Searching for BIBBER surname
Replies: 2
Searching for BIBBER surname
I am searching for the ancestry of my grandmother's family whose surname is BIBBER. I will try to explain this the best I can. I am not even sure if I am posting to the correct page here but figure I need to start somewhere.
My grandmother insisted that her family origins were German but upon searching for this link I came across Flanders with German connections. I do not understand all the History behind how this all came about, but here is our family story.
Our immigrant ancestor (or so we have been told) was James BIBBER. He was ~supposedly~ born on the Channel Isle of Jersey or Guernsey in 1706. Several folks have searched high and low however there for any trace of a BIBBER and have found NONE. The closest thing they can find is the surname Vibert which some accept as the orig. spelling of the name.
While doing research in England one day, I came across a listing in Colchester in an old old Dutch / Deutch Church and on the record books in the 1590's was one Jacob BIBBER !
Imagine My Surprise?! This is the Exact spelling of my family's name and to have seen that from the 1590's said Someone had Not deviated from the original spelling of the name. Anyway, for some reason or another our James claimed the British Isles as his birthplace. In abt. 1724 he came to Dover, NH to learn the trade of Weaving with an elderly Quaker woman named Elizabeth (Meader) Hanson.
About 2 yrs. later she was captured by the Indians and taken to Canada. Story goes that our James went back home to the Channel Isles but returned to Dover, NH a couple of years later and then stayed. In Dover, NH he married Abigail DREW daug. of John DREW and Rebecca Cook.
James and Abigail (DREW) BIBBER eventually (around 1750) removed to Harpswell, Cumberland Co., Maine where they stayed until they died. The family name really flourished in Harpswell and many of that name are still there to this day.
After studying up on the history of Colchester, England and the inhabitants of the "Strangers" as they called them, I realized for many reasons but mostly Religious ones, many many family's flocked there in the 1500's and that many of them were Dutch, Flemish, Waloons and French to name a few.
Apparently there was a lot of turmoil in Colchester as well in that the British gov. used the skills of the immigrants (i.e. weavers, and tailors etc.) in order to gain great wealth in the world of trading. However the immigrants were taxed just as everyone else and making a solid living was extremely difficult for many of them.
But apparently things were worked out so that all felt an amicable solution could be had to keep an even flo going and they stayed. In 1724 (this was the Very year given...which is the Very year that our James supposedly came to Dover, NH), in 1724 it is noted in Colchester history that there were TWO Quaker churches there.
For Years I had wondered HOW James could have learned of a Quaker woman way ~across the pond~ who could teach him to weave, but after reading of the Quaker churches in Colchester (by the way I am convinced that our James or his family or something was there and NOT the Channel Isles), but I thought that perhaps he might have had an aquaintance in the Quaker church who told him of the Hanson family in Dover, NH and that might have been what brought him to America.
I apologize for being so long winded here, but I am desperately trying to find some Shred of evidence as to the Origins of the BIBBER family and name. Any help at all would be Very much appreciated.
Thank you and PLEASE EMAIL me as I won't visit this page very often.
My grandmother insisted that her family origins were German but upon searching for this link I came across Flanders with German connections. I do not understand all the History behind how this all came about, but here is our family story.
Our immigrant ancestor (or so we have been told) was James BIBBER. He was ~supposedly~ born on the Channel Isle of Jersey or Guernsey in 1706. Several folks have searched high and low however there for any trace of a BIBBER and have found NONE. The closest thing they can find is the surname Vibert which some accept as the orig. spelling of the name.
While doing research in England one day, I came across a listing in Colchester in an old old Dutch / Deutch Church and on the record books in the 1590's was one Jacob BIBBER !
Imagine My Surprise?! This is the Exact spelling of my family's name and to have seen that from the 1590's said Someone had Not deviated from the original spelling of the name. Anyway, for some reason or another our James claimed the British Isles as his birthplace. In abt. 1724 he came to Dover, NH to learn the trade of Weaving with an elderly Quaker woman named Elizabeth (Meader) Hanson.
About 2 yrs. later she was captured by the Indians and taken to Canada. Story goes that our James went back home to the Channel Isles but returned to Dover, NH a couple of years later and then stayed. In Dover, NH he married Abigail DREW daug. of John DREW and Rebecca Cook.
James and Abigail (DREW) BIBBER eventually (around 1750) removed to Harpswell, Cumberland Co., Maine where they stayed until they died. The family name really flourished in Harpswell and many of that name are still there to this day.
After studying up on the history of Colchester, England and the inhabitants of the "Strangers" as they called them, I realized for many reasons but mostly Religious ones, many many family's flocked there in the 1500's and that many of them were Dutch, Flemish, Waloons and French to name a few.
Apparently there was a lot of turmoil in Colchester as well in that the British gov. used the skills of the immigrants (i.e. weavers, and tailors etc.) in order to gain great wealth in the world of trading. However the immigrants were taxed just as everyone else and making a solid living was extremely difficult for many of them.
But apparently things were worked out so that all felt an amicable solution could be had to keep an even flo going and they stayed. In 1724 (this was the Very year given...which is the Very year that our James supposedly came to Dover, NH), in 1724 it is noted in Colchester history that there were TWO Quaker churches there.
For Years I had wondered HOW James could have learned of a Quaker woman way ~across the pond~ who could teach him to weave, but after reading of the Quaker churches in Colchester (by the way I am convinced that our James or his family or something was there and NOT the Channel Isles), but I thought that perhaps he might have had an aquaintance in the Quaker church who told him of the Hanson family in Dover, NH and that might have been what brought him to America.
I apologize for being so long winded here, but I am desperately trying to find some Shred of evidence as to the Origins of the BIBBER family and name. Any help at all would be Very much appreciated.
Thank you and PLEASE EMAIL me as I won't visit this page very often.