In a message from England, Steve Walker wrote: I have noticed that the name Beeby appeared in records of the Borough of Leicester from a very early date, especially 1300 - 1399. Many people with the surname were residents of the town at this time. They were listed as drapers and merchants and they paid taxes and appeared in local records and some became important personages in local affairs. Two of them represented the borough as Members of Parliament at various times between 1351 and 1395 and both became Mayor of Leicester. I have included copies of the entries about them from the book by Henry Hartopp (1935): "Roll of the Mayors of the Borough and Lord Mayors of the City of Leicester 1209-1395" The book also gave the arms of these members of the family and I have enclosed that too. I would stress that these arms are not certainly correct. I have looked into this and it seems they also belong to a man named Beck or Bek who also had local connections. So until further research is done these arms must remain provisionally associated with that family. The entry for Thomas de Beebe also shows that the family still retained a link with their original village eight miles distant. The Coat of Arms mentioned in Plate 1 is shown here. Overall, I think that there can be little doubt that most of the Beebys in Leicester in the 14th century were related to each other and that many people of that name descend from them. Perhaps one of the descendants of the Beebys who lived in Leicester moved to Little Addington and the Great Addinton area around 1400 and became the progenitor of the families of the area. Many persons do not understand that the people of the British Isles and Western Europe do not recognize a family Coat of Arms. A coat of arms is given to one person and not to a family. After the person given the coat of arms dies, his eldest heir can apply for the same coat of arms and pass it on to his eldest heir. However, a coat of arms cannot be displayed unless his right to it has been confirmed by the herald and at any time only one person may display the coat of arms. If you display an unauthorized coat of arms, you are impersonating someone else.

14th Century Beebys by Steve Walker