Hello again Lizb, thanks for your offer, but yes, I have indeed been to Acle, its a very nice place and the church is lovely. I made sure I had my photo taken by the font! My old scanned photos are currently lodged on my deceased PC, so I can't upload or share them at the moment. If you get the time try to visit nearby Thrigby where I believe our Liffen ancestors came from, the earliest I have is c1539.
I've amassed quite a lot about the Liffen family in Norfolk but as yet no direct connection between them and our Henry (born c1765) nor his sister Susannah (chr 1767 at Acle), the children I assume, like you, of Robert (born c1730) and Elizabeth Liffen. Robert may have had a sister Mary (chr 1725 at Acle). If so, then their parents were pdobably William (born c1700) and Mary Liffen.
From what I've tracked back it seems the Liffen surname was originally (de) Lyston from Essex..a parish on the Suffolk border. That transmuted into Liston and then Lifton. I found a will of a Lifton who was named in the parish register as Liffen; and in a different will I found a 'Lefen alias Lifton'. Also, the Lowestoft Liffins were originally in the registers as Liftons.
Runham, Filby, Thrigby, Ormesby, Scratby, etc are the nearest villages to Acle with early Liffens. However the christian names Robert and Henry are more commonly used by the Burgh St Peter/Wheatacre/Beccles Liffen families. I think the main reason for losing track of them is the proximity of Norwich, with its multutude of parishes!
As far as I can tell we are not descended from the Lowestoft/Yarmouth Liffens, they themselves are descended from the Burgh St Peter/Wheatacre Liffens, via Edmund Lifton/Liffin who was chr c1714 at Burgh. He was the great, great grandson of Edmund Lifton and Katherine London ( or Lemon) who married in 1634 at Wheatacre.
This Edmund Lifton junior had a brother William who married a Mary (He must have died around 1741 as she married his brother Henry, named after their father). Whether these are our Robert's parents I don't know. This branch of the family used the names Henry and Robert - their father and grandfather respectively. They also had a connection going back to Ashby in the late 16th to early 17th centuries...the village where the Quaker Hacons lived.
I've actually searched mostly Norfolk registers for Liffen and Hacon, but it seems that before the late 18th century they were living in Suffolk more than I anticipated, and I've barely scratched the surface of that county.
Regarding your descent...I don't have it to hand at the moment, but I think my great, great grandfather John Liffen signed (badly) as a witness at his sisters marriage to Samuel Howe? Do you know anything about their elder sister Mary's marriage to John Howes in 1830 at St George The Martyr in Camden, London.
My John's family must have kept in close touch with their Norfolk relatives as his daughter Ann Liffen married Samuel HASE of Norwich in 1876 at Mile End, but they lived in London and had no children.
