Kibble Family
The Kibble Family of Swanbourne
by Neil Rees
Kibble surname
The Kibble surname is quite unusual. Kibble means to grind and kibble is kibbled grain used for animal feed. The Kibble family came from Stewkley and were farmers.
The Kibble family of Stewkley
The Kibble family farmed Cottesloe Farm between Stewkley and Wing. A number of members of the Kibble family had intermarried with the Tofield family.
The Kibble family at North Marston
William Kibble (1790-1825) married Sarah Tofield (1802-1825). They had a son William Tofield Kibble (1824-1892) who married Martha Grace (1825-1881) in 1847 and they took a farm with 280 acres at North Marston. They had eight children: Edwin (1847-1932), Martha (1850-1902), William (1854-1926), Sarah Elizabeth (1851-1900), Mary Ann (1856-1941), Elizabeth Leah (1858-1930), Emily (1860-1935), and Jane (1853-1928).
Edwin Kibble at Buxlow Farm, Swanbourne
In the 1860s Edwin Kibble took Buxlow Farm, Swanbourne which was on the Aylesbury Road between the Neptune and Holcombe Farm. He was farming 150 acres employing 2 men and 1 boy. In 1881 he was living there with his sisters Mary Ann and Jane, and they had Mary Nash as a general servant.
William Kibble at Buxlow Farm, Swanbourne
In 1882 Edwin’s younger brother, William Kibble married Emma Watkins (1859-1924) and he took Buxlow Farm. They had three children Alice Martha Kibble (1883-), Constance Emilie Kibble (1888-), William Edward Watkins Kibble(1894-1964) who had all been born at Swanbourne. In 1901 they all lived at the farm with Ellen Currell as domestic servant and George Shepherd as agricultural labourer. In 1911 they all lived at the farm with Amy Jane Lambourne as a general servant, and Constance Kibble was a school teacher. Emma Kibble died in 1924 and William Kibble in 1926. Members of the Kibble family married into two local families: the Gadsden and the Colgrove families.
The Colgrove Family
In 1885 Mary Kibble married Hugh Colgrove (1843-1911). They had three children: John William Kibble Colgrove (1886-1971), Hilda Margaret Colgrove (born 1889) and Edwin Hugh Colgrove (1892-1955).
The Gadsden Family
Two of William and Emma Kibble’s children married into the Gadsden family. In 1922 Alice Martha Kibble of Church Farmmarried Thomas John Gadsden (1884-1952) of Brises Farm, Swanbourne. In 1925 Alice’s brother William E.W. Kibble married Thomas’s sister Susanna Edith Gadsden (1888-1979) and they lived at Nearton End and are buried at Swanbourne cemetery.