The registers have the name Theobalds written with various spellings, such as Tibballs Tibbalds Tibbells etc but for continuity on our tree we have kept to the name Theobalds.
We start with my Great Great Great Great Great Great Great Great Great Grandparents.......
(Our grandchildren they must add two more Greats !!)
William Theobalds was born about 1600 and married Anniss (We don't know if this is a Christian or Surname)in about 1620 in Steeple Morden . They had four children one daughter Mabbell and three sons Edward, John and William all christened in Steeple Morden.
St Peter & Paul Parish Church Steeple Morden
John Theobalds was christened 20th May 1627. We haven't found a marriage for him but we know he had a son also a John Theobalds who was born about 1650 and married Mary Bird on the 31st March 1673 at Abington Piggotts. They had three sons and two daughters.
Abington Piggotts Church
Their third son Henry was christened 29th September 1683. He married Elizabeth Barons on the 4th May 1707 at Steeple Morden. He was a Baker. (Her parents were Richard Barons also of Steeple Morden and Mary Bouset)Henry and Elizabeth had three sons. Their first son John Theobalds was christened 20th March 1707 he married Sarah Austin on the 7th October 1730 at Steeple Morden. (Her parents were Christopher Austin and Mary Bennit they were married at Steeple Morden on the 28th Sept 1700. They had three daughters and one son.)
John and Sarah's first son also John was born abt 1734 and he married Ann Bray 18 April 1763 at Abington Piggotts. He was a Baker.
Inside the church at Abington Piggotts there is a board naming Rectors of the church and there is a William Bray named with the date 1345
After they married they moved to Steeple Morden where they had their six children,two daughters and four sons. Four of the children married into a family called Jeneway .
William married a Hannah Jeneway, Henry married a Mary Jeneway, Sarah their sister married a Pearce Jeneway and another brother Jesse married a Sarah Jeneway. Very confusing !!
Their other daughter married a John Hitch. (The Hitch family were still living in the Village in the 1960's.)
John & Sarah's eldest child was also named John. He was christened on the 4th July 1764 and he married Sarah Harper on the 19th November 1789 in Abington Piggots. John was a Tailor.
Their first two children were born in Guilden Morden and they then moved to Steeple Morden where they had nine more, Seven sons and four daughters in total.
St Marys Guilden Morden
Their second son William was christened 11 May 1793 at Steeple Morden, he married Elizabeth Bygrave on the 30th November 1818 at Wallington Hertfordshire, Elizabeth's home village. William was a carpenter.
Their first child was born in Wallington and then they settled in Brook End which is in the NE of Steeple Morden.
Simeon Theobalds was christened on the 27th March 1836 at Steeple Morden church. He was the eighth child of the eleven children born to them, four daughters and eight sons.
We have traced Elizabeth's father's Bygrave family back to the early 1700's. They were Farmers and Blacksmiths.
Elizabeth was the eldest of eleven children.
She died of Typhus in Steeple Morden in November 1849. Three of her children died the same year, George aged 10 on the 2 September, Hannah aged 16 on the 29th Sept and Jesse aged 20 on the 21st October 1849.
The children are buried at the Parish Church and Elizabeth at The Congregational church.
Congregational Church Steeple Morden.
Elizabeth's mother's family (The Ginn's) has been traced back to 1450 in Aston Hertfordshire.
This Windmill was owned by the Ginn family in abt 1720
My father's (Harry Reginald) mother Mary Elizabeth Theobalds was born in Guilden Morden on the 30 April 1870 the fifth child of eight children born to Simeon Theobalds and Lucy Marion Phillips. On the 25th December 1898 she married Joseph Dexter Page at Steeple Morden Parish Church.
(Lucy Marion was born about 1834 in Marylebone, London to Thomas Phillips and Susannah Gordon, they had six children five daughters and one son and Lucy was their fourth child.)
