The hamlet of Dowbiggin is in Sedbergh parish. A family name dreived from it is on record over 650 years ago. Adam of Dowbiggin was mentioned in deeds concerning Sedbergh and Bentham in 1321 and 1325, and it was in this neighbourhood that much of the family's early history took place. In the Poll Tax of 1379, for example, John de Dowfbygyng of Bentham paid 12 pence and Cristiana Dewfebygyng of Clapham 4 pence.

These spellings make the meaning of Dowbiggin quite clear. Dowf or Dewfe were from an old word meaning "dove," while biggin -- still used in dialect -- was simply a building. Colloquial pronunciations of the surname gave rise to numerous variant spellings in the parish registers of Yorkshire and Lancashire from the 16th century, and survivors from this period are Dowbekin, Dowbakin and the even stronger Dobkin. This last name has sometimes been thought to derive from a diminutive of Robert but there is no doubt that it is identical locally with Dowbiggin.

At different times throughout the Middle Ages, branches of the Dowbiggin family moved away from the dales of the north-west and forsook the traditional role of farming for a variety of occupations. John Dowbiggin, for example, became a priest in the North Riding in the 1400s.

However, most of the moves were to important commercial centres. We find Dowbiggins as shoemakers in York (1541), tanners in Selby (1679) and watermen in Doncaster (1623).

In Bentham were men who took up cotton weaving during the 19th century, but the family's links with farming in this remote area have remained strong. In recent years there has been one branch of the Dowbiggins at Home Farm and Robert Hall in Low Bentham, and a second at Chapel-le-Dale, Ingleton.

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