I can track one branch of my family back to a William VOBE (VOBES, VOABE)who was born c.1492 in Mathon, then in Worcestershire. They seem to have been yeoman farmers and prospered such that they came to own many farms in the area of the Worcester/Hereford border (Mathon, Cradley, Colwall, Eastnor, Ledbury) and had branches and relatives certainly as far south as Newent. There is quite a lot of information about them available via LDS, will summaries, court records, other researchers and miscellaneous documents so I am reasonably confident about the line.

I have seen a few indications that they may have come from Gloucestershire before they moved northwards. To back that up there is a reference in VictoriaCountyHistory to a Bovone Farm in Tibberton which was formerly know as VOBES or VOBES END after a family who lived there in the mid-fourteenth century. There is also a reference in the Gloucestershire Lay Subsidy Roll of 1327 to William and Walter VOBE, both assessed for 18.5 pence in the Hundred of Botloe (i.e. the right kind of area).

I'm posting this in the faint hope that someone else is interested in this family and has more information about their possible sojourn in the north of the Forest area. I have searched the forum without any result.