General Notes

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Excerpt from "The Sibley Family in America" by James Scarborough Sibley

ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE SIBLEY FAMILY

"Among the many families worthy of mention in the discussion of the development of the nation is one called Sibley.    The Sibley family can certainly be considered to be one of the "old " families in this country, and those of us who bear the name today have much for which we can be justly proud.  It behooves all of us to examine our own standards, mores and goals to ensure that we are living up to the fine tranditions established and passed on to us by our forefathers.

John and Richard Sibley came to Salem, Massachusetts in 1629 in Winthrop's Fleet.  These two men are original settlers whose families have spread across the entire country.  John Sibley of Virginia was also one of the earliest Sibleys in North America whose descendents are now spread from coast to coast.  At various times since 1629 other Sibleys whose connections with John & Richard Sibley are unknown have come directly from England to the United States or through Jamaica and Canada.  The migrations of the population westward and southward from NewEngland and Virginia as the continent was opened for settlement resulted in the separation of new families from their established home areas. Meager records in some places make it extremely difficult to identify living representatives of some branches of the family with the original settlers.

There are also people named Sibley in the United States whose ancestors brought other names from Europe.  A Polish immigrant named Cibulskis changed his name to Sibley as did a Swiss named Zubli.  Yet another named Bogues adopted the name Sibley after having been saved from drowning in the St Lawrence River by a man named Sibley.  A Dutch immigrant changed his name from Sibelink to Sibley.  A Yugoslav immigrant changed his name from Serblin to Sibley.

The Sibleys are believed to be descendents of Scotch-English ancestors who brought the name to America with them.  Those from England probably have a common ancestor somewhere in the archives of Great Britain.  The kinship of all Sibleys in America has been alleged by various members of the family, but no one has demonstrated its validity through research in original sources in Great Brittain.

John Langdon Sibley conducted extensive research into the origin of the Sibley family and included much of his work in his book, History of the Town of Union, Main, published in 1851.  Thi s book contains a great amount of information concerning the descendents of Richard Sibley of Salem, Massachusetts and was the primary source for the data on this branch of the family.  The following information is John John Langdon Sibley analysis of the name Sibley.

"The name SIBLEY may be compounded of the words SIB and LEA.  The former means relationship or alliance; or, in earlier times, peace; and the latter, a field.  Hence the words combined may mean kinsman's land. Perhaps several kinsmen lived together in the same place, or on the same lea.  If the earlier meaning of the word SIB be adopted, the meaning maybe peace-lea, or land of peace; perhaps because of the harmony of the people, or because the place was exempt from war.  This explanation of the origin of the word, however, is merely conjectural.

The description of the SYBLY arms, in Burke's General Armory, is 'perpale azure and gules a griffin passant between three crescents argent'. In heraldry, the griffin, which is an imaginary animal, half eagle and half lion, denotes strength and swiftness.  The close agreement of the armorial bearing of the families of SILEBY and of SYBLY seems to show that one of the names is a variation of the other, -- the latter probably being a corruption of the former.  But it is certain that SIBLEY is of considerable antiquity, as it is found in the Rotuli Hundredorum of the reighn of Edward I (1272-1307, in the counties of Huntington, Kent,Oxford, and Suffolk, where it is spelt SYBELI, SIBELI, SIBELY, SIBILI,SIBILIE, SIBLI; and where the name SILEBY does not seem to occur.  The Public Records published by the Record Commission spell it SIBILLE , in the reign Richard II (1377-1399); and SIBYLE in that of Henry V(1413-1422); and in that of Elizabeth (1558-1603), it is SYBLEY, SIBLEY,and SIBLY; and once (with an alias) SYBERY .  A very similar name of about the same antiquity is FILIUS SIBILLAE, or FITZ-SYBL, which may have been the original of the name in some cases; in other cases it may have been derived from the parish of Hingham Sibyl, or Sible, or Sibleys, in Essex.

From Felt's Annals of Salem, i. 172, it seems that the first of the Sibleys in this country ca me to Salem in the fleet of 1629.  It is said that they were from the north part of England o r South part of Scotland,or that they came from Northamptonshire.  In Willis's Cathedrals, i i.172, it is stated that 'John Sibeley collated 1459,' succeeded Roger Mersham as Prebendary of Lincoln.  In Rymer's Foedera, xxi. 348, is recorded 'Pro Johanne Sibley.  Rex, vicesimo sext o die maii (1631 or1632) concessit Johanni Sibley et aliia Officium Clerici et Clericorumomni um et singulorum brevium et processuum in Curia Camere Stellate,durante vits. P(rivato) S(igi llo); ' meaning Clerk of the Court of the Starre Chamber for life.  In Dugdale's Warwickshire , Knightlow Hundred,Marton, i.327, under the patronage of 'Rob. Fysher miles and Bar.,' is found 'Thom. Sybley Cler. in Art. Magr. svii. Oct 1623 (v.p.m. Ric. Sealeult. Incumb.):  In the same volume, Birdingsbury, p. 325 is '(Tho. SibleyCler. ii Julii 1633).'  In Besse's Suffer ings of the Quakers, i. 638-644,Thomas Sibley, a blacksmith, is 'sent to gaol' and fined -- though he was afterward released and the fine remitted--' for being at an unlawful Meeting or Conventicle, in the parish of Crewkherne, 'in Somersetshire,on the fourth of June 1684.  In the same volume, page 345, William Sibley is named as a prisoner in 1685, in Leicester, -- the town where Higgerson was settled before he came to Massachusetts, in 1629.  Possibly some of the Sibleys were related to the early settlers in New England."

It is evident from this information that the Sibley family has been in existence for a long time.  Another source connects the family all the way back to the Norman Conquest in 1066 in a similar analysis.  The Sibley family has been in American for more than 350 years."

The Sibley family motto is found in Bolton's American Armory and translates, "To be and not to seem".  It is also the motto of the State of North Carolina.