The History of the Ryburns   -:  STEPPING STONES TO THE PAST  :-

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A very early, but dubious, reference to the name Ryburn comes from Bewcastle in Cumbria, England, just north of Hadrians Wall.  In the church grounds there is a famous cross dating from the late 7th century.  On the north side is an inscription in Anglo-Saxon runes.  In 1685, when the inscription was presumably less eroded than now, Bishop Nicholson ventured one translation as "Ryeburn, Cemeterium, or Cadaverum Sepulchrum". In 1251, a Norman-sounding "'William de Ryeburne" was fined by the Abbot of Byland apropos an alder wood at Scackleton, North Yorkshire.  He probably came from the Ryburn Valley in West Yorkshire, and was unlikely to have been related to the later Ayrshire Ryburns. The first Ryburns I know with a fair degree of certainty to have been my ancestors lived in Scotland in medieval times.  My ancestors there acquired land formerly owned by the Knights Templar, in an area just north of Dunlop Village in Ayrshire.  The property was known as 'Temple Ryburn'.  So far, the earliest reference to an Ayrshire Ryburn was in 1496, when a Robert Ryburn witnessed an 'Instrument of Sasine given by a noble knight, Sir Adam Mure, of Caldwell'.  Did you know that a John Ryburn, 1530, is in 'Foxe's Book of Martyrs', or that two other John Ryburns 'of that ilk' were involved in two separate feuding murders in Ayrshire in the late 1500s.  The second victim was the Earl of Eglinton!  John the elder, Laird of Ryburn, was himself murdered in 1571.  In 1603 a 'Johne Ryburne' was outlawed on what looks like a trumped-up charge of adultery and child murder.  He fled to Ireland.  The old Ryburn Manor and lands near Dunlop were sold by Neil Ryburn in 1638, and in the 1650s another John Ryburn, probably Neil's son, moved  to the Kintyre Peninsula, near Campbeltown, to join the First Marquis of Argyll's 'Plantation' Scheme. There followed many generations of Kintyre Ryburns. Since those times, the Ryburns have spread far, first to other parts of Scotland, England and Ireland, to North America and the Caribbean, to New Zealand, the abode of my immediate forbears, and Australia, where I and most of my family now live.  Only a few Ryburns remain in the British Isles.  The majority are in the USA. My favorite explanation of the name Ryburn, told to me as a boy, is that a 'rye' was a river crossing made from stepping stones.  In Robbie Burns' song, "Comin Thro' the Rye" a girl meets a boy crossing a rye - not a field of grain.  She cannot avoid being kissed without getting her petticoats wet.  Of course, a 'burn' is a stream.  There is a 'Rye Water', or 'Ryeburn', at Dalry, not far from Dunlop. The name Ryburn has endured many spelling variations, but I have discovered that the name 'Raeburn' seems to have a separate origin from near Gretna Green.  The ancestors of Sir Henry Raeburn, the famous Scottish portrait painter, came from there.  A pity about that! My main contributions to this Web site are two articles as PDF files, Stewart & Donald Ryburn's list of Campbel- town births, and Kintyre trees as a PDF file and zipped GEDCOM file that can be imported into most family tree programs (e.g. Personal Ancestral File - it's free) Early Ayrshire Ryburns  PDF  - 0.5   Mbyte    3 Mar 2011 Kintyre Ryburns           PDF  - 0.8   Mbyte    3 Mar 2011 Kintyre Births              PDF  - 2.5   Mbyte   ~1973 Mathew Ryburn's Tree  PDF  - 17    Kbyte   7 Apr  2009 Kintyre Ryburn Tree     ZIP   - 50    Kbyte  10 Aug 2008 These files are works in progress and will be updated as new information comes to light.  The Kintyre tree is hypothetical in parts, but is extensively annotated. This Web site is dedicated to furthering knowledge about the origins and history of the Ryburns.  Like the Ryburns, this site has humble beginnings, but it should expand and improve over time. You can email me at  rryburn@netspeed.com.au I will try to include all relevant information you care to send me, and I would love to hear the sagas of North American Ryburns.  Plenty of room for more PDF files! Roderick James Ryburn, Canberra, Australia, 29/06/2008 PS:  The 1886 photo in the heading (click photo to enlarge) is the family of my great grandfather, Robert McNair Ryburn, who migrated to New Zealand from Cambeltown, Scotland, in 1859.  Last updated 26 February, 2012

The four sides of the base of the Bewcastle Cross.   Inset is the runic inscription "Ryeburn, Cemeterium". The location of Dunlop & Campbeltown. . Hapland Farmhouse, near Dunlop, Ayrshire, 2007. Called 'Ryeburn' on the 1858 Ordindance Survey Map. Stepping stones across the River Ryburn near Triangle Village, Ryburn Valley, West Yorkshire. Ford across the Rye Water, or 'Rye Burn', near Dalry, Ayrshire.  Photo by Roger Griffith, 2008. Drumlemble Village, on the 'Laggan' plain, Kintyre. Several generations of Ryburns lived near there.