Years ago, when many people couldn't read or write, their documents were written by clergy, clerks, census takers, and others, who often wrote the name the way it sounded to them. We have seen all of the following spellings in original records. The spellings shown in red are the most common today.

This is illustrated by the records of our common ancestor, John Maybury (ca 1540-1618). Here are some of the spellings found in the records he left behind:

• When he married Margaret Bourder in Brightling, Sussex in 1565 his name was written as John Meberie.
• When their daughter, Elizabeth was baptized in Etchingham in 1569 his name was given as John Mabery.
• When his sons, John and Richard were baptized in 1570, his name was written as John Mayberie , and John Meabury respectively.
• The parish register at Mayfield records him as John Mabry, when his daughter Mary was baptized in 1574.
• The following year, when his son, Clement, was baptized, he was called John Mabery .
• When his wife, Margaret, was buried at Mayfield in February 1576 he was John Maberye .
• When he re-married a few months later it was still Maberye but his given name was written as Johathan.
• When he failed to attend a frankpledge meeting at Hartfield in 1581, he was noted as John Maybury.
• He was called John Maybery when his daughter, Elizabeth, was buried at Etchingham in 1593.
• The record of the burial of his first son, John, at Bexhill uses the spelling Mayberie .
• Just a month later at Burwash, when his daughter, Joan, was married, he was John Maybery .
• Ten years later he was called John Maberye again, when his wife died at Ellastone in Staffordshire.
• In a Monmouth court record in 1605 he was called John Mabery.
• In July 1606, when his son William was baptized, he was John Mayberie.
• When John Astell brought suit against him in Hampshire in 1609, the name was written as John Mayberrie.
• And when he died at Cleobury Mortimer in Shropshire early in 1618 the burial record says John Maybery.

Thus we have his name spelled at least nine different ways in a period of fifty-three years. It should not surprise us that the name continues to be spelled in so many ways in our own time!

June 2009