Z is for Zibiah

At last, I have reached the finish line and this is my final post in the A to Z challenge for 2020. Now, I only had one Z name in my family tree so it was always going to be Zibiah.  The name Zibiah is of Hebrew origin and has the meaning gazelle, or beautiful lady. Personally, I think this is such a beautiful meaning and for me it conjures up in my mind a girl aged around 11 or 12 who is beautiful and graceful and full of life. Being a Hebrew name, it is perhaps unsurprising that the name appears in the Old Testament of the Holy Bible. Zibiah of Beersheba appears in 2 Kings 12:1 and 2 Chronicles 24:1 as the mother of King Jehoash or Joash of Judah.

The Zibiah in my family tree is Zibiah Wilson, who was my 5th great aunt, born 1808 in Duxford, Cambridgeshire, England. Zibiah was baptised on 13 November 1808 at St John’s Church in Duxford. This means she was probably born sometime in mid to late October as baptisms were usually done fairly soon after a child’s birth. However, as no date of birth is recorded in the parish records, we dint know for sure when Zibiah was born. Zibiah was the eldest child born to her parents Simeon Wilson and Rebecca Wisby, who went on to have a further seven children. Duxford is a rural village in Cambridgeshire, and Zibiah’s father worked as an agricultural labourer so she definitely grew up in a rural setting. No doubt Zibiah’s life would have mirrored that of her parents, and she would have married a local lad and raised a family in the area. Sadly, she never got to marry as she died in 1827 at the tender age of 18 years old and was buried in the St. John’s church yard.