Thomas Francis Stebbins Born 1565 - Jeri Charlene Holcomb Watson's Side Of The Family

THOMAS FRANCIS STEBBINS (Grandfather of the husband of a direct ancestor of Jeri Charlene Holcomb Watson) was born in 1565 in Bocking, England to William Stebbins. Thomas died on 16 October 1660, aged about 95. Note: According to the "Memoir," the family name is usually written as STEBBING in England, even up to the present, while it is STEBBINS in America. Marriage: The English ancestry of Rowland Stebbins is in some doubt. The family has generally accepted that Rowland's father was Sir Thomas Stebbing, apparently based upon the "Memoir of the Stebbins Family," by Dr. Daniel Stebbins, published in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vol 5 (1851), pp. 71-78. The exact words of the memoir are: "The eldest branch resided in Yorkshire, and descended from Sir Thomas Stebbing, Bart." But that assertion is suspect on several counts: first, it doesn't say that Sir Thomas was Rowland'sfather, but rather that he was an ancestor; there could have been many generations between the two. Second, Rowland is described, both in the memoir and elsewhere, as being from East Anglia, specifically, from Bocking or Stebbing/Stubbing, in Essex. Yorkshire is a long way from there, and it seems unlikely that the two are connected. Third, if Sir Thomas was a member of the minor aristocracy, why wasn't Rowland? His emigration to America, to live in what was very much a frontier society at the time, does not seem consistent with his being a son of an aristocrat. An e-mail, originally from Howard A. Stebbins, and forwarded by Pam &J ay Priest to the STEBBINS-L mail list on 18 March 1999, purports that Rowland was the son of Thomas (no title) and Ellen Stebbing of Bocking, Essex; the Greenlee "Stebbins Genealogy" seems to be cited as the source of this information. But Greenlee does not mention the nameof Rowland's father, and states "Although we have found no direct evidence as to the birthplace of ROWLAND STEBBINS, . . . there is a strong probability that he was born in or near the parish of Stebbing,Essex County.".