The National Society of the Claiborne Family Descendants
Home History Membership Newsletters Projects Publications Research Reunion

This is the fourth in the series of articles profiling the four families in the initial Y-chromosome DNA study. The first article on William Claiborne appeared in Vol. 3 issue 2 of the June 2002 newsletter. The second, on John Clyborn/Cliborn of old Henrico Co., VA, was in the Sept. 2002 issue, and the third, on Dr. Christopher James Cleborne of the family line of Cliburn Hall, Westmorland, Eng., was in the Dec. 2002 newsletter.

The following family's DNA donors were from Ireland and the United States. At one time it was thought that descendants of the following John might have fit into the Westmorland group but the DNA tests indicate otherwise.

JOHN CLIBBORN of Durham, England and Moate, Ireland

John Clibborn's great grandfather appears to have lived in Cockfield Parish, co. Durham where he was buried on 9 April 1599. His grandfather, Richard Clibborn, married Elizabeth Hodghson in Hamsterly parish on 20 Nov. 1593. Cockfield parish is divided in two by Hamsterly parish. John's parents were William Clibborn, baptized 18 Dec. 1597 in Hamsterly, and Margaret Coats. They were married on 9 May 1622 in Cockfield parish.

Quaker records state that John Clibborn of Moate, Ireland, was the son of William Clibborn of Cowley, co. Durham and that he was age 82 at the time of his death in 1705. This would place him as born in the Cockfield or Hamsterly parish area in 1623. Unfortunately, there is no record of his baptism in either parish. However, his sister, Margaret, was baptized in Cockfield in 1625. His two sisters, Anne and Bathsheba were baptized in Winston parish (south of Hamsterly) in 1630 and 1632.

Sometime around 1649, Col. John Clibborn went to Ireland with (Henry?) Cromwell. He married Margaret Crow of Newry in 1653. She died in 1661. He then married as his second wife Dinah English of Turphealem, co. Westmeath, Ireland, the daughter of the Quaker, Thomas England.

The 1659 census of Ireland lists him in Legand and Capiatack Townlands, Ballilaughlowe parish, the barony of Clonlonan, co Westmeath, province of Leinster. Moate is located in the barony of Clonlonan and adjoined the barony of Kilcoursey in co. Offaly. According to information from Bob Fetter, these lands "were set aside to pay the arrears of the disbanded Cromwellian soldiers. The rate of exchange in these baronies was ten acres for each six pounds of arrears." In 1655, John was granted lands in Cooleen, near Moate. He bought the Moate property in 1656 from Peter Humphrey, a Cromwellian soldier who had gotten the land and castle due to his service. The castle is still standing and the Claiborne Society group took pictures of it when they were there in April of 2002.

John's Quaker conversion came about sometime around 1658, the Friends put it thusly-"hearing the 'Quakers' had a meeting upon his land, he took fire to burn down their house. To his surprise he found Friends assembled, and one of them, Thomas Loe, preaching. Throwing away the fire, he went in and sat down behind the door, where he was convinced." He died 22 July 1705 at Moate, Grenoge, Ireland aged 82. John, his wives, and his family remained steadfast Quakers in a time and a place where it would not have been easy to do so.

Known children of John Clibborn and 1.) Margaret Crow:
1. Mary
2. William
3. Jane
4. George born 1660 Known children of John Clibborn and 2.) Dinah English
5. Joshua born 1665 Moate
6. John born 1667
7. Anne born 1671
8. Margaret born 1673
9. Thomas born 1675, died as infant
10. Abraham born 1676 ?

Your Best Sources:

  1. Dictionary of Quaker Biography, a typescript at the Library of the Religious Society of Friends in Britain, Friends House, London, England. There is a good listing of sources.
  2. Parish Church registers for Hamsterly and Cockfield, Durham, Eng. can be borrowed from the Family History Library in Salt Lake, Utah.
  3. Genealogical research of Celia Strachan, Bob Fetter and David Leverton.
  4. Moate Hist. Soc., Occasional Paper No. 4, Nov. 1990- The Contribution of the Clibborn Familly to Moate Town & Dist. By Breda Grouden, B.A., H. Dip in Ed. This also lists excellent sources. It was brought to our attention by Celia Strachan.
  5. Irish Pedigrees by John O'Hart, vol. II pp. 118-121. Be careful with this source as there is some mixing of the Cleborne and Clibborn families.

by Sue Cliborn Forbes