OK - well here's the first of two posts; this one mostly goes forward in time from the Fitzherbert we're focusing on.
As I said, his father was a John Alford, who lived in Beckington and was my 5 x great grandfather. He and his wife Elizabeth had 8 children, including Fitzherbert (Phitzhurburt) and Samuel, the youngest. I am descended from Samuel (b. 1763), through his son William who moved to London in the 1820s and set up a successful tailoring business in Deptford (SE London). I first got interested in the connection between the names Alford and Fitzherbert because William had a half-brother of that name and also a son (b. circa 1847 and died, a bachelor, in 1870).
As a side exercise from following my line of Alfords, I also did some work on tracing the 1752 Fitzherbert forwards. You and your friend may well know much of this already, but the name persisted through the generations. The 1752 Fitzherbert had a son Fitzherbert (b 1797) who in turn had 3 sons of that name (an earlier post mentions this). I think the survivor married an Elizabeth Beresford and died in 1901, The grandson of one of his brothers (Henry) was called Fitzherbert Fraser Alford; he was baptised in 1899.
The 1797 Fitzherbert probably had a brother Josiah who had a grandson (Thomas Josiah Fitzherbert Alford) born in 1852. The 1797 Fitzherbert also had a sister Susanna (like her mother) who married a William Bugby. They had a son Fitzherbert Bugby (b. 1823) who became a prominent Baptist minister, and another son, John who in turn had grandchildren called Fitzherbert.
I could go on, but won't at this stage. But it's remarkable how the name became a tradition. I don't know how it started, but the next post will contain a theory.
