex. He was also a hammerman, was at Makeney in Derbyshire by 1598 and remained there until about 1605 when he moved to Cleobury Mortimer in Shropshire. He was buried at Cleobury Mortimer on 20 January 1655.

  12. Agnes Maybury [by Alice Fuller] - was baptized on 30 November 1578 at Mayfield, Sussex. No additional records of Agnes have been found.

  13. William Maybury [by Eleanor _____] - was baptized on 25 July 1606 at Monmouth in Monmouthshire. We have found no further record of this William and it may be that he died as a child.

In recent years our progress has been considerable. We know that most of John Maybury's sons and many of his grandsons continued in the iron trade as "hammermen" or "forgemen". We are also discovering where they worked along with other details of their families. The records left by John Maybury and his children spell the family name several different ways including: Meberie, Maberye, Mayberye, Mayberie, Maybery, Maybury, etc.

We are now working to reconstruct the third and fourth generations of the family in England. This is difficult because the same given names (John, William, Thomas, Richard, Elizabeth and Mary) were used over and over in succeeding generations. While our chart of John Maybury's descendants will never be complete, we are trying to make it as accurate as possible. Once this is done it should be somewhat easier for modern Mayburys to trace their ancestry back to John Maybury of Sussex through one of his children. And even those who are unable to document their line using conventional genealogical methods now have a good chance of proving it by a simple DNA test.








December 2008