There has always been confusion regarding the spelling of our family name Hilbun.  My whole life I’ve been called Hilburn even when someone is reading my name.  For whatever reason, others want to put a “r” in our name.

In the earliest records I have found on the Hilbun family, I have seen the name spelled numerous ways. In colonial days, few were educated and census takers often spelled names as they sounded.  Within the records of the Vaughan Hilburn of the early 1700’s, his name is spelled HILBUN and HILBURN in official documents; the same is true for land records for John Hilbun of Duplin County, North Carolina in the mid 1700’s.

Regarding the Hilbun/Hilburn name, my father, Joel P. Hilbun, on his Hilbun family history webpage- http://joehilbun.com/history.htm    stated:

“The family name has several spellings, Hilburn being the most prevalent. There is a Family Bible record by descendants of Frederick Hilbun by his second wife in which every entry is spelled Hilbun.

First page of Frederick Hilbun’s Bible Record. Frederick was last enumerated in the 1850 Census of Lowndes Co., AL. That record gave his place of birth as North Carolina.

I also have copies of a Family Bible record by descendants of Stephen Newberry Hilbun and in it every entry is spelled Hilbun. Some of Frederick’s lines of descendants have used the Hilburn spelling and others the Hilbun spelling.

In another document, Joel P. Hilbun stated:

“Hilbun is the spelling in several land records also and is the spelling kept by all of the family members in Jones County, Mississippi. HILBUN is the spelling maintained by a majority of the descendants of James Bruce Hilbun, as well as other family branches.

A majority of descendants of Vaughn Hilbun (1808-91) in Laurens County, Georgia, have followed the HILBUN spelling. Another group that resided in northwest Mississippi followed the HILBUN spelling. No records of the relationship of those two family groups with each other or of Frederick line has been found. The HILBUN spelling has been found on land records of the early 1700s in North Carolina and on census and other public records in England in the 1800s.”

In addition, I have noticed that the majority of descendants of Woodward A. Hilbun (1775-1851) spell their name “Hilbun”.  He was born in North Carolina and is likely the son of Vaughan Hilbun, Jr. and  settled in Pontotoc, Mississippi in the 1840’s.  His children moved to Desoto County, Mississippi and Memphis area, while many of his descendants moved to Texas and then California.  These families have consistently used the name HILBUN.

Another “Hilbun” family I have discovered actually spells their name “HILLBUN”.   These Hillbuns are first found in Barren County, Kentucky in 1810 with William Hilbun as the father of several children, most of whom later moved on to Indiana, Illinois and Missouri.