Somewhere in the Yorkshire dales around 1720 a THOMAS HEBDEN was born. Who his wife was is not known but he did have at least two children, both of whom were christened, if not born, in Pateley Bridge, Nidderdale.
The first child known of was ELISABETH HEBDEN christened in 1746, Pateley Bridge. Two years later a JOHN HEBDEN was also christened there.

JOHN HEBDEN married ANNE and in 1773 their first child JENNY was christened. This was followed by JOHN in 1775, THOMAS in 1777, ANTHONY in 1781, NANCY in 1783 & finally, PETER in 1786.

THOMAS married ANNE BEASBY in 1801 in Pateley Bridge and they had children THOMAS b1804 and CHARLOTTE born abt 1820. There were likely many more children in between these years, though they may not have survived.

PETER married ELLEN INGLESON on December 15, 1817 in Saint Peter, Leeds, and by the 1851 census he was living in 127 New York, Hartwith, Yorkshire.
Peter and Ellen had at least six children, GEORGE, JANE, MARIA, MARY, EMMA & PETER. Maria and Mary were christened in Knaresborough in 1827 & 1829 respectively but Emma’s christening in 1833 was back in Pateley Bridge.
The son PETER was christened in Knaresborough in 1835 and he became a pawnbroker of Leeds. He married Eliza and then they both spent their retirement in Bishop Monkton, a picturesque little village between Ripon and Harrogate. Peter died in 1910 and Eliza in 1922. Both are buried in Bishop Monkton churchyard.

Shortly after my father, another Peter Hebden retired to Bishop Monkton he took a walk around the village and wandered into the churchyard. A short while later he returned home and told my mother he thought he would probably be leaving the village “feet first”. On entering the churchyard he had come face to face with the other Peter Hebden’s gravestone. As it happened, he spend the remainder of his retirement in the village and did die there, just like the other one 85 years earlier.

There are many other Hebdens of Pateley Bridge that I have not yet been able to tie up to this small family. One of them happens to be an Elisha Sinkler Hebden. My father’s maternal grandfather was a Pateley Bridge lad and guess what.. yep, his great grandfather was called…. Elijah Sinkler.

Spooky eh?