Geography | washbourn

1. Worcestershire 1259-1743 (dates are approximates)

The Washbourne families in England were centred around 3 distinct geographic areas in the western counties at different times, prior to their emigration to New Zealand. The notes that follow summarise these movements.

Geography - the English Counties :

where did they come from?

There is much documentation about the Washbourne family of Little Washbourne and Wichenford in the county of Worcestershire : this ‘antient and illuftrious’ family flourished near Worcester city from the middle of the 13th Century. There is a tradition that the family founder “was knighted on the field of battle by William the Conqueror, and endowed by him with the lands and manors of Little and Great Washbourne”. The first indisputable member of the line is Sir Roger de Washborn in 1259. Almost exactly 500 years later, and 18th in unbroken descent from Sir Roger, Ernle Washbourn Esq. died in 1743 without male heirs, and the lands of Washbourne in Worcestershire passed out of the hands of Washbournes and the main male line of the family came to an end.

Wichenford Court in Worcestershire.

During this time, the Washbourne family owned Wichenford Court for nearly 300 years and worshipped in the nearby Wichenford Church, where monuments and memorials can be seen today. The family's close association with Wichenford came to an end around 1651, at the time of the Battle of Worcester; John (generation 15) as a Royalist lost his hold on the land. John's son, William, inherited land at Pytchley in Northamptonshire from his great-grandmother, and the family moved to that seat. The Wichenford Court property continued in the family for two generations more in the persons of John's son and grandson, both named William, until 1712 when it was sold to Edmund Skynner.

There were however three well-established cadet branches of the Washbourn family :

A Bengeworth Branch which hived off a few miles only, near Evesham, in the 1500s and fathered a thriving American branch (who nowadays spell their surname ‘Washburn’)
A London Branch which left the main line about 1600
A Gloucestershire Branch which broke away one generation later (and has descendants in and around the city of Gloucester today). Some emigrated to Canterbury (New Zealand) in 1850 and there are descendants are still living there today.

There was also another branch, documented in the 1960s:

A Wiltshire Branch whose descent from the main line has not been established. It is from this branch that the New Zealand Washbourns arise.

2. Wiltshire ca 1540-1820

(See map section below)

A section of northern Wiltshire, showing the parishes where early Washbourn families lived. Crudwell and Hankerton lie to the east of Tetbury in the centre. Eastcourt, Minety and Cloatley are nearby, to the east; Lea and Cleverton a little further south. Oldbury on the Hill, where Richard Washbourn is buried, is on the left centre of this map. Wroughton is located at the bottom right.

Scale: the distance between Oldbury on the Hill and Minety is 13 miles [21km.].

The first direct ancestor of the Wiltshire Branch traced is John Washbourn of Escott, a husbandman farmer, born about 1540, and 10 generations descended from Sir Roger. He and his descendants lived in the northern Wiltshire villages of Eastcourt, Minety, Cloatley, Cleverton and Lea. The earliest tomb of the family that has been found is that of a John Washbourn (1706-1758) whose altar tomb survives in the churchyard at Lea. Some time in the 1730s, this John Washbourn moved further south to Yatesbury where another 2 generations farmed. At about this time (the middle 1700s), a Thomas Washbourn established a Wroughton dynasty a few miles away to the north-east near Swindon, where the members occupy a large chunk of Wroughton churchyard; there are descendants of this cadet branch in England to this day.

Altogether the Washbourns farmed in Wiltshire for about 8 generations, over at least 300-odd years, before Richard Washbourn, born in Yatesbury in 1775, turns up in occupation of several large properties in Surrey in southern England.

3. Surrey ca 1820-1852

The enigmatic Richard Washbourn from Yatesbury, 18th in descent from Sir Roger de Washborne, disappeared from the records for 22 years. During this time, he marries, has a son, loses his wife, and in some unknown way acquires a ‘daughter’, Emma Everley, born 1811. He reappears in the records in occupation of several large properties in Surrey, 100 miles from Wiltshire, in 1825, from whence his son William Everley Washbourn was born in 1819.

It was from ‘Tillingdown’ near Caterham in Surrey that this son, William Everley Washbourn, by now married and with 6 children, emigrated to New Zealand in 1852. ['Tillingdown' Farm is located just to the east of Caterham, close to the telephone symbol on this map section. Caterham is now part of Greater London.]

The story of the emigration and the family’s subsequent settlement in the Nelson region has been recounted in Enga Washbourn’s book 'Courage and Camp Ovens', published by Reed in 1970.