William Ardington

1720 – 1765

✓ Validated against records · 2026-07-08

William Ardington is where the line begins and where it ends — the first Ardington the records can name, and a wall beyond him. He was a yeoman of Gribthorpe, a small hamlet in the parish of Bubwith on the low ground west of the Derwent, and the registers of Bubwith know him only as a father and, at the last, at his grave. He married a woman named Mary about 1742; their children were baptised at Bubwith through the 1740s and 1750s — John, another whom the register calls Hary, William, Richard in 1754, and Ann — all of them entered "of Gribthorpe." The family were farming people: at his son John's baptism in 1744 William is described a yeoman.

He was buried at Bubwith on the 12th of February 1765, "William Ardington of Gribthorpe"; his widow Mary followed on the 24th of April 1771, buried as "Mary Arthington of Gribthorpe, widow" — the spelling wandering even at the graveside. It is his son Richard, the shoemaker who left Gribthorpe for Howden, who carried the family on toward Hull and the Thomas line.

Above William the record does not yet reach. The Bubwith register runs back to 1720 — its baptisms of that year are legible — but no Ardington baptism stands in it for a boy born about 1720, and the Gribthorpe farming family raising children there in that year is a different one, the Coats. So William's own parents are unknown: he was either born before the surviving register begins, or baptised in a neighbouring parish under a spelling not yet found. He is the honest end of this line — a Gribthorpe yeoman, first of his name, whose beginnings the record keeps.

Composed from validated records · 2026-07-08

Birth: Circa 1720 Gribthorpe
Marriage: To Mary about 1742
Burial: February 12th 1765, Bubwith
Parents: Unknown
Siblings: Unknown
Children: John Ardington baptised July 17th 1744, Bubwith Hary (sic) Ardington baptised March 2nd 1746, Bubwith William Ardington baptised February 1st 1749, Bubworth Richard Ardington baptised May 5th 1754, Bubwith Ann Ardington baptised march 4th 1759, Bubwith
1744: In the baptism for son John, William is described as a yeoman. Throughout all baptisms and burials the family is described as from Gribthorpe.
1765: Bubwith Burials "February 12th, William Ardington of Gribthorpe"
1771: Bubwith Burials "April 24th, Mary Arthington (sic) of Gribthorpe, widow"

In your grandmother’s words · from her notebook

Family

Marriage

MASpouseMary Ardingtond. 1771

Children

RAChild · the line continuesRichard Ardingtonmain line1754–1824

Historical context

Gribthorpe, and the wall of the line

Gribthorpe is a hamlet of a few farmsteads in the parish of Bubwith, on the flat clay ground west of the River Derwent in the East Riding — the kind of place that never held more than a handful of families, and whose people appear in the parish register under the township name, "of Gribthorpe", generation after generation. The Ardingtons were among its farming folk in the early eighteenth century, and it is there the line goes back to.

And there it stops. William Ardington, buried in 1765 "of Gribthorpe", is the earliest of the name the records can hold. The Bubwith register does survive back to 1720 — its baptisms of that year can still be read — but no Ardington child stands in it for a boy born about the time William must have been; the Gribthorpe farmers baptising children there in 1720 are a different family, the Coats. So his parents are unknown: he was born either before the surviving register opens, or in a neighbouring parish under one of the spellings the name kept slipping between — Ardington, Arthington, Hardington. It is a genuine wall, not a gap in what has been searched, and it is where this family's known story begins.

Composed for this site from published local history — the family’s world, not one of Mum’s records.

Life

Confirmed — anchored to a recordEstimated — inferred

1720

Born

about 1720

Circa 1720 Gribthorpe— From Janet Brock’s research

Estimated Evidence

From Janet Brock’s research notebook. Estimated — inferred, not directly recorded.

1742

Married Mary Ardington

about 1742

To Mary about 1742— From Janet Brock’s research

Estimated Evidence

From Janet Brock’s research notebook. Estimated — inferred, not directly recorded.

1744

In 1744

1744

In the baptism for son John, William is described as a yeoman. Throughout all baptisms and burials the family is described as from Gribthorpe.— From Janet Brock’s research

Mum’s record Evidence

From Janet Brock’s research notebook.

1765

In 1765

1765

Bubwith Burials "February 12th, William Ardington of Gribthorpe"— From Janet Brock’s research

Mum’s record Evidence

From Janet Brock’s research notebook.

1765

Buried — Bubwith, 'of Gribthorpe'

1765 at Bubwith

February 12 — William Ardington of Gribthorpe. (Bubwith burials, 1765.)— Burial, 1765 — Bubwith (the wall)

Read at the image record Evidence

Confirmed against the original record, read at the image:

Burial, 1765 — Bubwith (the wall) — Yorkshire Burials (findmypast) — Bubwith parish register / Bishop's Transcript, burials 1765. Read at the register image, 8 July 2026. The terminus of the line as it can be traced. read at the image

1765

Buried

12 February 1765 at Bubwith

February 12th 1765, Bubwith— From Janet Brock’s research

Mum’s record Evidence

From Janet Brock’s research notebook.

1771

In 1771

1771

Bubwith Burials "April 24th, Mary Arthington (sic) of Gribthorpe, widow"— From Janet Brock’s research

Mum’s record Evidence

From Janet Brock’s research notebook.

Our research

The wall at Gribthorpe

Research · Bubwith & Gribthorpe

William's 1765 burial is read at the register image, and his widow Mary's 1771 burial is confirmed at the index (with Mum's verbatim transcript) — enough to bring Mary into the tree, where she had been only a name. Above William the record does not reach: the Bubwith register runs to 1720, but no Ardington baptism stands in it for him, and the Gribthorpe farming family there in 1720 is the Coats, not the Ardingtons — so this is a true parents-unknown wall, not merely an unsearched one. Round two could try: FamilySearch's Yorkshire Bishop's Transcripts for an Ardington / Arthington / Hardington baptism about 1715–22 across Bubwith and its neighbours (Wressle, Hemingbrough, Howden, Eastrington); the William-and-Mary marriage of about 1742, which would give Mary's origins and perhaps William's parish; and manorial or land records for the Gribthorpe farms, for the estate context of these yeomen. Read Mary's 1771 burial at the image to lift it from index to image.