WILLIAM STEBBINS

• General Notes
  • William Stebbing of Black Notley, co. Essex, had five children baptized in that parish between 11 November 1593 and 18 March 1603/4. There is no burial recorded of him, his wife, or any of his children in the quite complete Registers of Black Notley, so we may safely assume that he left the parish and moved elsewhere after March 1603/4. The rest, however, is conjecture. We think he is the William Stebbing mentioned in the Braintree Vestry Book under date of 6 September 1619 when "Notice given by William Stebbing of a wench intertained at John Beckwiths dwelling in Cursing Green that is supposed to have a greate belly which the Constables have warning to look after." If the identification is correct, it is likely that William Stebbing had more children born after his removal to Braintree. It is also probable that William Stebbing was related, more or less closely, to his contemporary Thomas Stebbing of Bocking, father of Rowland and Martin who settled in Springfield. But it must be remembered that though Braintree adjoined Bocking on the north and Black Notley on the south, we have no proof of the identity of William Stebbing of Black Notley with William of Braintree, and because of the absence of Braintree Parish Registers before 1660, we have no record of the burial of William or his wife, and none of the baptisms of younger children he may have had at Braintree. The name of William's wife has not been found.1