Information

This section contains help relating to genealogical research in Essex, Kent and Suffolk.
The topics are:

• Census returns
• Church records
• Civil registration
• Non-conformist resources
• Wills and where to find them

Copyright and Licence

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

Census returns

The decennial census was carried out on the following dates:

• 1801 - 10th. March
• 1811 - 27th. May
• 1821 - 28th. May
• 1831 - 29th. May
• 1841 - 6th. June
• 1851 - 30th. March
• 1861 - 7th. April
• 1871 - 2nd. April
• 1881 - 3rd. April
• 1891 - 5th. April
• 1901 - 31st. March

Before 1841, very few of the returns have survived. For details of what exists, have a look at the book 'Local Census Listings, 1522-1930', ISBN number 1 86006 052 8, written by Jeremy Gibson and Mervyn Medlycott, and published by the Federation of Family Hsitory Societies.

The following companies are publishing/have published census returns:

• Ancestry.co.uk - 1841 to 1901 online via subscription or pay-as-you-go.
• Archive CD Books - 1861 and 1891 on CD.
• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - have published the 1881 census online free of charge.
• The Public Record Office (not to be confused with the next entry) sells copies of the census on microfiche.
• Qinetiq - 1901 online via pay-per-view.
• S&N Genealogy - 1891 and all years for London, Lancashire and Yorkshire on CD.
• Stepping Stones - 1841 on CD.

The 1851 census has been indexed or transcribed on a regional basis by various family history societies.

For further information, take a look at the information on the Family Record Centre's web-site.

And finally, have a look at the 1901 Census for Great Cockup.

Church records

Church of England

The information recorded in Parish Registers was changed by law several times.
Important dates for changes are:

• 1538: Thomas Cromwell ordered that registers of baptisms, burials and marriages be kept from September 1538. You will find that most registers begin sometime between 1538 and 1570.
• 1667: The requirement to be buried in wool was passed by an Act of Parliament. If you can find a 'Woollen' burial register, it usually has more information than the normal one (based on what I've found for Buxhall, Suffolk). The requirement was dropped in the 18th. century.
• 1752: The Gregorian calendar was fully adopted. Before this date (and increasingly so the further back you go), the year ran from 25th. March (Lady Day) to 24th. March. From Parish Registers that I've searched (in 3 figures), some Parish clerks adopted 1st. January as the start of the new year earlier than 1752. This was probably similar to the situation in Britain today with metrication - the younger generation learns the metric system, the older generation learned the imperial system and people like me learned both.
• 1754: Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Act was introduced in England and Wales. It required that a marriage could only be performed after Banns had been read or after the issue of a licence, and that it must be solemnised in a (Church of England) chapel or church. Jews and Quakers were exempt from the provisions of the Act; and it didn't apply to Scotland - which is why Gretna Green became so popular as a destination for people to get married in a hurry. Before 1754, there were quite a few clandestine marriages. See the series of books compiled by Mark Herber, "Clandestine Marriages in the Chapel and Rules of the Fleet Prison 1680 - 1754", published by Francis Boutle, for examples.
• 1813: Instead of blank pages in which the Parish clerk chose what to record (subject to the minimum requirements given by previous laws), pre-printed forms in books were introduced and the amount of detail increased. Baptisms, for example, now recorded the place of abode and occupation of (usually) the father. Burials recorded the age at death.
• 1837: The level of detail was changed again. Marriages now recorded the fathers of the bride and groom, etc. Baptisms recorded the date of birth.

Notes on the above (from what I've observed):

1. Before 1813, the level of detail recorded was at the discretion of the Parish clerk. Exceptional or unusual events have extreme detail, the normal day-to-day stuff quite often has the absolute minimum.
   For example:
   • The comment 'Mice?' added above the missing corner of a register.
   • Details of the near riot outside Isleham Church, Cambridgeshire, when the groom claimed he didn't consent to the marriage and had been coerced into it by relatives of the bride (who gave birth to a child significantly less than 9 months after the wedding);
   • The story in a Burial register of a man who fell from his pony and trap whilst driving home (you guessed it) from the pub. (Stowmarket area, Suffolk.)
   • Details of the reminiscences of an old lady (whom the vicar estimated as being aged 120) who could remember the coronation of Elizabeth I. The burial was about 1660, I think.
2. The (normal) minimum age for marriage was 18 with the consent of parents, 21 without. For the majority of marriages I've checked (say 99%), the bride and groom were in their twenties or thirties. The prevalent idea that people married very young is simply not borne out by what I've seen. So if someone got married in 1760, you should consider 1715 to 1743 as the minimum date range to be checked for the person's baptism. [Many of the family history entries loaded into the IGI assume that people married at the age of 18 or 25.]
3. Before Victorian times (1837), children were frequently named after their parents or other important members of the family. Names such as Henry, John, Thomas, William or Anne, Elizabeth, Mary were extremely common. From 1800 onwards, there was an explosion in the choice of forenames.
4. Spelling: English isn't phonetic and even as late as Victorian times, the spelling of forenames and surnames would vary for the same individual (even in the same church). Add in the different local accents, and it's no wonder that you see all sorts of strange places recorded in the 'where born' column of a census.
5. Movement: Be prepared to look over a wide area, especially to find marriages. It's again not generally true that people always stayed in their local parish. Some people did, but just as many have events recorded in other churches. (See the example in the non-conformity section below.)
6. Why can't I find an entry in the Burial Register?
   The Burial register does not record the death of a person, it records their interment. So, any or more of the following could happen:
   • Older people could move to live with their children, and so the burial could be recorded in that parish.
   • A Monumental inscription can record a person that wasn't actually buried in the churchyard. It's exactly what it says it is - a tribute to recognise the person who lived. The simplest modern example is a 'Roll of Honour' for people who died in one of the World Wars.
   • A person could die in place A but the body could be returned to his or her home (place B). The richer the person, the further a body could be moved.
   • From 1830 or so, with the large population growth in towns and cities, cemeteries were opened which keep/kept their own registers.
7. Baptisms: A child was normally baptised a few days or weeks after birth. If the person was older, this is frequently noted in the registers.
8. 'Infant' and 'child':
   The term infant seems to have been used to describe people, say, 0 to 3 years old, whereas child was used for 3 to 10. I'm not exactly sure on this point.
9. During the 1800s, the population of England increased very quickly. The Church of England built and opened a large number of churches, especially in the Greater London and other metropolitan areas.
10. There are several publications which identify the churches in a particular area:
    • The 'National Index of Parish Registers' series is published by The Society of Genealogists and covers the Church of England on a county-by-county basis and non-conformist churches on a national basis. There are about 12 volumes in the set.
    • 'Atlas and Index of Parish Registers' published by Phillimore. It's contains an atlas of the Great Britain, a county-by-county map showing (only) each Church of England parish and an index to each parish. It's a very nice but very expensive book (GBP 50.00). It doesn't include the churches built during the 1800s.
    • 'West Kent Sources' published by the North West Kent Family History Society. It's a comprehensive guide to the records relating to North West Kent/South East London. It covers all church records, censuses, unpublished indices, etc. If you are tracing your family in the Northfleet/Dartford/Woolwich/Lewisham/Sevenoaks area you really should buy this book.
    • 'Kent: Hand list of Parish Registers and Transcripts' published by the Kent Record Offices. It only covers the Church of England, but does identify what is held by which record office.
    • The 'Guide to Genealogical Sources' series published by Suffolk Record Office.
    • 'Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England - Volume 1 Southern England', written by F.A. Youngs, published by the Royal Historical Society in 1979. This is probably the definitive guide to the Church of England, Parliamentary and Local Government organisation in England. It's almost certainly not worth trying to buy a copy (unless you suffer from insomnia), but there's a good chance there will be a copy in your local record office or large library.
    • Gerry Lawson has published a freeware parish locator program, which can be downloaded by clicking here

Non-conformity

There are broadly two types of non-conformity - (a) religions or churches with a strict sense of membership; and (b) those where membership was not/might not have been a requirement to attend services or have baptisms recorded there.
Examples of (a) are Quakers, Jewish, Methodists, and examples of (b) are Congregational churches.

Taking Isleham Independent Church (1690-1805) as an example, membership was strictly recorded and observed, but the church also allowed non-members to participate. So Thomas Moore of Isleham was a member and quite a lot of detail about him is recorded in the (still extant) membership records, but his son-in-law and step-son [yes, that's the relationship and not a typo], John Fuller of Isleham, only attended the church (and donated a pew to it). The church's congregation travelled up to 50 miles to attend. (For those of you who are interested in the history of the Baptist church, Isleham became a Baptist church in 1806 and contributed some of the leading members of, and beliefs to, the faith.)

Did people swap between non-conformist and Church of England churches?

The answer is YES, because:

• As described above, marriages had to take place in Church of England churches from 1754 onwards.
• Very few non-conformist churches had burial grounds (although a minority did).
• The people who tended to swap were the people who weren't members.
• Members could be suspended or expelled for periods of time. One person I know of was banned from Isleham church for 'coveting his brother's land' and was only re-admitted 12 years later. Other suspensions could be temporary, resulting from poor attendance, being drunk and disorderly, or for 'blaspheming'.
• Some people seem to have 'hedged their bets' and baptised their children in a Church of England church as well as a local non-conformist one.

Catholic Church

This was officially illegal until 1791. There was, however, a loyal following in England and registers or records do exist from before this date. Michael Gandy has published a series of books detailing the history of the missions [parishes]. The Catholic Family History Society has also published some of its records. Go to the Society of Genealogists' bookshop for details.

Civil registration

This was introduced in 1837. It became a legal requirement for all births, marriages and deaths to be reported to the local registrar. Indexes to the entries are available at the Family Record Centre, etc.

Notes

1. Especially in the early days, it is now clear that not all entries were registered.
2. The problems of spelling described below (under Church records) also existed for civil registration entries. So you must always consider alternate spellings when checking the indices.
3. Registration districts don't fall perfectly in line with county boundaries. Therefore you may have to look slightly away from where you expected.
   A 1901 census example: Penge falls in London, Kent and Croydon, Surrey.
4. The national indices do contain errors and omissions (there's a procedure for reporting them).

Useful web-sites

• FreeBMD - A volunteer effort to load the indices onto the internet.
• Ordering certicates, etc.
• Registration districts in Suffolk - which parish is in which registration district.

Non-conformist resources

This section explains where to look for non-conformist records in Kent and Suffolk.
Please note that many of the sites contain religious beliefs and opinions which do not necessarily coincide with my own beliefs. The links are provided for genealogical and historical purposes only.

Recommended reading

1. Tracing Your Ancestors in the Public Record Office published by the Public Record Office, ISBN number 1 873162 61 8.
2. Catholic Missions and Registers 1700 - 1880; Volume 1: London and the Home Counties published by Michael Gandy, ISBN number 0 952053 51 9.
3. Catholic Missions and Registers 1700 - 1880; Volume 2: The Midlands and East Anglia published by Michael Gandy, ISBN number 0 952053 52 7.
4. National Index of Parish Registers - Volume 2; Sources for Nonconformist Genealogy and Family History published by the Society of Genealogists, ISBN number 0 901878 47 2. This covers Protestant denominations.
5. My Ancestors Were Congregationalists in Engalnd and Wales published by the Society of Genealogists, ISBN number 1 859510 49 3.
6. My Ancestors were English Presbyterians/Unitarians published by the Society of Genealogists, ISBN number 0 946789 62 2.
7. My Ancestors were Methodists published by the Society of Genealogists, ISBN number 1 859514 03 0.
8. My Ancestors were Quakers published by the Society of Genealogists, ISBN number 1 859514 04 9.
9. The Bishops' register of confirmations in the Midland district published by the Catholic Family History Society, ISBN number 0 952900 62 8.
10. Guide to Genealogical Sources Part 3 - Non-conformist records published by the Suffolk Record Office.

Libraries and record offices

• [Baptist] The Angus Library, Regent's Park College, Pusey Street, Oxford, OX1 2LB.
• Baptist Historical Society
• Congregational Library, 15, Gordon Square, London WC1H 0AG.
• The Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion
• Evangelical Library, 78A Chiltern Street, London W1M 2HB, telephone 020 7935 6997.
• Guildhall Library, Aldermanbury, London EC2P 2EJ.
  To search their holdings, click here.
• Huguenot Society Library, Special Collections of UCL Library, 140 Hampstead Road, London, NW1.
• Huguenot - most records are at the PRO.
• Methodist Libraries
• [Moravians] - most records are at the PRO.
• Presbyterian Historical Society Library, Church House, Fisherwick Place, Belfast, BT1 6DW.
• The Public Record Office, Kew.
  Records should also be available at the Family Records Centre, 1 Myddelton Street, London EC1R 1UW.
• [Quakers] Friends House Library, 173 Euston Road, London, NW1 2BJ, telephone 020 7662 1135.
  Some records are also in local county record offices.
• John Rylands University Library of Manchester, 150 Deansgate, Manchester M3 3EH, telephone 0161 834 5343/6765.
• The United Reformed Church History Society, Westminster College, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0AA, telephone 01223 741300.
• Dr. Williams' Library, 14 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0AG, telephone 020 7387 3727.
  Cambridgeshire Family History Society is publishing information relating to Cambridgeshire in a searchable database.

Wills

This section explains where to look for wills and administrations in Suffolk.

After 1857

From 12th January 1858, all wills were granted probate by the Principal Registry of the Family Division [Principal Probate Registry] which is at First Avenue House, 42-49 High Holborn, London WC1V 6NP; telephone 020 7947 6983; opening times: 10.00 - 4.30 Monday to Friday.
Note that the Bury St. Edmunds has a card index to wills relating to West Suffolk for the period 1858-1928 and that this is cheaper and easier to access than paying for a search at the Principal Probate Registry.

Before 1858

Before 1858 Wills were administered by the Church of England (except for the period of the Civil War) and there were several levels of courts:

1. The lowest level was the local manorial court which could administer transfers of land. I've only come across one (possible) example of this so far.
2. The next level up was the courts of the Archdeaconry of Sudbury [West Suffolk] and the Archdeaconry of Suffolk [East Suffolk].
   The deaneries in Sudbury were:
   • Fordham [Mildenhall area and some parishes in Cambridgeshire]
   • Blackbourne [Hinderclay, Elmswell, Ixworth, Culford and Barnham are at the corners]
   • Thingoe [Bury St. Edmunds and the parishes west of it]
   • Clare [South-west Suffolk]
   • Thedwastre [the area to the east of Bury St. Edmunds, includes Rattlesden and Woolpit]
   • Sudbury [Hitcham, Bures St. Mary, Cavendish and Lawshall are at the corners]
   • Stow [Gipping, Stowupland, Creeting St. Peter, Stowmarket, Combs form the eastern boundary; Buxhall and Wetherden on the western side]
   • Hadleigh [but see below]
   • Hartismere [Oakley, Wetheringsett, Bacton and Redgrave are at the corners]
   The deaneries in Suffolk were:
   • Bosmere [Ringshall, Battisford, Badley, Creeting St. Mary and Earl Stonham mark the western border]
   • Samford [the southern part of Suffolk bordering Essex]
   • Ipswich
   • Colneis [Felixstowe area]
   • Claydon [just to the east of Bosmere]
   • Carlford [north-east of Ipswich]
   • Wilford, Orford and Dunwich on the east coast of Suffolk
   • Loes [Framlingham area]
   • Hoxne
   • South Elmham
   • Wangford
   • Lothingland
   Several parishes were in 'Peculiars' - they were administered by other courts. The parishes were:
   • Rushford was in the Archdeaconry of Norfolk
   • Bramford and Thetford were in the Archdeaconry of Norwich
   • Freckenham was in its own Peculiar
   • Hadleigh, Monks Eleigh and Moulton were in the Peculiar of the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Deanery of Bocking.
     These wills are held at Chelmsford Record Office, Essex.
3. The next level up was the Consistory Court of Norwich which covered most of East Anglia.
   These wills are held at Norfolk Record Office.
4. The highest level was the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (except for very complex cases involving legal action).
   These wills are held at the Public Record Office.
   When you look at the indices, if you see 'Pts' as the county this means that the person was either on a ship or held properties abroad (e.g. in the Colonies, India, USA, etc.)

How did this work?
The court which granted probate was determined on two criteria - the value of the estate; and whether the court had jurisdiction over the location of the properties in the will.
Taking the Fuller family of Buxhall/Stowmarket as an example:

• Most of the wills were proved and administrations granted in the Archdeaconry Court of Sudbury because all of the farmland was in the Buxhall area.
• John Fuller of Stowmarket's will was proved at Norwich (3) because some of the property was in East Suffolk and possibly because the executor, Alexander Dykes, was a Quaker.
• The wills of Robert Fuller of Buxhall and the descendants of John Fuller of Long Melford were all proved in the PCC (4) because of the value of the estates, the complexity of ownership of Leffey Hall in Buxhall and because of other properties scattered around East Anglia.

Where are the records held?

• Archdeaconry of Sudbury and Freckenham - Suffolk Record Office in Bury St. Edmunds
• Archdeaconry of Suffolk - Suffolk Record Office in Ipswich
• Archdeaconry of Norfolk, Archdeaconry of Norwich, Consistory Court of Norwich - Norfolk Record Office
• Peculiar of the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Deanery of Bocking - Essex Record Office at Chelmsford
• Prerogative Court of Canterbury - Public Record Office, Kew

Indices published

1. Archdeaconry of Sudbury
   • 1354-1700: British Record Society volumes 95 and 96.
   • 1701-1800: British Record Society [in preparation].
   • 1801-1858: British Record Society volume 118.
2. Archdeaconry of Suffolk
   • 1444-1700: British Record Society volumes 90 and 91.
3. Essex
   • 1400-1619: Wills at Chelmsford Volume I, 1400-1619, British Record Society volume 78.
   • 1620-1720: Wills at Chelmsford Volume II, 1620-1720, British Record Society volume 79.
   • 1721-1858: Wills at Chelmsford Volume III, 1721-1858, British Record Society volume 84.
4. Consistory Court of Norwich
   • British Record Society and/or the Norfolk Record Society
5. Prerogative Court of Canterbury
   • 1383-1558: Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills 1383-1558 Volumes I and II, British Record Society volumes 10 and 11.
   • 1558-1588: Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills 1558-1583 Volume III, British Record Society volume 18.
   • 1584-1604: Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills 1584-1604 Volume IV, British Record Society volume 25.
   • 1605-1619: Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills 1605-1619 Volume V, British Record Society volume 43.
   • 1620-1629: Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills 1620-1629 Volume VI, British Record Society volume 44.
   • 1620-1624: Probates and Sentences in the PCC 1620-1624, published by Matthews, J and G.F. in 1911.
   • 1630-1649: PCC Year Books of Probates 1630-1649, published by Matthews, J and G.F. in 1902.
   • 1650-1655: PCC Commonwealth Probates 1650-1655, published by Matthews, J and G.F. in 1908.
   • 1653-1656: Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills 1653-1656 Volume VII, British Record Society volume 54.
   • 1657-1660: Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills 1657-1660 Volume VIII, British Record Society volume 61.
   • 1671-1675: Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills 1671-1675 Volume IX, British Record Society volume 67.
   • 1676-1685: Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills 1676-1685 Volume X, British Record Society volume 71.
   • 1686-1693: Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills 1686-1693 Volume XI, British Record Society volume 77.
   • 1694-1700: Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills 1694-1700 Volume XII, British Record Society volume 80.
   • 1581-1595: Prerogative Court of Canterbury Administrations 1581-1595 Volume III, British Record Society volume 76.
   • 1596-1608: Prerogative Court of Canterbury Administrations 1596-1608 Volume IV, British Record Society volume 81.
   • 1609-1619: Prerogative Court of Canterbury Administrations 1609-1619 Volume V, British Record Society volume 83.
   • 1631-1648: Prerogative Court of Canterbury Administrations 1631-1648 Volume VI, British Record Society volume 100.
   • 1649-1654: Prerogative Court of Canterbury Administrations 1649-1654 Volume I, British Record Society volume 68.
   • 1655-1660: Prerogative Court of Canterbury Administrations 1655-1660 Volume II, British Record Society volumes 72, 74 and 75.
   • 1701-1749: Friends of the Public Record Office.
   • 1750-1800: Society of Genealogists.
   • 1800-1858: Available online at the PRO Online web-site.

Recommended reading

1. Probate Jurisdictions: Where to Look for Wills by J. S. W. Gibson, published by the Federation of Family History Societies, ISBN number 1 860061 52 4.
2. Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills and Other Probate Records by Miriam Scott, published by the PRO, ISBN number 1 873162 23 5.