7.Addenda - Bellsouthpwp.net

Our Kirby Line
[Note: The following section on our Kirby ancestors is derived from documents which were in the
genealogical work papers of Norman W. Pettys, Sr. NWP utilized the material in preparing his Pettys family
genealogy although he did not reprint them in that work.]
THE KIRBY LINEAGE OF HANNAH (KIRBY) PETTY
From: The Kirby's of New England by Melatiah Everett Dwight, New York, 1898
(pp. 3-6)
KIRBY COAT OF ARMS:
Argent, two bars gules, on a canton of the second, a cross moline, or.
(“Visitation of London., p. 40”)
Page 325
“The name of Kirby is probably one of Danish origin. It was originally written Kirkby, from
Kirke, meaning Church, and bye, dwelling. The earliest use of the word is found in the name of one
of the shires of Deira, part of ancient Northumbria. A very early use of the word is found in the
names of several towns in the north of England, viz, Kirkby Kendal, Kirby Lonsdale, Kirby Stephen,
etc. Although originally written Kirkby, the name has long been pronounced as if written Kirby.
Hence the latter spelling has almost altogether superseded the former.
The earliest appearance of the name as designating a particular family is found in the title
given to the barons of Kirkby Kendal in Westmoreland. The first Baron Kirby was Ivo Taillebois,
who came with the Conqueror. He died without male issue, and the barony passed to his brother
Gerard’s family. In 1272 John Kirkby was made Keeper of the Great Seal, and soon afterward
Bishop of Ely. In 1322, another John Kirkby (also written Kirby) was created Bishop of Carlisle.
In the 15th and 16th centuries, there were several families of Kirkbys and Kirbys living in various
parts of England as is shown by the Visitations of Essex, Leicestershire, Yorkshire, etc. which have
recently been published by the Harleian Society from the original manuscripts kept in the British
Museum. The Kirby names usually found in these Visitations are Richard, Roger, William & John
- all Norman names. These are the names usually met with among the early Kirbys of New England,
and this circumstance suggests the idea that the New England Kirbys were of Norman origin. Some
effort has been made to trace their ancestry in England.
Joseph Kirby came from Warwickshire, and John Kirby in 1654 sold an estate in Rowington,
Warwickshire ... to Richard Lord... The baptism of Michael Kirby, son of Humphrey, Sept.22, 1622,
found in one of the recovered sheets of the lost register of St. Mary's Church in Warwick shows,
however, that there were Kirbys living in the vicinity in the early part of the 17th Century ... This