The first of our Mabrey family who permanently settled in America was Francis Maybury who came to the Virginia Colony by October 1679. It is very likely that he came from England but we are still searching for his place of birth and the names of his parents.

Since that time a number of other Mayburys and Mayberrys have come to settle in the American Colonies, Canada and Australia. Thanks to our Maybury-Mayberry DNA Surname Project, we are beginning to understand a bit more about their English and Irish origins.

Our study of The International Genealogical Index has helped us to understand that there were Mayburys in London and the nearby counties of Oxford and Surrey at least by about the mid 16th century. Before 1600 one or two families seem to have migrated southwest to Devonshire. The spellings used in some of these early records included:

Mayborowe, Maybery, Mebrey, Mabre and Mabroughe.

Then, shortly before 1590, the Mayburys began moving north and west into the English midlands where they established themselves in Warwick, Derby and especially in Shropshire by 1600. By 1630 the family was in Hereford, Worcester and even as far north as Lancashire. By far the largest number were in Shropshire where the name was spelled variously as:

Maybery, Mayberry, Maybury, Mayberye, Mayburie, Mebery, Mayburye,
Mebury, Maybrey, Meyburye and Mabury.

The most common spellings by this time were Maybery and Maybury. As with any family the Mayburys engaged in a number of occupations. However, it is striking to note how many of them were engaged in one way or another as iron workers. As we will see this ironworker tradition continued for several generations, not only in England, but in Ireland, the American Colonies and later even in Australia.





September 2003