This category is part of the Libby Name Study. Please contact the project leader for more information.
This study is initially focusing on the descendants of John Libby the Immigrant to America.
John Libby and his descendants through 1882 are the subject of a public domain book by Charles Thornton Libby The Libby family in America 1602-1881, , by Libby, Charles Thornton, 1861-1948 Published 1882 Publisher Portland, Me. : B. Thurston & Co. Libby Family in America
Spellings of the last name include: Libby Libbey Libbee Libbie Lebby
"The immigrant has left no original signature, and it cannot be known for certainty how he spelled his own name. Probably the best authority is John Winter, who came from the same part of England as himself. He spelled it Libby, which spelling was early in use in England, and now is, and has long been, the only form used. Of the other forms that have been used in this country, the only one ever used in England is Libbe. Hence, of the spellings now in use, the only one that has continental precedence is Libby.
Of the immigrant's eight sons, two left no signatures; three, reared in the midst of Indian wars, never learned to write; and of the other three, John spelled his name Libby, and Henry and Anthony used Libbe.
Among the grandsons the spelling assumed more varieties than it has ever had since. Up to 1750, the family was chiefly confined to Scarborough, Falmouth, Kittery (now Eliot), and Berwick, Maine; and to Portsmouth, Rye, Epsom and Dover, New Hampshire. On the other side of the Piscataqua River, including Portsmouth, Kittery, Berwick and Dover, the ending ey came early into use. For a long time the vowels i and e were almost indiscriminately used in the first syllable, but by 1750, the spelling Libbey became the standard one. Isaac Libby, who was reared in Portsmouth, but lived afterward in Rochester, used Lebby. In Scarborough and Falmouth, the most general spelling used by the best educated members of the family was Libbee. The final y, however, was always used by those who went from Portsmouth to Scarborough, and it was generally spelled by them Libby, but sometimes Libbey. In Rye, on the other side of the "Libbey" towns, and in Epsom, which was settled by Rye families, the standard spelling was Libbee, although Libbe occurred occasionally at first."