What the records, family stories and DNA tells us about the families of East Anglia. The map of the area is below.
The known surnames of persons in this group to 5th cousin level are; Jefferies, Britton, Button, & Skipper. The link to the descendant chart related to these matches are Jefferies, Button, Bretton/Britton, The Harringtons, The Camps & The Andrews
Before describing the more detailed results for the family one our early problem was the origins of 'our' Jefferies before 1800. In spite of much work in the early days, including paying for local research in the archives of the area, we could not go further back with any reliability. In October 2024 a new match suggested a line of descent from Jefferies/Jeffreys from north east Essex and suggests that John Jefferies moved to Sible Hedingham around 1760 from Arkesden, married and settled down. The village of Arkesden is 4 miles from Saffron Walden and 6 miles from Bishop's Stortford and both these places appear in the family history as places associated with other of our Essex families, the Camps and the Andrews.
The Camps are key to this better understanding. The first person known in this family is Frances Camp who was born in Bishop's Stortford but was employed as a servant to a family in Sible Hedingham and then married into the Harrington family. DNA matches to the Camps and then another family, the Andrews headed by Lewis Andrews from the same area quickly showed that Jefferies links to the same area were established. This is discussed in the DNA section.
The Camps came from village to the west of Bishop's Stortford, the Hadhams, and those known seem to have been millers or bakers.
What the Jefferies did is less clear, most were labourers on farm but Jonathan Jefferies is recorded as being a victualler (on the marriage certificate), having a beer shop, and others members as being maltsters. There is a story that Jonathan was the Button family coachman and eloped with Harriet Button but this doesn't fit with the victualler. When he and the family moved to Streatham around 1860 it was to be a coachman for the Reverend John Nicholl, Rector of Streatham, and his wife Harriet was the Nicholls' laundress. I haven't found a link between the Jefferies and the Rev. John Nicholl before that time that would lead them to move.
Whatever the story; their two sons had different occupations in Streatham; Peter Button Jefferies was a boot & shoe maker and started with a shop next to the 'White Lion". Where he learned the trade is not clear but his wife Sarah's family the Harringtons were in trades in the Hedinghams area including bricklayers and bootmakers. Perhaps he had trained with a Harrington before the family moved to Streatham? Interestingly the busness was carried on by his 4th son Albert Henry who later became a chiropodist until his death in 1953. The business was passed on to his sister's son Frederick Charsley with shoeshops around Basildon in Essex.
Peter Button's brother Henry Jefferies was a housepainter and decorator in Streatham, and lived in the same street as his father and brother. He had 6 children and, on his death in August 1892, his widow and 5 children left to join his eldest son, Jonathan Henry Jefferies in Florida, USA.
Revised April 2025