Christian names in Nibley

[Wulfsige]

My Miles line is not hard (so far) to trace, but I am wondering why in the 1700s children within it had names like Sarah, Hannah, Daniel, Isaac, Moses, Aaron - all biblical names, some unusual. They lived in Nibley, Gloucestershire, where I have not discovered an early Wesleyan presence.

[nanny jan]

I have a family in 1700s in Kent with a few regular names (John, Edward etc) mixed in with Sarah, Rebecca and.....Hamutal.....all biblical names.  Family were members of local CofE church.

[rosie99]

My Bedfordshire family also had biblical names but were C of E

[Tickettyboo]

My Miles line is not hard (so far) to trace, but I am wondering why in the 1700s children within it had names like Sarah, Hannah, Daniel, Isaac, Moses, Aaron - all biblical names, some unusual. They lived in Nibley, Gloucestershire, where I have not discovered an early Wesleyan presence.

I am wondering why you are wondering :-)

The Bible was around long before Wesley and people read/were told stories from it.
Its surely not too surprising that some chose names for their children from the stories they knew?

Boo

[Wulfsige]

I am wondering why you are wondering :-)

The Bible was around long before Wesley ...

That's fairly easy to answer. William Miles (born 1806) is the first of my ancestors I have discovered with strong personal evangelical conviction and commitment, and I am wondering whether he brought it with him from his family background in Nibley, Glos., or found it among the English Wesleyans of Blaenavon, where his daughter (Martha) married my greatgrandfather Samuel Young. In fact the initial prompt for me beginning to trace my family history, some 50 years ago, was the desire to find an answer to the question, How and when did Methodism come into the family?

[KGarrad]

GenUKI isn't showing ant Methodist chapels for North Nibley?

No Methodist links in Dursley or Wotton-Under-Edge either.

More likely in Blaenavon where there were Welch Calvanistic Methodists, Primitive Methodists, Baptists and Independent Chapels.
But no Weslayan Methodists!

[BumbleB]

Not quite sure why you are associating those forenames with Methodism. 

I have a family member who was a Wesleyan Missionary from early 1800's.  His children -

Sarah Ann, Elizabeth, James William, John Philip, Eliza Jane, Joseph Haigh (wife's maiden surname), Jabez Samuel (not sure where that originates), Emily Mary, Mary Emma, Tempest Edmundson (family surnames), Walter and Edward Watson (another family surname).

[Tickettyboo]

I am wondering why you are wondering :-)

That's fairly easy to answer. William Miles (born 1806) is the first of my ancestors I have discovered with strong personal evangelical conviction and commitment, and I am wondering whether he brought it with him from his family background in Nibley, Glos., . .

I can accept that someone with strong personal evangelical conviction and commitment, may well be very inclined towards Biblical names for their children.

But I'd struggle with the reverse of that  i.e. choosing Biblical names can be viewed as evidence of religious conviction.


Boo

[arthurk]

I broadly agree with you that the names you've found might indicate a family of nonconformists, but in themselves they aren't sufficient proof of it, as there were also members of the C of E who held quite strongly protestant and evangelical views.

I was also wondering which Nibley you're referring to. According to Genuki there were three in Gloucestershire - North Nibley, and two smaller ones in the parishes of Blakeney and Westerleigh:

https://www.genuki.org.uk/gazetteer?place=nibley&county=24&search_type=1&display_type=1

If it's North Nibley that you're looking at, you might want to bear in mind that the neighbouring and much larger parish of Wotton under Edge had a Congregational meeting from the early 1700s, and a Baptist Chapel from about 1717. The Wesleyans may have been somewhat later.