{{ad}} |
|
|
The name Fairborn is an ancient Anglo-Saxon name that was given to a person who was a person with attractive, youthful looks, or someone who was noted as having been a beautiful child. The surname Fairborn is derived from the Old English words fair, which means lovely, and bearn, which means child.
However, the name Fairborn may also be a local surname applied to someone from the settlement of Fairbourne in Kent or Fairburn in the West Riding of Yorkshire. In this case, Fairborn belongs to the large category of Anglo-Saxon habitation names, which are derived from pre-existing names for towns, villages, parishes, or farmsteads.
The surname Fairborn was first found in North Yorkshire at Fairburn, a small village and civil parish in the Selby district that dates back to before the Domesday Book when it was listed as Fareburne c. 1030. A few years later in 1086, the Domesday Book lists the placename as Fareburne 1 and literally meant "stream where ferns grow," having derived from the Old English fearn + burna. 2
Some of the first records of the family were Augustin and Robert Fayr(e)barn(e) who were listed in the Subsidy Rolls for Yorkshire in 1297. 3
By the time of the Yorkshire Poll Tax Rolls of 1379, spellings were quite varied: Johannes Fayrebame; Willelmus Fairebarn; and Robertus Fayrebarne were all listed there at that time as holding lands. 4
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Fairborn research. Another 166 words (12 lines of text) covering the years 1297, 1327, 1644, 1680, 1685, 1686, 1688, 1690, 1692, 1693 and 1742 are included under the topic Early Fairborn History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Only recently has spelling become standardized in the English language. As the English language evolved in the Middle Ages, the spelling of names changed also. The name Fairborn has undergone many spelling variations, including Fairbairn, Fairbairns, Fairbarn, Fairborn, Fairborne and many more.
Notables of the family at this time include
To escape the unstable social climate in England of this time, many families boarded ships for the New World with the hope of finding land, opportunity, and greater religious and political freedom. Although the voyages were expensive, crowded, and difficult, those families that arrived often found greater opportunities and freedoms than they could have experienced at home. Many of those families went on to make significant contributions to the rapidly developing colonies in which they settled. Early North American records indicate many people bearing the name Fairborn were among those contributors: Robert Fairbarn landed in 1763. William Fairbarn joined many of his fellow Fairbarns when he purchased land in Philadelphia in 1835.