St Clement Danes, Middlesex, England Genealogy

St Clement Danes

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

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Westminster St Clement Danes
Type	Ancient Parish
Civil Jurisdictions
County	Middlesex
Hundred	Ossulstone (Holborn Division); Westminster
Poor Law Union	Strand
Registration District	Strand
Records Begin
Parish registers	1558
Bishop's Transcripts	1807
Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions
Rural Deanery	Not created until 1858
Diocese	London
Province	Canterbury
Probate Court	Court of the Archdeaconry of Middlesex
Archive
Middlesex Record Office

Parish History

St. Clement Danes is a parish, in the city and liberty of Westminster. The patron was the Marquess of Exeter. It is a parish in the Strand Poor Law Union, the Precinct of the Savoy, and the Liberty of the Rolls.^[1]

'St Clement Danes, Strand, the church of, is the first church westward of Temple Bar; it stands nearly in the middle of the street. It is supposed by most historians that it derives its name from having been dedicated in very ancient times to St Clement, a disciple of St Peter the Apostle, and the fourth Pope of Rome, who is said in Papal chronology to have been created Pope in the year of Christ 91, and died about the year 100. Baker in his chronicles says it received the epithet "Danes" from having been the burial place of Harold the Dane. William of Malmesbury mentions a great conquest over the Danes near this spot, where many were slain in a place since called Clement the Danes; but Fleetwood, the antiquary, who was Recorder of London in the reign of Elizabeth I, reported to the Lord Treasurer Burleigh, who resided in this parish, that when most of the Danes were driven out of this kingdom, those few that remained were permitted to settle and to marry English wives, and had the district between Thorney Isle, now called Westminster, and Caer Lud, Ludgate, assigned to them, where they built a church that was afterwards consecrated and called after them and the before-mentioned saint--Ecclesia Clementis Danorum.

'The old church was taken down in 1680, and the body of the present church was rebuilt to the old tower by Sir Christopher Wren, in 1682. By an inscription on a slab of white marble in the north aisle it appears that Sir Christopher Wren gave valuable services, when he stood alone in this country as an architect, to the parish, gratuitously. Generosity and liberality are among the most prominent features of that great man's character.

'In the year 1719, when Wren was in his ninetieth year, when Steele published his beautiful and appropriate apologue of Nestor, concerning the ungrateful neglect of Wren; Gibbs, no unworthy follower, added the present lofty, picturesque and handsome tower and steeple to this church.

'The church is very handsome structure, built entirely of solid stone, lighted by two stories of windows, and has a commodious and well arranged interior, ninety six feet in length, sixty-three in breadth and forty-eight in height. It is a rectory, in the City of Westminster, in the diocese of London and in the county and archdeaconry of Middlesex. The patronage was anciently in the Knights Templars; but after passing through several hands, it came into the family of the Earls of Exeter, with whom it remained till recently. Gilbert's Clerical Guide, which is generally received as good authority, gives the [then, current--as of 1831] patronage to "Lord St. Helen's, C...'^[2]

Resources

Find Neighboring Parishes

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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

St Clement Danes 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

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.

Poor Law Union

St Clement Danes Parish Account Books, Pauper Payments, Clothing Books, Enfield Books, Clothing and Nursing Books, Pauper Examinations, Lists of Paupers, Lists of Persons in the Workhouse, Parish Minute Books, Vestry Minutes, Overseer's Order Book, Parish Apprenticeship Records, Miscellaneous Papers, Registers of Poor Children, Settlement/Bastardy Examinations, Registers of the Poor, Registers of Bastard Children, and Pauper Removal Orders (1600s-1800s), courtesy: London Lives

The Westminster, Poor Law and Parish Administration collection at Findmypast includes:

1605-1836 - St Clement Danes, Paupers
1640-1829 - St Clement Danes, Apprentice records
1677-1860 - St Clement Danes, Workhouses
1703-1742 - St Clement Danes, Examinations
1786-1828 - St Clement Danes, Bastardy records

Maps and Gazetteers

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

Websites

Wikipedia has more about this subject: St Clement Danes

St Clement Danes on GENUKI
Sketch of front of St Clement Danes Parish Church (1817), courtesy: London Ancestor
Sketch of side of St Clement Danes Parish Church, courtesy: London Ancestor

References

↑ Lewis, Samuel A., A Topographical Dictionary of England, (1848). Adapted. Date accessed: 26 December 2013.
↑ James Elmes, A Topographical Dictionary of London and its Environs (London: Whittaker, Treacher and Arnot, 1831). Adapted. Digitised by Google Books.

[1] Lewis, Samuel A., A Topographical Dictionary of England, (1848). Adapted. Date accessed: 26 December 2013.

[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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