Origin

While researching my own family tree I came across one line which led back through 9 generations of Cliffords and Comforts dwelling in Surrey to Jane Hulbert daughter of Richard, who was described as a gentleman and former owner of Imber Court in Wiltshire.  I was intrigued as this was the first gent I had found in my family and when I traced back to his family in Wiltshire I became fascinated by the family and the extraordinary concentration of Hulbert families in Corsham in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Several people have traced Hulbert family trees and left their papers for posterity but there are apparent errors in all of them, particularly one of American Hulberts by Henry Carlton Hulbert which was part authored by the notorious forger Gustav Anjou.

Aims

1. to link together into family lines as many as possible of the Hulberts of Britain, particularly of Corsham.
2. to correct errors in previously published research on the Hulberts of England and USA.
3. to collect information on Hulberts in the rest of the world.

Hulbard/Hulberd/Hulburd seems to be an early form which had mostly been superceded by Hulbert by 1600.  Holburd survived around Taunton in Somerset and parts of London.

Halbert in Scotland is a separate name with its own One-name study,  but seems to be a variant of Hulbert in Wales and North-East England. Hilbert is a variant in Somerset.

Most researchers have treated Hulbert/Hulberd and Hurlbutt/Hurlbatt as variants of the same name but, at least in the UK, I have found no conclusive evidence for the names being interchangeable.   DNA results so far suggest that there are two separate lines in the USA descended from two immigrants around 1630 Thomas Hurlbut and William Hulbert.

Hurlbatt/Hurlbutt has declined in the UK, surviving mainly in Leicestershire as Hurlbut. There is some evidence of a few Hurlbutt families elsewhere changing their name to Hulbert in the eighteenth century.

The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland suggests that:

Hulbert (and variants) is  a "relationship name from the Middle English given name Holbert, probably from an unrecorded Old English form Holdbeohrt"

Hurlbatt (and variants) is a "nickname from a  medieval game called Hurlebatte"

Halbert can be a Scottish variant of Hulbert or a "Huguenot relationship name from the French personal name Halbert (Continental Germanic Halbehrt)"

William Hulberd, 1512 to 1559, of Poulshot in Wiltshire was claimed to have been a doctor of divinity and chamberlain to King Edward 6th (in a pedigree drawn up about 85 years after his death by a great-grandson).  He did take a BA and MA at Oxford University but I have found no corroborative evidence for a connection to King Edward.

William's son James became a wealthy clothier of Corsham and married Ann Smith, a niece of Thomas Smith, Customer of England.

Another William Hulbert was Customer Inwards for the Port of Bristol for 10-12 years from c. 1583.  It is likely that this was the eldest son of William above but I have not found definite proof.

George Hulbert, born at Lacock Wiltshire in 1590,  joined the London Livery Company of Vintners and became a Justice of the Peace and Colonel of Militia in the city of Westminster where he died in 1639.  He founded a charity to buy bread for the poor of Lacock and was granted his own coat of Arms by the College of Heralds.

James Hulbert, of the City of London 1651 to 1719, became Master of the Fishmongers Company and left money to build a set of almshouses for 20 poor men and women. A statue was erected in his memory, originally near the almshouses but now in the grounds of Fishmongers Hall. James was a great-grandson of James above.

Jack Hulbert, 1892 to 1978, and his wife Cicely Courtneidge were well known actors on stage and screen in the 1930s. In 1934 he was voted the most popular male British star at the box office.

John Hurlbatt (? - 1586) of Sheldon and Bullington in Hampshire, grandson of John of Farnham, was a gentleman with his own coat of arms (which several completely unrelated Hulberts have tried to claim entitlement to). In 1579 he was summoned to assist the Privy Council  to sort out a dispute over the inheritance of the Marquisate of Winchester .  He married late in life and had no children so left his estate to Hurlbatt Southwood, grandson of John's first cousin Christian Bulbeck. He chose Sir William West Lord De La Warr as his executor but later Hurlbatt Southwood had to sue Baron De La Warr  in Chancery to hand over his inheritance. 

Hulbert baptisms in Wiltshire 1580 to 1600 and 1780 to 1800
(from Wiltshire Baptisms 1530-1886 on findmypast.co.uk)

Number of Hulberts in censuses (from ancestry.co.uk)

Numbers

There is a Hulbert/Hurlbut group project on familytreeDNA.com.

Study website: hulbert.one-name.net