From Roby to Ruby that is the question.

Richard Scantlebury shows with examples how the frequent dilemma of surname studies threads through Robey, Roby and Ruby.  Which came first is the age old question. 

The initial brief was to follow the surname Ruby, but records in North Tidworth in Wiltshire suggested surname was originally Roby or even Robey, my initial thoughts were local dialects were the cause of the change in the surname spelling but as in North Tidworth the surname was constantly spelt as Roby since 1628 when Edomad (Edward) was married and his son Hinry Roby was baptised. As there is no strong dialects in Wiltshire perhaps that was the way the surname Ruby was spelt.

Excerpt Baptismal records - North Tidworth, Wiltshire

Perhaps the spelling of ruby was roby or robey given that Tidworth was spelt as Tydworf during this period, by 1784 the writing had become more legible with Tydworth now becoming North Tidworth and the spelling of the surname was still Roby.

Baptismal entry - Cricklade, Wiltshire

The story of the Ruby family in the north of Wiltshire - Crickdale is a little different. According to the 1851, 1861 and 1881 censuses Jonathon Ruby was born in Berkshire namely the village of Longcot and a transcriptiuon of a baptism in July 1822 with the surname of Ruby. Interestingly in the 1871 census of Cricklade Jonathon gives his place of birth as Broad Blunsdon which is where his siblings were born and baptised. I wonder who changed the spelling of Jonathon's surname fron Roby to Ruby on the 1851 census form by overwriting the "o" with a "u".

  Excerpt 1851 Census of England. Jonathon Ruby/Roby

(Notice the “u” is done with a different pen) doubtful if it was Jonathon as 7 years previously when he married in 1844 in St Sampson Cricklade he signed with his mark with the surname Rooby so probably couldn’t read nor write. Sarah Ann Ruby was the first of Jonathon’s daughters to marry, in June 1866, she signed the certificate with her mark as did her brother James. Interestingly, browsing through Wiltshire parish records, using the Wiltshire Family History Society’s transcriptions is probably the best option, it becomes noticeable that different villages used Ruby, Roby and sometimes Robey for the same family in a radius of a 20 to 30 miles.

 In 1770 Sarah Ruby was baptised in Sherston Magna:

However according to the WFHS transcriptions, the Bishop’s Transcription the name is Sarah Robey.  Unfortunately an image of the BT wasn’t available so I wasn’t able to compare the handwriting. As I mentioned earlier, I don’t think local dialect played a part but more likely a perception on how a surname is spelt particularly as very few people in a rural community were able to read or write. I have a similar scenario in my own one name study of Scantlebury where the parishes of Moval & Looe in Cornwall Scantlebury are spelt as Skentelbery.

One would think finding Charles Ruby in the latter half of the 19^th Century would be straight forward but as the said Charles Ruby uses aliases such as Smith and Ruley it’s a case of using prison records Charles’ entry in Habitual Criminals Register of 1882. 

17^th July 1900 appears to be the last official record of Charles Ruby. When he pleaded guilty to an indictment of embezzlement at the Liverpool County Quarter Sessions, he was sentenced to 6 months hard labour. Below is a summary of his visits to the Liverpool Prison via the courts.:

 Charles Ruby history of prison sentences in Liverpool, England. 

It’s not always a case of a misspelling or hiding from the law that a surname gets changed to Ruby so was it a case of peer pressure of or Frederick Elijah Boobie’s work colleagues, or persuasion of his wife Louisa to change the family name to Ruby by the 1901 census as Frederick completed the 1911 census form and signed it so the 1901 census entry wasn’t an error upon the part of the census enumerator although someone did spell both his surname and Louisa’s on the Death Index probably following entries on the death certificates.