Duxbury History in Lancashire

Today there are Duxburys living all over the world, but where did their ancestors come from?

Thanks to research, particularly that by Helen Moorwood, descended from a Duxbury from Darwen, we now have a knowledge of our ancestors.

Duxburys came from the township of Duxbury, near Chorley in Central Lancashire, a county in the North of England. Helen has traced the line back to Ulf de Duxbury who was born about 1120. This was at a time when you were known from where you lived (or by your profession), hence Ulf from the township of Duxbury.

Earlier, at the time of the Viking invasion, there was an Angle who went by the name of Deowuc, a name which later became Duxbury. He built his farm in the area now known as Duxbury, thus two hundred years later Ulf of Duxbury, Ulf de Duxbury.

This history is explained in a letter in February 1998 to Peter Duxbury who had, at that time, received information on his ancestors from Tony Foster. This letter was instrumental in Peter establishing this website. A summary list of key dates of historical duxbury facts gives an understanding of the Duxbury history between 1202 and 1532.

A key date in the Duxbury history was in 1513, the Bannastre Rebellion when Henry de Duxbury backed the wrong side. He ended up in prison and forfeited Duxbury Hall, the ownership passing to Hugh de Standish. As Helen noted, the Duxbury and Standish family histories are intertwined.

John and Emily Duxbury’s research gives details of Duxbury Hall while the Rev T C Porteus includes a reference to the Hall in his History of a Famous Estate. More recent information on the Hall is given in the article on The Estate of the Standish Family of Duxbury - Duxbury Hall.

The article from The Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire's journal No 140 includes an article by William Walker entitled " Duxbury in Decline: The Fortunes of a Landed Estate, 1756-1932". This article concerns the Duxbury Estate and Duxbury Hall as opposed to the families bearing the Duxbury name.

By the eighteenth century the largest number of Duxbury families in the one area were the Duxburys of Darwen, some seven miles to the north east of the township of Duxbury near Chorley.