Forebears: Melbourn

I’ve been exploring the Casbon family’s origins in Cambridgeshire, England. With this post I will begin looking in more detail at those parishes where early forebears of the family once lived. I’m starting with the village and parish of Melbourn, since it has some of the earliest records of the family and is the closest location to Meldreth (where the modern family is known to have lived).

Map detail showing the villages of Meldreth and Melbourn; (Ordnance Survey, England and Wales, Revised New Series, Sheet 204 Biggleswade (Hills), 1896 Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) licence,  National Library of Scotland, “Map Images,” https://maps.nls.uk/index.html (Click on image to enlarge)

Melbourn lies immediately southeast and adjacent to Meldreth parish. A narrow stream, the Mel, separates the two parishes and gives them their names. Melbourn lies along the important Royston-to-Cambridge highway, now known as the A-10. It has always been the larger of the two parishes.

Melbourn was home to Casbon ancestors for probably 150 years or more before their appearance in Meldreth. Their baptisms, marriages, and burials are recorded in the parish registers of All Saints Church.

All Saints Church, Melbourn; © Copyright John Salmon and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons License: https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/File:Melbourn_All_Saints_Cambridgeshire.jpg

Early Records

The earliest available parish records in Melbourn begin in 1558. The first record with a variant of the Casbon surname is the marriage of John Smithe and Katherine Casbolde on 3 October 1560.[1] The next is the marriage of John Slipper and Alys Casbolde on
4 November 1574.[2] The third is the marriage of William Casbolde to Margrett Saybrocke on 22 September 1577.[3]

The marriage of William Casbolde to Margrett Saybrocke at Melbourn, 22 September 1577; Melbourn parish registers, FamilySearch (film 1040540, image 635, https://www.familysearch.org/search/film/007567610?cat=210722 : accessed Jun 2016) (Click on image to enlarge)

Since the records only go back to 1558, we don’t know the origins of Katherine, Alys, and William Casbolde. They were probably born and raised in Melbourn and they are probably siblings, although Katherine could be a young aunt of Alys and William instead. At any rate, it’s evident that the family was present at Melbourn by at least the mid-sixteenth century, and might have been there much earlier.

William Casbolde (?­–1598/99)

Note: readers are welcome to download these documents: The Descendants of William Casbolde (d. 1599) of Melbourn and Timeline of Casbon Families in Melbourn up to 1681. They provide more detailed information that what is contained below.

According to the parish registers, William and Margrett had at least five children: Thomas (baptized and buried 1578), John (baptized 1579), Thomas (1582), Robert (1586–1588), and Barbara (1589).[4] Of the sons, only John and Thomas (1582) survived to adulthood. Barbara was married to Edward Draper in 1616.[5]

We know nothing about William’s occupation or social status. He was buried at Melbourn on 14 February 1598/99.[6] (This date is an example of dual dating. Prior to 1752, England used the old Julian calendar. Each new year began on Lady Day, 25 March, not 1 January as we are used to. Dates between 1 January and 25 March before 1752 are often recorded using dual dating, in which the year is recorded using both the old Julian year and the modern Gregorian year.)

William’s widow, Margrett, is probably the “widow Casbould” who was buried 10 April 1626.[7]

A family tree showing William and Margrett (Saybrocke) Casbolde and the first two generations of their descendants (Click on image to enlarge)

John (1579-1641) and Thomas (1582–1642)

As the family entered the seventeenth century, William’s sons John and Thomas married and continued the family name. As was typical for the era, both infant and maternal mortality were high. Both brothers lost their first wives and several of their children. (Refer to the family tree, above)

John married Joan Deere in 1607.[8] The couple had five children, of whom at least two survived to adulthood. Their daughter Joan (probably) married Thomas Yong of Langford, Bedfordshire at Bassingbourn in 1641.[9] The fates of Benjamyn and Thomas (baptized 1616) are unknown.

After Joan’s death in February 1617/18,[10] John married Grace Fox in September 1618[11] and the couple had two children: Richard (baptized 1619[12]) and Grace (baptized 1621/22[13]). Richard had at least three and possibly four wives. Only one of the marriages is recorded in the parish registers[14] and the other three are imputed either by the baptisms of children to them or the burial of one of them. The daughter, Grace, was married to John Hall at Cambridge St. Edwards Church in 1642.[15]

John was buried at Melbourn 28 April 1641 and Grace 26 September 1649.[16]

John’s brother Thomas was married to Edith Grystocke in 1606[17] and the couple had two daughters before Edith’s death in 1613.[18] He married Ellen Campion one year later.[19] Thomas and Ellen had four daughters and three sons. All but two daughters and one son died in early childhood. Of the remaining daughter, Elen (baptized 1619/20) died unmarried in 1649[20] and the fate of Mary (baptized 1631) is unknown. The remaining son, William (baptized 1621) is discussed below.

Ellen (Campion) was buried at Melbourn in November 1639 and was followed by Thomas in March 1641/42.[21]

William (1621–1681)

William’s first marriage took place at St. Edward King and Martyr, one of the oldest churches in Cambridge, about 9½ miles north of Melbourne. The parish register tells us that “William Casboult, of Melbourne & Mary Cooper of Meldred [sic]” were married there by license 15 September 1642.[22] The baptisms of seven children to William and Mary are recorded in the Melbourn parish records. At least two of the children died in childhood; the fate of the others is unknown. Mary was buried at Melbourn in April 1667.

There is no record of William’s marriage to Ann _____, but the baptisms of three children to this couple are recorded. They are William (21 January 1669/60), John (1 July 1672), and Mary (12 October 1675).[23] Mary’s fate is unknown, but William and John might have settled in Meldreth and had families there (see below).

The family of William Castbolt (baptized 1621) and his two wives (Click on image to enlarge)

The burial of William, the father, at Melbourn 1 September 1681, is the last entry in the Melbourn registers for almost the next 50 years.[24] His wife, Ann’s, burial is not recorded (unless she is the widow Anne Cassbell who was buried at Meldreth in 1718/19).

After William?

With William’s death, the family seemingly disappeared from Melbourn. Where did they go? I think there’s a good chance that William’s youngest sons, William and John, ended up just across the stream at Meldreth.

The earliest records of the family at Meldreth begin with the births of two boys—John and William—in 1701 and 1702/3 respectively, to William Casbel and his wife Anne.[25] There is no record of William’s marriage to Anne, but this might have taken place in the late 1690s when there are gaps in both the Melbourn and Meldreth records. Given his age, the fact that this family appears in Meldreth shortly after the name disappears from the Melbourn records, and the proximity of the two parishes, I think it’s likely that William was the child baptized at Melbourn in 1672. Although I can’t prove it, this theory fits well with the known facts.

William of Meldreth was buried 27 March 1707, when his two sons were still children.[26] Anne, the mother and widow, was probably buried in March 1718/19, although this burial might be that of the widow of William (baptized at Melbourn 1621).[27]

In 1712 we have the baptism at Meldreth of a daughter, Ann, to John and Ann Cassbell, the first of several births to this couple.[28] Once again, there is no marriage record for John and Ann. For the same reasons described above, I think John was the child baptized at Melbourn in 1772. John may be the man described as “a poor shoemaker” who was buried at Meldreth on 26 March 1727, followed by his widow, Anne, in 1732.[29]

Even if my assumptions about William and John are correct, the link between the Melbourn family and today’s Casbons, who trace their ancestry to Meldreth, is unknown. The latter appear to be descended from John Casborn, who was born in nearby Orwell and came to Meldreth as an apprentice cordwainer (shoemaker) in 1735. He was apprenticed to William Casbill, who might be the child born 1702/3 and baptized in 1707. If nothing else, there is strong circumstantial evidence that the family that lived in Melbourn in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is related in some way to the one that arose in Meldreth in the eighteenth century.


[1] T.P.R. Layng, compiler, Melbourn, Cambridgeshire, parish register transcripts 1558–1851, typescript, 1975, p. 140; browsable images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/78897 : accessed 8 Apr 2021) >film 990296 >image 394 of 1113.
[2] T.P.R. Layng, compiler, Melbourn, Cambridgeshire, parish register transcripts, p. 142; image 396 of 1113.
[3] Layng, Melbourn parish register transcripts, p.. 143.
[4] Layng, Melbourn parish register transcripts, pp. 10–12, 14–15, 230.
[5] Layng, Melbourn parish register transcripts, p. 149.
[6] Layng, Melbourn parish register transcripts, p. 236.
[7] Layng, Melbourn parish register transcripts, p. 248.
[8] T.P.R. Layng, p. 148.
[9] T.P.R. Layng, compiler, Bassingbourn, Cambridgeshire, parish register transcripts 1558–1851, typescript, 1975, p. 184; browsable images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/search/film/008048581 : accessed 9 Apr 21) >film 8048581>image 258 of 695.
[10] Layng, Melbourn parish register transcripts, p. 244.
[11] Layng, Melbourn parish register transcripts, p. 149.
[12] Layng, Melbourn parish register transcripts, p. 31.
[13] Layng, Melbourn parish register transcripts, p. 33.
[14] Layng, Melbourn parish register transcripts, p. 154, Richard Casbolt & Ann Hall, 28 Jun 1658.
[15] W.P.W. Phillimore & Evelyn Young, eds., Cambridgeshire Parish Registers: Marriages, vol. 1 (London: Phillimore & Co., 1907), p. 39; image copy, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/search/film/007561578 : accessed 8 Apr 21) >film 7561578 >image 28 of 697.
[16] Layng, Melbourn parish register transcripts, pp. 254 & 257.
[17] Layng, Melbourn parish register transcripts, p. 147.
[18] Layng, Melbourn parish register transcripts, p. 242.
[19] Layng, Melbourn parish register transcripts, p. 149.
[20] Layng, Melbourn parish register transcripts, p. 257.
[21] Layng, Melbourn parish register transcripts, pp. 253-4.
[22] W.P.W. Phillimore, Cambridgeshire Parish Registers: Marriages, vol. 1, p. 38.
[23]Layng, Melbourn parish register transcripts, pp.53, 55.
[24] Layng, Melbourn parish register transcripts, p. 265.
[25] Parish of Meldreth (Cambridgeshire), General Register, n.p., (baptisms 1701, 1702, & 1708), John Casbel (born 5 Oct 1701) and William Casbel (born 6 Mar 1702/3), both baptized 8 Jun 1707 ; accessed as “Parish registers for Meldreth, 1681-1877,” browsable images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/search/film/007567609?cat=210742 : accessed 29 August 2017) >images 100–101 of 699; citing FHL microfilm 1,040,542, item 2.
[26] Parish of Meldreth, General Register (burials 1707); FamilySearch, >image 47 of 699.
[27] Parish of Meldreth, General Register (burials 1718); FamilySearch, >image 48 of 699.
[28] Parish of Meldreth, General Register (baptisms 1712); FamilySearch, >image 102 of 699.
[29] Parish of Meldreth, General Register (burials 1727 & 1732); FamilySearch, >images 50–51 of 699.

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