Buffry / Buffrey / Buffery before 1600

What the evidence currently suggests

There is quite a bit to say about the Buffry / Buffrey / Buffery name before 1700, and some of it goes surprisingly far back. The safest conclusion is that Buffry is one of several forms of a much older surname, but we should not assume that everyone carrying those forms belonged to one continuous family.

The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland treats Buffery as a variant of Bouverie, and Buffrey as a variant of Buffery. Bouverie comes from Old French bouverie, referring to a place where cattle or oxen were reared: in other words, an originally locational or topographical surname of Norman-French origin.

This appears more persuasive than commercial surname sites that connect Buffery directly with the Norman place-name Beaufour, which may conflate different surname traditions.

The medieval Lower Penn family

An historical account of Penn parish says that Lower Penn, south of Wolverhampton, was held by a family called Buffar, Buffary, Buffor or Buffery from the 12th century until the middle of the 15th century. The place itself was sometimes called Penn Buffar / Penn Buffor after the family.

1. William Buffary I — probably 12th century.
2. William Buffary II — recorded 1166–1189; dead before 1199.
3. William Buffary III — recorded 1199–1227.
4. Roger Buffary — recorded 1255–1262.
5. Robert Buffary / Buffery — son of Roger; of age by 1272 and still living in 1309.
6. Another Robert — lord by 1323.
7. Thomas Buffery / Buffary — a later lord of the manor.
8. Sir William Buffery — lord of Nether / Lower Penn, Orton and Wombourne; recorded from 1358 and described as a knight by 1378.
9. John Buffery — his son, alive into the early 1400s.
10. William — John’s son, apparently died without children in 1443.
11. Joan Buffery — William’s sister, married John Burnett, after which the manor passed into another family.

The Trescott material

There is also documentary material concerning a William Buffary in the late 12th century. A family-history compilation quoting Staffordshire historical collections says that William, son of William Buffary, granted land near Trescott to the monks of Combe around 1190–1199. His widow Sibilla and their son William were involved in a legal dispute concerning the land in 1200. The same compilation refers to later Buffery claims concerning the property.

The underlying medieval records are important evidence, but the published Staffordshire Historical Collections should ideally be checked directly before every detail of the online transcription is treated as proven.

From the medieval family to Halesowen and Old Swinford

There is a documentary gap between the end of the medieval Penn landholding family in the 1400s and the Buffery / Buffry families appearing around Halesowen, Cradley, Dudley and Old Swinford in the late 1500s and 1600s.

The geographical proximity is intriguing — Lower Penn is not very far from this Black Country cluster — but no proof has yet been found that the later family descends directly from the medieval lords of Lower Penn.

Established by the early 17th century

An academic study of Halesowen manorial government, based on court records, records George Buffery of Cradley serving as tithingman in 1628, ale-taster in 1629 and constable in 1630. This suggests an established local household with enough standing in the community to hold manorial office.

A detailed Buffry family-history project proposes a line beginning with a William Buffery, born around 1558, who married Cecily / Cicely Hawkeshead at Halesowen in 1576. It identifies another William, baptised at Halesowen in 1592, who married Margery / Martha Perks at Old Swinford on 1 May 1624.

Their recorded children at Old Swinford included Martha, William, Ann, Isabel, Gilbert, Ellyoner and John Buffrey / Buffery, baptised in 1647. According to that reconstruction, John married Alice Reid at Pedmore in 1667/68, and their children included William, born about 1670, John, Mary, Martha, Margaret and Joyce.

This puts a coherent Buffrey / Buffery family firmly in the Old Swinford–Pedmore–Halesowen area throughout the 1600s.

Other occurrences

Compiled London parish information records Margrett Boffery marrying in Shoreditch in 1577, Elizabeth Buffery marrying at St Gregory by St Paul in 1582, George Buffry marrying Elizabeth Gosnell at St James Clerkenwell in 1583, and a child of John and Margery Buffery baptised in Whitechapel in 1624. These may represent separate branches; spelling variation of this kind is normal before standardised spelling.

A caution about des Bouverie

A French / Flemish Protestant family bearing the name des Bouverie also came to England in the 16th century; an older surname dictionary identifies Lawrence des Bouveries, from near Lille, as settling at Canterbury in 1568. Because Buffery can represent Bouverie, it is tempting to connect the Buffrys to this Huguenot family.

However, the medieval Staffordshire Buffary / Buffery records predate that immigration by several centuries, so the Buffry family cannot simply have originated with the 16th-century Huguenot des Bouveries.

The documentary chain

The evidence becomes much clearer when each proposed link is separated and given its own status.

Parish-record evidence in detail

1. John Buffrey, baptised Old Swinford, 4 July 1647

The established Buffry family compilation gives John Buffrey, christened 4 July 1647 at Old Swinford, as son of William Buffrey, later marrying Alice Reid at Pedmore on 11 January 1667/68.

This date is particularly useful because the Birmingham & Midland Society for Genealogy and Heraldry confirms that the surviving Old Swinford St Mary registers begin in 1602, with an indexed transcription covering christenings, marriages and burials for 1647–1692. Worcestershire Archives holds the registers on microform, and the Society’s reference library also holds the 1602–1692 material.

2. John Buffrey and Alice Reid at Pedmore

The family transcription gives the marriage as 11 January 1667/68 at Pedmore. The dual year is normal for England before 1752: in contemporary “Old Style” dating, January 1667 followed December 1667; in modern calendar-year notation the date is 11 January 1668.

St Peter, Pedmore’s parish register survives from 1539, and FreeREG has the register transcribed, including marriages in the 1660s. Buffery is among the surnames occurring in the register, and Pedmore directly adjoins Old Swinford.

The later Old Swinford children attributed to John and Alice include John (1675), Mary (1677), Martha (1680), Margaret (1683) and Joyce (1684), as well as William, born about 1670. Their return to the same parish strengthens the identification of the Pedmore bridegroom with the Old Swinford John.

3. John’s father: William Buffery

Working backwards from John’s 1647 baptism gives a household that appears repeatedly in the Old Swinford material. The compiled transcription attributes the following children to William Buffery and his wife:

• Martha — baptised 10 February 1627
• William — baptised 21 March 1632
• William — baptised 22 June 1636
• Ann — baptised 8 April 1638
• Isabel — baptised 25 August 1639
• Gilbert — baptised 30 April 1641
• Ellyoner — baptised 1 September 1644
• John — baptised 4 July 1647

This sequence is genealogically useful: rather than an isolated John appearing in 1647, there appears to be a long-established Buffery household in Old Swinford. The registers survive from 1602 and Bishop’s Transcripts begin in 1613, so these dates fall within surviving parish-record coverage.

4. Can this William be identified with the Halesowen William of 1592?

Here the evidence weakens dramatically. The published transcription of the Halesowen register contains the entry: Willm Buffrey was Baptized the xijth day of november, placed unequivocally among the 1592 entries.

So William Buffrey, baptised 12 November 1592 at Halesowen, is real. The age works well: he would have been 31 when William Buffery married Margery Perks at Old Swinford in May 1624. The geography also works: Halesowen, Cradley, Lye, Pedmore and Old Swinford form a compact area.

But the same page of the Halesowen register names fathers for other baptisms, while William’s entry simply says that he was baptised. No father is given. The register therefore proves his baptism, but it does not prove his parentage or that he was the man marrying at Old Swinford 32 years later.

5. William Buffrey and Ciceley Hawkeshead, 1576

The earlier Buffrey household certainly exists. The Halesowen register gives the marriage explicitly: William Buffrey and Ciceley / Cicely Hawkeshead — 8 October 1576, Halesowen.

Better still, at least one child can be proved. On 2 April 1581 the register states that George, son of William Buffrey by Ciceley his wife, was baptised. This directly identifies child, father and mother.

There is also a Johane Buffrey, baptised 26 January, explicitly described as daughter of William Buffrey, although that entry does not name her mother.

6. The 1592 William cannot presently be made their son

This is the biggest correction to the older online pedigree. The widely circulated line has been:

William Buffrey + Ciceley Hawkeshead → William Buffrey, born / baptised 1592 → John Buffrey, 1647.

But the research note quoted on the site itself acknowledges that the 1592 William’s parentage is not given, and the original Halesowen transcription confirms this. The Halesowen registers also show other Buffreys in the parish: for example, Thomas Buffrey married Margery Underhill in the late 1580s, and other Buffrey baptisms appear around the same period. Surname-and-place matching alone is therefore insufficient.

The pedigree I would currently show

A solid line should be reserved for relationships actually supported by the records. The uncertain 1592 identification is better shown separately.

The break in the tree is deliberate: it marks the point where the evidence stops being direct.

Consequently, the step taking the family another generation back to William Buffrey and Ciceley Hawkeshead, married in 1576, should currently be shown with a dotted or broken line rather than as established descent.

Halesowen’s Bishop’s Transcripts do not begin until 1613, so there is no surviving BT duplicate of the 1592 baptism to restore a missing father’s name. The Worcester probate calendars for 1451–1600 and 1601–1652 also contain no indexed Buffrey / Buffery / Buffer entry found in this research.

The manorial records may be decisive

A significant complication is that William Buffrey and Ciceley Hawkeshead are not the only credible parents for the 1592 William. A second Buffrey couple was established in Halesowen before 1592: Thomas Buffrey and Margery Underhill. The existing material gives their marriage as 11 September 1587 in one place and 11 September 1588 in another, so that date should be checked against the register before publication. Margery was still recorded as “the wife of Thomas Buffery” at her burial in April 1622.

There were therefore at least two established adult Buffrey couples / family groups capable of producing children in this period, together with other Buffrey individuals. The surname index itself contains numerous Bufferey / Buffrey / Buffery entries for William, George, Thomas, Joan / Johane, Elizabeth, Margaret and others.

Why the court rolls matter

The surviving Halesowen-area court rolls include exactly the years needed. AHPLOB 377992 covers 1577–1589, while AHPLOB 377993 covers 1590–1596 and includes the manors of Cradley, Hales Borough, Hales Manor, Old Swinford and Stourbridge. Later rolls 377994 cover 1609–1621, and 382958 covers 1622–1642.

Thus 377993 is the key record: it spans William’s baptism in 1592 and may record the Buffrey landholding household to which he belonged.

These courts did more than record offences. When a customary tenant died, the jury could report the death, the payment due to the lord, and name the next heir. Admissions and surrenders can therefore contain precisely the relationship wording needed here: a named son, heir, widow or succession.

There is independent evidence that the Buffery family participated in this manorial community. George Buffery of Cradley was elected tithingman in 1628, ale-taster in 1629 and constable in 1630, according to the court records cited in Coralie Paxton’s study of Halesowen manorial government.

A family-history correspondent also claims that Cradley manorial records show William and George Buffery as tenants. Because that claim gives no roll number, folio or date, the alleged William entry should not yet be treated as evidence. The George evidence, by contrast, has been independently tied to the surviving court-roll series.

What would probably settle the question

The most productive archival checks are:

1. AHPLOB 377993 (1590–1596) — examine every Halesowen, Cradley and relevant Old Swinford court for Buffrey / Buffery / Bufferey variants, especially admissions, surrenders, deaths and inheritance entries around 1590–1596. This is the single best chance of finding wording such as “William son / heir of …”.
2. AHPLOB 377992 (1577–1589) — reconstruct the landholdings of the elder William and Thomas before William’s birth. If they held separate customary tenements, later succession may distinguish their sons.
3. AHPLOB 377994 (1609–1621) — look for a young William being admitted to a parental holding, surrendering it, or moving between Cradley / Halesowen and Old Swinford.
4. AHPLOB 382958 (1622–1642) — identify the William and George Buffery tenants claimed by the secondary family history and compare their holdings with earlier ones.
5. Old Swinford, 1 May 1624 — check the original marriage entry and its 1624 Bishop’s Transcript side by side. Residence, occupation, status, licence information or unusual spelling could help tie the bridegroom back to Cradley / Halesowen.