Spitalfields, Middlesex, England Genealogy

Spitalfields

Guide to Spitalfields, Middlesex ancestry, family history, and genealogy: Parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

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Type	Ecclesiastical Parish
Civil Jurisdictions
County	Middlesex
Hundred	Ossulstone (Tower Division)
Poor Law Union	Whitechapel
Registration District	Whitechapel
Records Begin
Parish registers	1729
Bishop's Transcripts	1800
Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions
Rural Deanery	Not created until 1858
Diocese	London
Province	Canterbury
Probate Court	Court of the Commissary of the Bishop of London (London Division)
Archive
Middlesex Record Office

Parish History

SPITALFIELDS Christchurch, a parish, in the union of Whitechapel, Tower division of the hundred of Ossulstone, County of Middlesex. The parish was originally a hamlet in Stepney, from which it was separated by act of parliament in 1729. The church was built in 1729. Sir George Wheler's chapel, in Chapel Street, was built [in 1693] by that gentleman for the accommodation of his tenants, previously to the erection of the parochial church. It [was] a proprietary episcopal chapel [bought and paid for privately], now in the patronage of the Rev. Richard Tillard. In Spital Square is a church dedicated to St. Mary.

There are places of worship for Independents, Wesleyans, and Calvinistic Methodists.'^[1] In addition, there were chapels for French Huguenots within the parish, although their respective worshipers had by the mid-19th Century mostly diminished having assimilated into the ranks of England's predominant religion. Due to their heavy weaving propensity and influence, however, in the local cloth and weaving industry was felt for centuries.

Christ Church Spitalfields, the church of, is situated on the south side of Church Street, Spitalfields, directly facing the eastern end of Union Street, Bishopsgate Without. The district called Spitalfields derives its name from having been built upon the fields and grounds belonging to St Mary's Spital, and was formerly a hamlet in the parish of Stepney; but from the great increase of inhabitants, arising from the settlement of the persecuted French Protestants, after the revocation of the edict of Nantz[ sic], by Louis XIV, within its precincts, it was made, in the year 1723, a distinct parish under its present name.

This church is one of the fifty new churches ordered to be built by act of parliament, in the reign of Queen Anne. It was began in 1723, by Nicholas Hawksmore, the favourite pupil of Sir Christopher Wren, and was finished in 1729. It is a substantial edifice, built of stone, with a lofty spire over a Doric portico... The interior is 111 feet in length, eighty-seven in breadth, and thirty-four in height.

The church is made a rectory, but is not to be held in commendam; it is in the dioceses of London, in the county of Middlesex, but exempt from the jurisdiction of the archdeacon...^[2]

Resources

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Civil Registration

Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from July 1837 to the present day.

See England Civil Registration for online resources and information.

Church Records

The Church of England (Anglican) became the official state religion in 1534, with the reigning monarch as its Supreme Governor.
Non-Conformist refers to all other religious denominations that are not the official state religion.

Church of England

Due to the increasing access of online records:

Individual parish coverage for databases in this table are inconsistent and should be verified

Dates in the following table are approximate

Hover over the collection's title for more information

Spitalfields Online Parish Records
Collections	Baptisms		Marriages		Burials
	Indexes and images	Indexes only	Indexes and images	Indexes only	Indexes and images	Indexes only
FamilySearch Collections-Middlesex	1500s-1900s	-	1500s-1900s	-	1500s-1900s	-
FamilySearch Parish Registers-Middlesex	1500s-1900s	-	1500s-1900s	-	1500s-1900s	-
Bishop's Transcripts - FamilySearch Catalog	1700s-1800s	-	1700s-1800s	-	1700s-1800s	-
FreeREG	-	1500s-1900s	-	1500s-1900s	-	1500s-1900s
Findmypast-Middlesex ($)	-	1500s-1900s	-	1500s-1900s	-	1400s-1900s
Findmypast (Westminster)-Middlesex ($)	-	1500s-1900s	-	1500s-1900s	-	1400s-1900s
Findmypast Banns-Middlesex ($)	-	-	-	1700s-1800s	-	-
Ancestry-London Church of England BMD (Early) ($)	1500s-1800s	-	1500s-1800s	-	1500s-1800s	-
Ancestry-London Church of England BMD (Late) ($)	1800s-1900s	-	1700s-1900s	-	1800s-2000s	-
Ancestry Marriage Bonds and Allegations-London and Surrey ($)	-	-	1600s-1900s	-	-	-
Ancestry-England & Wales, Birth, Christening, Marriage and Death Indexes ($)	-	1500s-1900s 1500s-1900s	-	1500s-1900s 1500s-1900s	-	1500s-1900s
Databases with Known Incomplete Parish Coverage
Boyd's Marriage Indexes-FMP (Free)	-	-	-	1500s-1800s	-	-
National Burial Index-FMP (Free)	-	-	-	-	-	1600s-1800s

Other Websites These databases have incomplete parish coverage.

Joiner Marriage Index - Middlesex ($)
The Genealogist Parish Registers - Middlesex ($)
UK Websites for Parish Records - Links to online genealogical records
Online Genealogical Index - Links to online genealogical records

Nonconformist Records

"Nonconformist" is a term referring to religious denominations other than an established or state church. In England, the state church is the Church of England.

1717 England & Wales, Roman Catholics, 1717 at Findmypast - index & images ($); coverage may vary

Census Records

1640 Protestation Return

Stepney (including Limehouse, Poplar, Blackwall, Old Ford, Stratford Bow, Spitalfields, Bethnal Green, Mile-End, St. Leonard Bromley, and Ratcliffe) (House of Lords), Copy: FS Library Film 1550096 item 25.

Census records from 1841 to 1911 are available online. For access, see England Census Records and Indexes Online. Census records from 1841 to 1891 are also available on film through a FamilySearch Center or at the FamilySearch Library.

Probate Records

Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Middlesex Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

Maps and Gazetteers

Maps are a visual look at the locations in England. Gazetteers contain brief summaries about a place.

Websites

Spitalfields on GENUKI

References

↑ Samuel Lewis, ed. A Topographical Dictionary of England 159-164. (London: S. Lewis and Co., 1848), Online here, (accessed: 03 May 2010). Adapted.
↑ James Elmes, A Topographical Dictionary of London and its Environs (London: Whittaker, Treacher and Arnot, 1831). Adapted. Digitised by Google Books.

[1] Samuel Lewis, ed. A Topographical Dictionary of England 159-164. (London: S. Lewis and Co., 1848), Online here, (accessed: 03 May 2010). Adapted.

[elmes-2] James Elmes, A Topographical Dictionary of London and its Environs (London: Whittaker, Treacher and Arnot, 1831). Adapted. Digitised by Google Books.

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