This John became an apprentice to a man called John Baker and in abt 1610 received the Freedom of Merchant Tailors. A year later in 1611 he married an ELIZABETH POPE and they had at least two children, JOHN and THOMAS.

THOMAS married a lady called MARY who had been baptized in St Giles, Cripplegate.He eventually died in 1680 and was buried with his wife in Archangel. There was a will which was proved by a Samuel Meverall.

The other son JOHN was born Abt. 1612 in London, and died 1670. He married a lady called PHILLIPA and was knighted in 1663 and was Envoy to the Russian court of Czar Alexis, during the reign of Charles II. This would have been quite an achievement for the grandson of a Yorkshire yeoman. There is a note that he was Arms Envoy and again this points to possible links to the Burwash family who had a history of cannon making for the crown. Is it possible that when Thomas of Burwash came out of the North, his brother or cousin came too ? My own personal view is that it is likely that there was a close family link between the two branches.

There is a portrait of a Sir John Hebdon by artist Ferdinand Bol that was painted about 1653. (CLICK HERE). Could this be the same man ? The dress is certainly appropriate for the time and there weren’t that many knighted Hebdens around that time, even fewer called John.
I find this portrait particularly fascinating as it is probably the earliest replication of Hebden features and I wonder how many of those genes have been passed down through generations of Hebdens.

SIR JOHN and his wife LADY PHILLIPA had six children. Their father’s elevated status would have enabled them to achieve good marriages and good careers.

The eldest son was another JOHN b. 1635. His wife was ELLEN JACOB, daughter of Sir John Jacob, Baronet of Bromley. He became collector of customs in Colchester but appears to have spent some time in Fleet Prison between 1681 to 1698. I don’t know whether this was a position of employment or whether infact it was a period of confinement. It is worth noting that Fleet Prison was a debtors prison and long periods of confinement where debts were concerned were not unusual.
Then came RICHARD b. 1639; d. 1668, THOMAS ( who interestingly enough died in Persia), ROBERT, MARY and ELIZABETH.

RICHARD HEBDEN, the second son of SIR JOHN was born 1639, and died 1668. He married SILVESTRIE WYKES in 1666 in St Martin in the Fields. They moved to Somerset and Richard was eventually buried in Wells Cathedral. Richard and Silvestrie had two children, named after their parent. RICHARD jnr was born in 1667 in Loxton Somerset and his sister SILVESTRA went on to marry a HENRY NEWBURY.
RICHARD married a MARY BEACHAMB in 1701 in Weston Super Mare and they had four daughters. CATHERINE died without issue, SILVESTRA married a WILLIAM GLISSON, yeoman of Bristol, MARY married a HUGH ( or George) SHEPPARD and JANE married a JAMES PARTRIDGE, yeoman of Hutton.

SIR JOHN’s daughter MARY married SAMUEL MEVERALL who was named above as he man who proved her great uncle Thomas’s will. Samuel Meverall was a Cromwellian Captain & Muscovy Merchant of Peckham and Chertsey. How this affected relations with her father, bearing in mind that he was knighted by the court of Charles II, can only be guessed at.

SIR JOHN’s other daughter ELIZABETH married EDMUND BRYAN who was secretary to Sir John Hebden