The earliest Brind in the Aldbourne records is Richard, born in 1587, whose death is recorded on September 2, 1677. He could have been the son of William Brind, John's younger brother. If the records are right Richard lived to be about 90 years old, making him one of the oldest of male Brinds.

By the 1650s there were at least five different Brind families in Aldbourne. Perhaps some of them were cousins? The most significant, from the point of view of this family history, are Thomas Brind and his wife Eleanor (nee Horne) who married in 1649.

Thomas and Eleanor were able to afford some education, for their sons at least since the boys could write. Theordy disappears, though he could have been the Thomas Brind, a shepherd, who had to pay 6s 6d for strips of land in the Common Fields of Aldbourne in 1703. On the other hand this Thomas could have been the son of William and Margaret (nee Walford or Watson) of Highworth. In 1674 aged 19 Thomas & Eleanor's eldest son John Brind was described as a fustian maker. In that year he took an 80 year lease for the use of Axplatt from Thomas Hatt of Aldbourne. Thomas Hatt was a yeoman who owned a farm.

"Thomas Hatt in consideration of £5 of lawful monies of England in hand paid by the said John Brind, and in consideration of the yearly amount hath granted to John Brind all that little tenement and dwelling house and yard garden in Axplatt," the lease says. The rent was 10s to be paid on the Feasts of the Annunciation and St Michael. Fustian was the growing trade in Aldbourne but John Brind was in on the ground floor. The Corr family, associated with fustian in village history, purchased their first plot seven years later in 1681!

William was 33 when he married Anne Griffin. She was very young, probably less than 16. They had seven children. The second eldest, John, was called Jonathan, perhaps to avoid confusion with Uncle John? He died at the age of 15, and another son born three years later, was named Jonothan. Ann died in 1730 leaving William a widower with a large family, including a child of 8.

A great many villagers died in Aldbourne in the years of 1729/30. Was there some illness? Brind victims included Ann (Thomas's wife), John Brind (a cousin?), Elizabeth (Richard and Francis's daughter), William the weaver, Anne (William's wife) and Thomas.

William's eldest son, William Jnr, survived at least until he was 76 years old when one of great the events of Aldbourne occurred, the great fire of 1777. By that time he was a widower living with his son Thomas's widow Ann.

The fire happened on Sunday August 24 and a large part of the village was burnt down. This was not the first fire associated with the Aldbourne factory. Brinds had been forced to rebuild their homes before when there had been small fires in the early 1700s. In 1777, however, it was estimated that over £10,000 of uninsured damage was done. It was a bad year for the Brinds. Richard Brind was the recipient of parish charity (1s) that Easter and Widow Brind (Jane nee Adams?) received the very substantial sum of 5s.

After the fire the rector and the Lord of the Manor immediately formed a committee to raise funds for the worst affected. A County Committee of eight, including Sir Ambrose Goddard, a local landowner, took up the fund raising effort. A London committee was also appointed with 12 people, including representatives of guilds associated with fustian.

William Brind, labourer and widower (aged 76) features amongst those who had suffered. He lost his home valued at £43 16s 9d as well as stock and goods valued at £13 2s. Ann Brind the daughter in law, a spinner, lost stock and goods worth £2 15s 9d.

The various fund raising efforts produced nearly £2,000 but though the village was rebuilt it never fully recovered.

George married Francis Yeomans and had two children. Both died while they were still babies.

From the point of view of this story, however, the most significant son of William & Ann (Griffin) was the middle one, Thomas, a farm worker.

We know what happened to most of the children. Young Thomas died in Aldbourne in 1775, aged 35, having been a shepherd all his life. John died aged 13. Mary married John Fear by licence in 1773. They stayed in the village for a few years but finally moved away. Robert died of smallpox, unmarried at 26.

Henry lived until his early 70s and stayed in Aldbourne. He married Lucy Hidden in 1765. She was a local girl and they had two children, William in 1767 and Jane in 1769. William lived to be 26 but Jane died at the age of 18 months. Henry's wife Lucy died in 1785. He then married Anne Neate, a village girl, in December 1786 and she produced a son, Thomas, in March 1787. Young Thomas fell ill and died on December 28, 1788, and Anne his mother died two weeks later. Henry was a widower for the second time at the age of 45.

Three years later he married his sister in law Mary Neate, who was herself a widow. In 1801 Henry was widowed for the third time. When he died in 1814 there was no wife or child left to mourn him.

Richard and William both seem to have married women called Mary Dixon. The youngest, William, also lived the longest and when he died the vicar wrote the comment in the parish register: "A good Christian."

William had not earned that description because the family was a wealthy contributor to the church. At the end of the 18th century a 3d in the £ parish rate was levied for the repair of the church. The richest paid £1 or £2, the poorer a few shillings. The Brinds paid nothing at all. William, the good Christian, did manage to find 7s to buy a seat in the refurbished church in 1793.

No Brind in Aldbourne received poor law relief at any time, according to the parish records. Only two of them got financial help from the parish and that was in the Spring of 1777, the year of the great fire.

Not all Brinds managed to stay on the right side of the law, however. Ann, eldest daughter of William, the good Christian, was thrown into prison. She came before the judges at the Quarter Sessions on July 16 and October 5 and spent at least that period in Marlborough Prison.

Thomas & Jane's son Zebulon Brind and his wife Mary (Ventham) are the likeliest parents of a direct ancestor, also Zebulon Brind. Zebulon is, of course, a very rare name. So rare in fact, that many name dictionaries do not list it. It may have been a Jewish name. A Dictionary of Selected Jewish Names By Benzion C Kaganoff features Brand as a surname, but not Zebulon or Zabulon as given names. More likely it was a name used by the Plymouth Brethren or one of the other fundamentalist Protestant groups. In A Dictionary of First Names, by Patrick Hanks & Flavia Hodges, it says: "Zebulun origin/ meaning: uncertain may be Hebrew dwelling place. Biblical: The name of the founder of the tribe of Israel (see appendix 3) Zebulon was popular among 17th century Puritans in England and New England."

Zebulon senior died in 1826 in Aldbourne but his son moved on. Thanks to enclosure the great downs were becoming private fields. Fenced fields meant fewer shepherds and many of the Brinds had earned their living tending sheep.

Of course enclosure wasn't bad for all Brinds. In East Hinton a distant relative called Lucy Brind was acquiring land as part of the carve up of the common fields. David Brind's ancestors also quoted "An Act for dividing and enclosing certain open and common Fields Common meadows common pastures and other commanable and waste lands within the parish of Highworth' when claiming title to some land.