This most interesting and unusual surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and derives from the Olde English pre 7th Century personal name "Saebeorn", a compound of the elements "sae", sea, with "beorn", warrior, soldier; hence "sea-warrior". Pre 7th Century Anglo-Saxon and Norse baptismal names were usually distinctive compounds whose elements were often associated with the Gods of Fire, Water and War. Sabernus Monachus and Phillipus filius (son of) Seberi, were noted in the Chartulary of Ramsey Monastery, Huntingdonshire, dated 1114. The surname is first recorded in the latter half of the 12th Century (see below). Other early recordings include: Geoffrey Sebern (Cambridgeshire, 1273); Sayer Sabarn (Essex, 1327), and John Sabern (Essex, 1377). In the modern idiom the surname has a number of variant spellings ranging from Seaborne(e), Seabourn(e), and Siborne to Sibbon, Sibun and Seabon. On July 13th 1625, Ann Seeborne married Wyllyam Gibbines, at St. Olave's Old Jewry, London, and Sarah Seeborne married William Webster on January 14th 1765 at St. Clement Danes, Westminster, London. The Coat of Arms most associated with the family is a silver shield, on a blue fess between three blue falcons close, a silver rose enclosed by two gold fleurs-de-lis, the Crest being a blue falcon close, jessed and belled gold, in the beak and passed over the back a lure twined gold, and resting on a wreath. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Nel Sebern, which was dated 1190, in the "Kalendar of Abbot Samson of Bury St. Edmunds", Suffolk, during the reign of King Richard 1, known as "The Lionheart", 1189 - 1199. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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