the research microsite

Return to Explore the Rockefeller Library Collections page

Budden Family Bible

  • Acc. No. 52484

Transcript: Family History

View Image [Cover]
View Image

Thomas Woodford, His Book 1734 when this you Se remember me, &
Mama [& pa?]
View Image

[Opposite the Title Page]

Anne Cookson is mye
name and england is mye
nashon
View Image

[Title Page]
View Image

This Bibell Given George Budden
by Mr. Richard Bettesworth
his godfather in the yere 1669

Mr. George Budden & Mary were
married the 14 day of August in ye
yere of ye Lord 1666.
Died October
ye 8 1669		 William Budden bourn ye 28 of
October 1667.
friday George Budden ye 14 of
February 1669.
Died Jun[e] ye
30, 1674		 Mary Budden ye 3d of
February 1670.
Thomas Budden ye 6 of
Aprill 1671.
Died July 29,
1677		 Peter Budden ye 14 of
June 1672.
Ann Budden ye 9 of
July 1673.
Mr. George Budden Died ye 20 of
July 1673.

Notes

  • The Budden family notes are recorded on the verso of the New Testament title page. On the opening pages of the Bible there are inscriptions from later owners, Thomas Woodford (1734) and [Anne] Cookson.
  • George Budden married Mary Collis on August 14, 1666 in the parish of St Ann Blackfriars in the City of London. Less than a month later the church was destroyed in the Great Fire of London. It was not rebuilt, so the family sought a new parish.
  • Three children, William (christened 31 October 1667), George (christened 23 February 1668) and Thomas (christened 16 April 1671) are listed in the records of St. Clement Danes in Westminster, London. The discrepancy in the year of young George’s birth—1668 or 1669—may be explained by the calendar change in the 18th century. The database uses the new or Gregorian calendar while the recorder of the birth in the Bible used the old (Julian) calendar.
  • George’s godfather may have been the Richard Bettesworth who was buried at St. Mary Le Bow in London on June 3, 1689.
  • According to the British National Archives database, a will for George Buding or Buden, upholsterer, of St. Clements Danes, was proved in 1673.
  • This Bible was purchased by Colonial Williamsburg in 1973 for the binding, especially the engraved cornerpieces and clasps. It was to be exhibited with some brass book fittings that were excavated in the Historic Area as a complete example. The curator of metalwork wrote to a London rare book dealer, “We are quite anxious to acquire a book with fittings similar to one of the three illustrated. We are not particular in any way as to the contents of the book and would desire the binding to be rather plain but original.” The dealer replied that he had “an English Bible printed in Amsterdam in 1640 and bound in Dutch contemporary calf over oak boards. There are blind-tooled roll-stamps on the covers, as well as metal centre- and cornerpieces and clasps.”

Sources and Related Reading

  • Bell, Walter George. The Great Fire of London in 1666. London: John Lane, 1920.
  • London, England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538–1812. Ancestry.com
  • England & Wales Christening Records, 1530–1906. Ancestry.com
  • National Archives. Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills (1384–1858)
  • U.K. Extracted Probate Records. Ancestry.com
Back to Library