• The origins of the wider Hebden family
• The Yorkshire Dales
• William Hebden b.1783
• Wanderings - the early years
• The Brighton family
• The flight to the North
• The Burnley family
• The end of the Brighton line
• New beginnings - Australia
• New beginnings - America
• The Great War
• The Second World War
• The Swinging 60's
• My Hebden family today

William Hebden 1783 - 1839 (F1)

William is the earliest person I have so far succeeded in tracing in my family. His year of birth was established by testimony that his son Henry gave at the inquest on his death. Because of this,  I know quite a lot about William's death, though ironically very little about his birth as yet.

So what is known about William? He was a Cordwainer by trade, - a skilled leather worker able to make bags, buckets, shoes and boots out of high quality leather, later in life he would describe himself as a master shoemaker. The earliest documented event in his life is his marriage to Frances Akehurst at the Parish Church of St John At Hackney on Friday the 1st of January 1813. The text of the register entry is reproduced below.

The service was conducted after Banns read out in the church on Sunday 13th of December 1812, 20th December and Sunday 27th December. Benjamin Crook must have made a few pence out of weddings at St. John's, - he and his wife were witnesses to three other marriages on this page of the register!

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