Hebden One-Name Study

(Click on picture to enlarge) The name-board alongside the B6265 on the western side of Hebden village

Hebden
One-Name Study

Topics

About the Hebden One-Name Study
Variants
Origin of the surname
Historical occurrences
Frequency of the name
Distribution of the name
Data
Links

About the Hebden One-Name Study

For family reasons I could not start my research into my family until 1976 when I joined the Society of Genealogists in the days when they were still able to include details of new members in the Journal, as a result I heard from a Mrs de Hebden Sutherland drawing attention to the work of her late uncle, William Hebden of Halifax deposited at the SOG. He had researched between the wars into his own family; the medieval family; the Ripon one; that at Grimwith above Burnsall: the Appleton-le-Street/Scarborough one; and the Hepden family of Burwash.

William, a bachelor, died age 71 in 1973 and I discovered that he was buried in the extension of the churchyard at Burnsall. His papers gave me a start and over the next few years I was joined by Graham Pratten who descended from the the Braisty Woods branch of the Ripon family and by the Rev David Jackson who was interested in another line of that family. We all invested in Amstrad 8512s and Graham created a programme for a simple chronological�database of Hebden family events spread over some 60+ floppy discs, searchable by date, forename and various combinations of ADD, OR and (FIND).

I joined the Guild of One-Name Studies in 1980 and a previously unknown cousin, Peter, joined in the work after he retired from being harbourmaster at Bahrain. Sadly he died in 1995 but his daughter, Janet (Jan) joined in. She died very suddenly in 2005 having created a website giving a narrative for each of the Hebden families found to date. Unfortunately she told no-one her password so it cannot be amended or corrected in any way.

Variants

Variants that have appeared over the years include Hebdon, Hebdin, Hepden, Hepton, Ebden, Ebdon and Epton.

Origin of the surname

Hebden comes from the village of Hebden nr Grassington in Wharfedale North Yorkshire but pre 1974 West Riding. The name comes from the Old English 'heope,' or '(rose) hip,' and 'denu,' which meant 'valley', and hence 'A valley where Rose-hips grow'

Historical occurrences

Originally a Manor, the family who held it in in the 11th century became known as de Hebden. They apparently failed in the male line in the 15th century, but more than twenty families have been identified, three appearing in Wharfedale in the 16th Century, with families in Ripon and Appleton-le-Street from around the same time. Yorkshire is particularly well covered, but other family branches have been identified in London, Liverpool Shropshire and Sussex. In the last 100 years Hebdens have spread across the world (see distribution), but the foundations of the family still remain in the Yorkshire Dales.

Frequency of the name

In England, Wales and the isle of Man there were 3,873 People with the Hebden surname or one of its derivatives alive in 2002. This total comprises Hebden (1,097), Hebdon (334), Hepden (188), Hepton (495) Hebdin (<4), Ebdon (858), (Epton (691), and Ebden (207).

There are flourishing branches of the family in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the USA.

Distribution of the name

From medieval times the various Hebden communities were Dales folk, earning a living in sheep farming on the high moors and homesteading in the valleys. At the end of the eighteenth century, the agricultural revolution brought about greater productivity and better livestock management. The effect of this was to depress wage rates and start a gradual decline in rural communities. Many farm workers were forced to leave the land and seek work in the cotton and woollen mills of the rapidly growing industrial towns of West Yorkshire and East Lancashire. In the late nineteenth century many families emigrated to the USA, followed in the twentieth century by similar moves to Australia and Canada. Today the distribution of the family is worldwide.

Data

Data held on the Hebden name and its variants include every BMD event in the GRO indexes from 1837 to 2005 (27,900 entries), a timeline of 15,000 dated family events from A.D.913 to 2000, and a series of indexed pedigree charts of the main family lines comprising 8,000 names. In addition there are on-line sources and a considerable amount of archive material gathered over the years.

Family tree charts for 38 branches of the Hebden family and variants can be viewed on the Hebden family website at Hebdens.com.