JonStarbuck.co.uk

[this is a bit of a draft of an idea for a blog entry i never finished, so I have posted it in the hope it may have a few bits of useful information rather than because it is a great bit of writing....]

My name is Jonathan Starbuck, Jon to everyone that knows me.

Dad is a Starbuck, our family’s ship chandlers business in Gravesend in Kent has been in the family for nearly four-hundred years, one way on another. There is a Starbuck in Moby Dick, the whaling novel, and there are, I am told, quite a few Starbucks in Nantucket because of real life whaling but, according to Dad’s genetic testing, our side of the family are not related to them. Starbucks, the coffee shop, was not started by one of us, they pinched the name form Moby Dick. Facebook has spawned a “Starbuck is out name not our coffee shop” group, there are about one-hundred of us on there from across Brittan and the US.

Dad says the name is Viking or Norse, but I think he is making this up.

One thing is for sure, however, despite what you may read all over the internet, it did not come from the village of Starbeck in Yorkshire, England.

On the House Of Names site it says of the surname Starbuck:

First found in Yorkshire where they were anciently seated as Lords of the Manor of Starbeck near Harrogate. Some of the first settlers of this family name or some of its variants were: Edward Starbuck settled in New Hampshire in 1635; William Starbucke settled in Virginia in 1635. Spelling variations of this family name include: Starbuck, Starbock, Stirbrock, Stalbrook, Sturbock, Styrbuck, Stirbuck and many more.

Which is such shocking nonsense that it astounds me!

Joshua Starbuck of the USA writes on Urban Dictionary that Starbuck is:

An surname dating to circa 13th/14th century England. This particular surname is actually a corruption of earlier names, either Starbok or Starbeck. The origins of the name reach back to old Norse ’stor’ and ‘bok.’ Combined these words amount to ‘big stream.’

The first record of a Starbuck in the Americas was a one Edward Starbuck, circa 1635. I am a direct decendant of said man, and am therefore a 14th generation Starbuck in America.

There may be some truth in this, who knows - he does not site any references - however:

1. There were people in America called Starbuck long before there was a place near Harrogate in Yorkshire called Starbeck.
2. There were never any lords of the manor of Starbeck, indeed…
3. There was never a manor of Starbeck.
4. Starbeck during medieval times was part of the ancient and royal hunting forest of Knaresborough.
   (To quote a friend “there is as much chance of there being an ancient manor of Starbeck as there is of New York being part of the manor of Donald Duck”.)
5. The royal forest of Knaresborough belonged to the reigning monarch, that is why it was a royal forest.
6. The first recorded census records Starbeck in 1831 having less than 20 inhabitants and it had never  before had so many.
7. The forest of Knaresborough being crown property from at least 1100ad is well documented in both the Duchy of Lancaster (the Queen’s) and Knaresborough town records in the public record office in London.
8. There are Manor Forest and Liberty of knaresborough court rolls in the public record office. This is England, everything is well documented from Roman times.

Unfortunately genealogists and family historians in the USA get wrapped up in silly romantic beliefs which are completely groundless, and they believe anything that they pay anyone to tell them. Some people just make it all up because it makes them a profit.

Wen I sent this info to my Dad he said:

Thanks for pointing out these links of which there are many many more, just like the J. & R. site which you helped create which perpetuates the myth of a William Starbuck from Gravesend, brother to (Edward of Derby 1604-1690), who is historically a most important figure in early American history.
By using DNA testing I am able to say that we are not connected with his family and the Nantucket descendants of which there are many within the USA.
‘Starbuck’ the name (as mentioned) has innumerable spellings but I do believe that this families origins lie in our Scandinavian Haplo grouping. I am more than aware of the various Norse interpretations from ‘Stor/Star’ and ‘Bokki/Bocki’, I think the earliest reference to the old english name is from the Poll Tax Returns of 1379 for a Robertus Starbok, you can also find it in the dictionary of surnames. The personal name Ster or Sterr is recorded in the Domesday Survey of 1086.