The Busby Family History

GENERATION 1.
JOHN BUSBY of CLIFTON, DEDDINGTON 1558
John Busby of the hamlet of Clifton, Deddington, Oxfordshire is the first proven direct ancestor that I have found for the ancestry of the Busbys of Hook Norton. The Busby family has lived in the village of Hook Norton for over 300 years and indeed on the maternal side of the family (Goffe family, earliest mention 1511) there is proof of direct ancestry in Hook Norton for at least 500 years. The earliest and almost certainly the grand-daddy of all the Busbys of Oxfordshire was Alexander Busby of Milcombe, a neighbouring village of Hook Norton, who purchased a 'hide' from Eynsham Abbey in 1241. (see 'A Tale of Busbys").

John Busby of Clifton was a husbandman and died circa 1558. His Will was proved at Oxford in that year. He requested his body to be buried in Deddington churchyard.

GENERATION 2
SIMON BUSBY of CLIFTON, DEDDINGTON 1598
Simon Busby, our direct ancestor, was a husbandman like his father, John. He died circa 1598 and his Will proved at Oxford. Simon left 10 shillings for the poor of Clifton and Deddington and a bushell of barley to Deddington church.

GENERATION 3
WILLIAM BUSBY of CLIFTON, DEDDINGTON 1609
William Busby our direct ancestor, was also a husbandman and died circa 1609. He was buried in Deddington churchyard. We also know that his wife was called Elizabeth and she lived long enough to re-marry.

GENERATION 4
SIMON BUSBY of DEDDINGTON 1650
Simon Busby of Deddington our direct ancestor, died in 1650. Entry of his burial at Deddington is in the parish register. Anne is also mentioned in the Oxfordshire Hearth Tax 1665 as having 3 hearths in Clifton, Deddington. This meant that she probably lived in a house with six to eleven rooms and was of the yeoman class...

GENERATION 5
ROBERT BUSBY of DEDDINGTON baptised 1644
Robert Busby our direct ancestor was baptised in Deddington church November 24th 1644. Our Robert married Mary Reade of Enstone on 4th January 1682 at Heythrop. However our Mary Reade who became the wife of Robert Busby, is almost certainly the lady who bought the family property in Hook Norton in 1702...

GENERATION 6
ROBERT BUSBY baptised DEDDINGTON April 1684
Robert Busby our direct ancestor, the eldest son of Robert and Mary, was baptised in Deddington church. He married Sarah Spelsbury of Enstone at Kiddington in 1705. Amazingly grandfather's brother, great uncle Charlie Busby had told my brother John that the family came from the village of Spelsbury but in 250 years the surname became translated into the village of that name. Sarah was the great granddaughter of the rector and minister of Great Rollright and the name varies in the parish register as Pilsburie and Spilsbury. Her great grandfather John Spelsbury died and was buried at Great Rollright in May 1598 but the family remained in Rollright for several generations. Katherin Pillesburye, his daughter, leased the 'mease and two yardlands in Roulandwright'. Nine years later the lease from Brasenose College was granted to Joane, John's widow, 'for the better bringing up of the late rector's children'! ...Robert Busby died in 1750 and was buried at Dunstew and was stated to be 'from Middle Barton'. Sarah, his wife, died in 1758 and was also buried at Dunstew. The children of Robert and Sarah were as follows:- 1. William Busby baptised at Enstone 1707, 2. Jon Busby baptised at Sandford St Michael 1710, 3. Ann Busby b?, 4. Benjamin Busby baptised Dunstew 1721, 5. Elizabeth Betty Busby baptised Dunstew 1726.

GENERATION 7
BENJAMIN BUSBY baptised Dunstew 1721
Benjamin Busby our direct ancestor proved to be the link that enabled me to trace our ancestry back from Hook Norton to Deddington and therefore find another two hundred years of proof of the family's roots. Benjamin appeared in the Hook Norton registers in 1750 when he married Ann Nixon. ...Then at one meeting the guest speaker called off and Ralph said that an interesting lot of papers had been found under a bed in the village and would we care to look at these that evening before they were taken to the Record Office. In those documents was a small piece of paper that provided the vital link. It was a Settlement Certificate for Benjamin Busby. ...The Examination of Benjamin Busby of Hook Norton labourer concerning his settlement taken on oath... 8th day of November 1765. ...Signed this day and date above written before me EDW STONE. ...What was also fascinating was that the J.P. who examined Benjamin, Edward Stone, was actually also the clergyman of Chipping Norton who had first described the analgesic powers of willow bark i.e. he was the person who discovered aspirin and this was in 1763.

GENERATION 8
BENJAMIN BUSBY of HOOK NORTON baptized 1759
Benjamin, our direct ancestor, the third son of Benjamin and Ann Nixon, was baptized in Hook Norton church in 1759. Although he was not the eldest son of Benjamin and Ann, he must have been the one who continued in the house/farm property that is now, Laburnum Cottage, Queen Street, HN. He married Elizabeth Giles at Hook Norton church on October 20th 1794. ...We do have one small piece of documentation about this Benjamin which indicates that by this generation the Busbys had diversified into the building trade keeping some land but possibly not sufficient to make a living. ...a payment to Mr Goffe Overseer (to the Poor) for 'Work done at the Workhouse Lath & Plastering a partition finding all Materials for 12 yards 3 feet at £1-10 per yd'.

GENERATION 9
BENJAMIN BUSBY of HOOK NORTON baptized 1796
Benjamin our direct ancestor was baptized in Hook Norton church on May 5th 1796. He was the eldest son of Benjamin and Elizabeth Giles. He married Anna Prophett of Sibford Ferris in Hook Norton church on December 27th 1822. The witnesses of the marriage were John Harris, Elizabeth Busby, John Prophett and Ann Harris. Anna was the daughter of a well established Quaker family. Her father Henry was a yeoman farmer and her mother Anna Harris a member of an even more documented and extended Quaker farming family in Sibford. The family tree of this branch is extensive and I do have a copy but the Harrises and Busbys are mentioned in the Victoria County History of Oxford as being founder members of the Quaker movement in the 17th century in Charlbury, Oxfordshire. ...Benjamin's profession is given as a slater.

GENERATION 10
HENRY BUSBY of HOOK NORTON b1825
Henry our direct ancestor was born May 13th 1825 in the family home in what is now called Queen Street but was originally Garret Street, Hook Norton. Henry followed his father Benjamin into the building trade. On 15th April 1849 he married Mary Ann Moulder in Hook Norton church. Mary Ann was born on 14th April 1824 at Over Norton... They lived with their family in Garret Lane/Street from where Henry ran his business of painting, slating and plastering. Henry appeared to live on his own until 9th July 1903 when he had what must have been an extremely painful death from 'Volvulus of the bowel 14 days. Vomiting and Exhaustion'. ...Henry sen was described as a 'Master Slater and Plasterer' on his death certificate.
Siblings of Henry:
Benjamin was born in 1858 and sadly only lived to the age of 6 years, dying on the 26th July 1864. The cause of death was 'scarlatina for 6 weeks with effusion on the brain for a week'. His death is commemorated on the tombstone of his Grandfather Benjamin Busby in Hook Norton churchyard.
Mary Anna was born in 1860 and died when she was 16 years old in 1876.
George was born in 1862. He became a slater and painter and married his first cousin, Maria Moulder, the daughter of Henry Moulder, his mother's brother. George and Maria had the following children: Elsie Maria (b 1892 d 1957), Millicent Jessie (b 1894 d 1971), Ernest George (b 1898 d 1940), Bernard Reginald Moulder (b 1899 d 1900), Sydney Moulder (b 1901 d 1965), Walter Reginald (b 1904 d 1979), Ilfra Mary (b 1906 d 2004), Julia Ann (b 1909 d 1987).
Benjamin was the youngest child of Henry and Mary Ann. He was born in 1866 and as had happened in previous generations, he had been named after a deceased sibling. By the age of 25 he was living in Stafford and earning a living as a grocer's assistant. He married a local girl Isabella Salt and they had two children: Eveline Isabel (b 1891, She married Edward James Woolhouse, d 1985) and Benjamin (b 1903 d 1903). Isabella died in 1911 and Benjamin remarried in 1915, Hannah Mary Hopper. He died in Stafford, aged 86 in 1956.

GENERATION 11
HENRY BUSBY (Born 1855)
Henry, our direct ancestor, was born in Hook Norton in 1855. This is according to the family bible, the parish register, the Census and his age at death. He followed his father into the building trade becoming a master slater and plasterer. At the age of 22, he married Emma Phipps on the 20th February 1878 in Hook Norton. ...Henry was musical and was said to have founded the Hook Norton Temperance Band (later the Hook Norton Band). In fact all his sons were instrumentalists in the band from quite an early age, followed by his grandsons. It was even called the 'Busby band'. Henry died only 11 months later on the 20th August 1933 aged 77. He was stated to be a retired builder... He left his three sons, Charles Willam, Horace and Ralph all his tools and stock in trade to be divided in equal shares. Henry and Emma's tombstone can be seen in Hook Norton churchyard today within a stone's throw from their home.