William Harbord - Parentage

Evidence needs to be shown to prove Henry Harbord is the father of William Harbord.

William Harbord (who died 1779 in Rotherhithe) would probably have been born between about 1740 and 1755. No William Harbord baptism was found in the Coltishall Parish, Norfolk baptism images available on familysearch.org, but it appears that all alleged younger siblings of William were indeed baptized in Coltishall Parish. Alleged older sibling Elizabeth was baptized in Stratton Strawless Parish but there is no record of William being baptized there. There was a William Harbord baptized in Tunstead Parish in 1741 on the same day as the Richard Child who married Anne Colman in 1770 but this William seems to have been in Swanton Abbot Parish where a child was baptized in 1781 and so this William obviously did not die in Rotherhithe in 1779.

In summary, the William Harbord who married Ann Grimble in 1776 in Yarmouth is an enigma because his baptism record has not been discovered and the facts about his birth are from what I think is a discredited Harbord of Scottow pedigree. I would be willing to consider changing my opinion on this pedigree if the family bible could be located and an image of it could be obtained.

1756 - earliest Harbord baptism in the Coltishall records is for Henry son of Henry and Sarah Harbord on Dec. 21, 1756. The Stratton Strawless record for sibling Elizabeth is from 1747 with Henry and Sarah as parents. The Harbord of Scottow pedigree alleges that Henry and Sarah are the parents of William, as noted above.

1776, Dec. 3: marriage of William Harbord to Anne Grimble in Yarmouth St. Nicholas. He and this Anne are the logical parents of William Harbord who was baptized at Rotherhithe St. Mary on June 27, 1779.

1779 July 13: burial of William "Harburd from Rotherhithe" at Deptford St. Paul parish. [Source: ancestry.co.uk database.] Record does not say son of anyone, as many of the other burial records do, so this is an adult burial. ["Harburd" is likely just a spelling error by the parish clerk.]

Deptford is just down the Thames river from Rotherhithe. In the last half of the 1700's, Deptford was an area filled with Royal Navy and East India Company docks. "Deptford is a town and two parishes which are also sub-districts, in the district of Greenwich; part of one of the parishes (St. Paul) in Surrey, the rest of that parish and the whole of the other (St. Nicholas) in Kent. The town stands at the influx of the Ravensbourne rivulet to the Thames, and on the London and Greenwich railway, immediately west of Greenwich, and 3 miles south-south-east of London Bridge. St. Paul's church was built in the time of Queen Anne . . . ."