06/06/2011 by Emma Jolly.

 On 19 May 2011, Dan Carrier reported in the Camden New Journal (link to online article) that Camden Local Studies and Archives (Camden LS Homepage) is under threat of closure following the publication of the results of the Council’s library consultation.

The article stated: “as the results of a library consultation are number-crunched and the Town Hall considers how to cut about 25 per cent of the service’s budget, the archives look likely to be merged with Islington’s or closed.”

John Richardson, Chairman of the Camden History Society (http://www.camdenhistorysociety.org/) argues the consultation suggested that respondents “were in favour of spending less on local studies, not closing it.”

It is not likely that Camden can merge its archives with that of Islington as Islington’s Local History Centre (Local History Centre) does not have the space to retain the vast resources that Camden LS currently holds (believed to be 180,000 items). Recent rumours suggest the archive could move to London Metropolitan Archives (http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm) However, critics of this move, such as the Camden History Society, point out that staff at LMA do not have the Camden-specific knowledge and experience that current researchers find so useful.

As Dan Carrier wrote, the collection includes muskets from “the Napoleonic wars to maps of every drain in the borough”. With the bicentenary of Charles Dickens’ birth in a few months time, it is important to note that three Dickens unpublished letters are also held in Camden LS. Many of these items are uncatalogued. In London, the only archive larger than Camden’s is that of Westminster City Archives (http://www.westminster.gov.uk/services/libraries/archives/).

It is ironic that councillors are looking to closing the Archives as part of a cost-cutting exercise. On numerous occasions, the Archives have, in fact, helped Camden Council to save money. Former chief archivist Malcolm Holmes told the New Journal of one example whereby using some of the old maps in the collection enabled the Council to save “around £150,000 in 1970s money”.

It is also odd that Camden’s Council should choose to close the archive whilst in nearby Hackney a new state-of-the-art Archives is currently being built (http://www.hackney.gov.uk/ca-archives.htm) The borough of Hackney is just as badly affected by the cuts, and it is unclear why  investments in local history can be made by its Council but not by Camden’s.

Camden Local Studies and Archives helps a wide variety of people - many of whom live outside the borough and were not party to the consultation. Those who currently use the Archives include: social, economic & house historians, genealogists, economists, journalists, teachers, schoolchildren, students, council employees, lawyers, builders, and authors. For family historians, its collections of parish rate books (dating from 1726),  local newspapers, electoral registers, theatre programmes, the registers of Highgate Cemetery and the photographs of local interest are invaluable. It also holds the unique Heal Collection on St Pancras and the Kate Greenaway Collection.

Those who have voiced concern about the impending closure, include best-selling author of The Fields Beneath, Gillian Tindall, as well as Camden New Journal readers from London and beyond. In a letter to the newspaper, Camden resident, Lester May, wrote that, “Camden Council seems set on closing the local studies library and archives service in order to save around £135,000 . . . Thus one of the best resources of its kind in London, perhaps in the country, will be lost and this at a time when more people are interested in their family and local history than ever before. . . The loss of the local studies collection and archive would be permanent. There is sufficient in the council’s reserve of £95.8million for consideration to be given to funding the local studies library and archive service such that it is retained as a local service within the borough, ideally where it is currently located in Holborn.”

John Richardson states that the Camden History Society “is particularly concerned . . . [about] its closure and its contents [being] shipped elsewhere . . . Camden are taking £135,000 out of the Local Studies budget, in effect making it impossible to function.” He argues further that this not what the consultation response indicated.

The collections cover the area of the present London Borough of Camden. This includes the history of Hampstead, Holborn, St Pancras, Camden Town, Somers Town, Kentish Town, parts of Highgate, and the parishes of Hampstead, St Andrew Holborn above Bars, including the Liberty of Saffron Hill, St George the Martyr Queen Square, St Giles in the Fields, St George Bloomsbury, and St Pancras. The earliest parish records date from 1618.

Update 7 June 2011

Yesterday, on Monday 6 June, I attended a Camden Council scrutiny meeting of the library report. The Town Hall was packed with library and archives supporters. Gillian Tindall, author of The Fields Beneath, spoke as part of the deputation on behalf of the Camden History Society. She said that if Camden Local Studies is closed, it will be “a great loss for future generations” and “would be a black stain” on Camden Council’s record. Holborn Library Users Group was also represented (the Archives are housed in Holborn Library’s building). The group’s deputation argued that the loss of the Archives to Camden would be irreplaceable, and condemned the report’s suggestion that Local Studies provision be outsourced. The speaker further said that no library buildings in whole or in part should be sold without full public consultation. This was greeted with cheers and clapping from the gallery.

Tudor Allen, Senior Archivist at Camden Local Studies & Archives, told the Councillors present that he would like to publicize the value of the material they hold. He reminded those present that the collection is invaluable.

One councillor announced that she had to contact the Archives that very day about the oldest Market in Camden for a press release. This only goes to show how essential Camden Local Studies is to the smooth running of the entire council.

Fiona Dean, the Council’s Assistant Director of Culture, said that they had spoken with the British Library, local university libraries, LMA & Islington about housing the records. However, they were agreed that keeping the archives within Camden is preferred option. Near the end of the meeting, Councillor Tulip Siddiq, the cabinet member for Culture, stated that the Archives will stay in Theobalds Road until suitable accommodation is found for them within the borough of Camden.

The decision on Camden’s libraries & archives will be announced at Town Hall on this Wednesday, 8 June. Supporters of the Archives are urged to telephone their councillors before next Wednesday to ask them to vote for Option D.

A full list of Camden’s councillors can be found on the Camden Council website.

Posted in Lester May, London Metropolitan Archives, Westminster City Archives, Gillian Tindall, rate books, Camden Council, Charles Dickens, Islington Local History Centre, Camden History Society, John Richardson, social history, London, Genealogy, Camden Local Studies, 1911 Census, Dan Carrier, Camden New Journal, Family History | No Comments »

26/05/2011 by Emma Jolly.

Lily Florence Knight 1893-1952, seen here in 1940, around the time war forced her departure from the Palladium.

A number of twitter users expressed interest when I tweeted recently about finding an obituary for my great grandmother, Lily Knight, in The Stage Archive (https://archive.thestage.co.uk).

Although my great grandmother was not on the stage, our family knew that she had always worked in the theatre world. Her daughter, my grandmother, grew up around the theatre, and Lily’s grandchildren were treated to notable performances at the London Palladium. The tradition continued when my cousins and I were taken for our annual trip to West End theatres during summer holiday visits to Grandma in London.

Lily adored her work: she became privy to all manner of backstage secrets and met the toast of the London stage. Her life in the theatre covered the music hall period from Marie Lloyd through the years of variety and the emergence of cinema, into the dance craze, the light comedies of Noel Coward, Repertory theatre, and the dominance of classical actors such as John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh, Peggy Ashcroft, Michael Redgrave and Alec Guinness.

The discovery of the obituary filled the gaps in my knowledge of Lily’s career, pinpointing the exact theatres in which she worked and identifying some of her colleagues and employers.

Lily Florence Knight began life in 1893, in a laundry in Stoke Newington. By the time of the 1911 census, Lily was working as a clerk in the establishment of a ‘Musical Agent’. Although Lily was just 17 years old, she had used all the intelligence, charm and looks at her disposal to make a career for herself away from the laundry in which most of the female members of her family worked. Her ambition was spurred by the contrast between the laundry she called home and the glamour of the early twentieth century stage.

The obituary revealed that Lily had begun her career even earlier than 1911, when she ‘in her early teens’, working in the office of a ‘William Henshall’ – the aforementioned musical agent. Around this time, Lily married Sydney Spencer and gave birth to two children. In order to keep on working Lily retained her maiden name and was always known professionally as ‘Miss’. According to the obituary, Henshall gave up the agency in the 1920s and it was then that Lily began working as a secretary at the Alexandra Theatre in Stoke Newington. During the twenties, the Alexandra housed pantomimes, films (it had been a early cinema for a short period) and circus performances. More details about this theatre can be found at the Music Hall and Theatre History Website: http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/AlexandraTheatreStokeNewington.htm Some of its posters and programmes 1897-1935 are held at Hackney Archives (currently being moved to a new location) http://www.hackney.gov.uk/ca-archives.htm

A few years later, possibly after the closure of the Alexandra in 1935, Lily transferred to the London Palladium - then one of the most celebrated theatres in the world, and in the heart of the West End. The Palladium was celebrated for its variety acts, and from 1935-39 saw a number of performances from the group later known as The Crazy Gang, which featured the composers Flanagan and Allen, as well as Jimmy Nervo, Teddy Knox, Charlie Naughton and Jimmy Gold. Here Lily worked as a secretary for the managers George Rhodes Parry and (later) Charles Hutchinson. Other acts of the 1930s who played the Palladium were the comedian Jack Benny, singer Paul Robeson, the musicians, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Cab Calloway, the actress Ethel Barrymore, the dancer and singer Josephine Baker, and the singer and entertainer Fats Waller (http://www.reallyuseful.com/theatres/london-palladium/history-1 ). It was during this period that Lily befriended the man in charge of bookings and, from 1945, the Managing Director of the Palladium, Val Parnell.

Valentine Parnell (1892-1972), had begun his career as an office-boy, and later became a famous theatrical impresario and television producer. Val had been born in Hackney, and married firstly Dorothy O’Connell in 1913. In 1911 he was living with his ventriloquist father at 7 Wiltshire Road, Brixton. A biography and photographs of Val Parnell, can be seen at http://www.teletronic.co.uk/val_parnell.htm

When war intervened, leading to the temporary closure of the Palladium in 1940, Lily took a position at the BBC. A few years later, in September 1943, she moved to the head office of the theatre owners, Moss Empires, working for Charles Henry, the head of the Press department and the chief of production. From 1946, Moss Empires owned the London Palladium, enabling Lily to keep in touch with old friends. More detail on how Moss Empires was run by a small staff at Cranbourne Mansions in Leicester Square can be read at http://glasgow-empire.webs.com/howmossempiresworked.htm

Jack Sullivan, who had had been away serving in war, returned to Moss Empires and separated the Press department, taking Lily as his secretary. After he moved on, she continued to work for his successor John Carlsen.

However, this happy period was soon to end. In 1952, Lily was struck down by cancer of the oesophagus. The obituary stated that, “After a short illness, during most of which she felt it her duty to carry on until it was impossible for her to continue. She was admitted to the Wanstead Hospital, where, after an operation, she died last Friday, May 23.” Although it was known she was ill, she had been expected to return home after the operation. Lily’s death in hospital at the age of only 58 was a huge shock to her husband, children and grandchildren. And, as the obituary shows, Lily was to be deeply mourned by her beloved theatre world:

Her great knowledge of the business and unfailing helpful attitude to the many inquirers day to day were invaluable, and her loss is grievously felt. . . . Val Parnell said: “I knew Lily Knight personally for a great number of years. She was a most likeable person, and we shall all miss her very much indeed.”

The Stage, May 29, 1952, p4

 Further Reading: Christopher Woodward, The London Palladium: The Story of the Theatre and Its Stars (Jeremy Mills Publishing, 2009)

Posted in Stoke Newington, Alexandra Theatre, Val Parnell, Moss Empires, William Henshall, 1911 Census, The Stage Archive, Theatre History, Emma Jolly, Genealogy, London, social history, London Palladium, Hackney Archives, Family History | No Comments »

26/04/2011 by Emma Jolly.

Whilst writing a book on tracing ancestors in British India, I explored the character and actions of one of the most notorious Britons in India, Robert Clive (1725-1774). Later he became Baron Clive of Plassey but was popularly known as ‘the conqueror of India’, or simply ‘Clive of India’. Clive is central to the history of British involvement in India for, without him, it is unlikely that the British East India Company (EIC) would ever have gained the power that they did.

Throughout the eighteenth century Britain waged war with age-old enemy, France. The conflict spread beyond Europe, affecting EIC trade in India. Clive, the son of a Shropshire squire, rose to prominence in India after he defeated a French-Indian force at the siege of Arcot in 1751. The Indians nicknamed him Sabit Jang, Steady in War.

Clive was appointed Governor of Bengal on two occasions: once from 1757-60 and secondly in 1765. The first time was after he had defeated the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj ud Daula, at the Battle of Plassey (Palashi) in June 1757. This battle is regarded as the turning point in Indian history: the time when the British changed from being traders in India to becoming landowners and rulers. The battle was fought in response to the Nawab’s attacks on EIC factories and their base in Calcutta in 1756. During these attacks, the Nawab was assisted by the French.

It was at the EIC’s trading post at Calcutta, Fort William, that the Nawab’s armies captured between sixty and one hundred and fifty British prisoners, imprisoned them in a tiny cell and left many of them to suffocate to death. The size of the cell and the number of Britons who died is disputed by historians, but the incident became remembered as the legend of the Black Hole of Calcutta. Clive drew from the horrified reaction of Britain to this incident to justify his consequent aggression.

As a man, he is remembered for his military prowess, cunning and greed. Clive had showed his cunning prior to the Battle of Plassey, when he persuaded Siraj ud Doula’s rival and uncle, Mir Jafar, to defect to the British side. He was also accused of corruption: despite defending his actions, he committed suicide in London shortly afterwards.

It was from Mir Jafar that Clive was given £234,000 (equivalent to £34 million today). Despite this, during his second term as Governor of Bengal, Clive reduced the Bengali treasury by some 5 million dollars. Clive also put up rents in Bengal, leading to famines and displacement. The Bengal famine of 1769-70 particularly increased antipathy against nabobs like him: Walpole wrote, ‘What think you of the famine in Bengal, in which three million perished, being caused by a monopoly of provisions, by the servants of the East India Company?’ (Walpole Letters, V, 378)

The nabobs of the Georgian age, men like Clive and Thomas Pitt, were senior officials in India who took vast riches back to Britain. The Age of Enlightenment was opening eighteenth century minds and encouraging an intellectual curiosity in all cultures and philosophies, including those in India. Amongst the nabobs this curiosity manifested itself in collecting Asian art and antiquities. During 1760-1830 many great collections were formed in India, notably that of the later impeached Governor General Warren Hastings (1732-1818). The nabobs preferred collecting miniature paintings and small, but valuable, items of furniture. These were easy to transport around India and back to Britain, where they would be displayed in the grand setting of magnificent stately homes. Some collectors even brought foodstuffs: when the Indian treasures of Thomas Alexander Cobb (1788-1836) of the 37^th Native Infantry were sold after his death, several of the mango and guava jellies and chutneys he had brought back sold for more than some of his paintings (Christie’s 24 & 26 May 1837).

Robert Clive brought many of his Indian treasures to Claremont, his great house near Esher in Surrey. However, a large part of what is on display at Powis Castle today was brought to Wales by Robert’s eldest son, Edward, 2^nd Lord Clive (1754-1839). In 1784, Edward married Lady Henrietta Antonia Herbert (1758-1830), daughter of the Earl of Powis. Later, in 1798, Edward became Governor of Madras and was thus well-placed to receive and bring back his own treasures. Lady Clive kept extensive diaries during their time in Madras, which reveal her own passion for collecting and give an insight into the history of the objects.

One of the most dramatic events that occurred during Edward’s governorship was the defeat and death of Tipu Sultan, the Tiger of Mysore, in 1799. Following this, the spoils of his treasury were divided between the soldiers, apportioned according to rank. Colonel Arthur Wellesley (later the Duke of Wellington) was ordered by his older brother, the Governor-General, Lord Mornington, to ‘preserve the most significant contents of Tipu’s palace’. Mornington then presented a small part of the Sultan’s throne to Lady Clive – a bejewelled tiger’s head from the arm rest, covered in rubies, emeralds and diamonds. This and other items from the Sultan’s palace at Seringapatam made their way back with Lady Clive to Britain. It was on her way home in 1801 that Lady Clive was told of the death of her brother, the Earl of Powis, who was unmarried with no heir. After this, Powis Castle was inherited by Lady Clive’s husband, Edward. He became Earl of Powis in 1804, after his own return to Britain, and the Castle became home to the Clive Collection.

Besides paintings, this collection of ‘Indian Jewels, Curiosities, Arms etc.’ includes ‘India’s indigenous traditions’ such as bronze gods; ‘objects signalling the preoccupations and life styles of India’s nobility’ such as the ‘paraphernalia of the aristocracy with whom Clive came into contact’ like Mughal fly-whisks and Robert Clive’s jewelled hookahs; and ‘European-style furniture’. Many items of armoury and weaponry are also featured, including the sword of Tipu Sultan and the iron tusk defences of elephants. The remaining pieces of the enormous elephant armour are held in the Royal Armouries in Leeds http://www.royalarmouries.org/about-us/

Source: Mildred Archer, Christopher Rowell, Robert Skelton, Treasures from India: The Clive Collection at Powis Castle (The National Trust, 1987)

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-powiscastle_garden.html

Posted in India, Emma Jolly, Genealogic, Genealogy, Family History | 5 Comments »

01/02/2011 by Emma Jolly.

This continues the description of Camden parishes not found on www.ancestry.co.uk To help visualise where in London these are, an outline map of parishes in St Pancras 1903 can be found on the genuki website: http://homepages.gold.ac.uk/genuki/MDX/StPancras/outline.htm

St Mary Brookfield is only a short walk downhill from St Anne’s Brookfield. Although it resides in the modern borough of Camden, the church is literally across the road from the borough of Islington. Formerly in the civil parish of St Pancras and the old Pancras registration district, it is referred to as St Mary, Dartmouth Park Road (1875) in London Metropolitan Archives’ (LMA) records.

In contrast from St Anne’s, this church was built by public subscription for rich and poor parishioners. When it was dedicated in 1875, it was one of the first open-pew churches, allowing all classes to worship together. The Gothic Revival architect, William Butterfield, began work on the church in 1869, but refused to complete the building as a result of “certain unpleasanteries” which occurred on the completion of the nave (T. F. Bumpus, London churches ancient and modern, 2nd ser., p. 103). Other architects who worked on the church were WC Street (the chancel) and Sir Ninian Comper (the rood). The building was Grade II listed on 10 June 1954.

The parish is centred around the area of Dartmouth Park, just north of Kentish Town and Tufnell Park.  In the eighteenth century, the area was amongst vast fields owned by the eponymous Earl of Dartmouth. The park itself once stretched all the way from Highgate, but is now a small space, dominated by a reservoir tank. However, the park makes up for its size with its magnificent views of central London. From the mid-nineteenth century, the area saw continuous house building, and is now a popular residential area close to Hampstead Heath.

Neighbours of the church in its early years included the impresario of Gilbert & Sullivan operas, Richard D’Oyly Carte, who lived at 2 Dartmouth park road. A blue plaque was recently unveiled there by the director, Mike Leigh (http://www.camdennewjournal.com/news/2010/dec/blue-plaque-unveiled-theatre-impresario-who-brought-together-gilbert-and-sullivan-film )

The first vicars of the parish were Daniel John Twemlow-Cooke (from 1877), Philip Harold Rogers (1907), Charles Reginald Dalton (1928) and Frederick Salmon Vaughan (1945).

LMA holds Assignment of Consolidated Chapelry of St Mary, Brookfield (ref. P83/JNE/91 21 Dec. 1877), but the parish registers are retained by the church. The church’s own website is http://www.stmarybrookfield.com/

Further information can be found at https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/Brookfield_St_Mary,_Middlesex

For more on the social classes of the parish, see the following page from Charles Booth’s Archive is at http://booth.lse.ac.uk/notebooks/b356/jpg/54.html (Booth B356, p54)

Sources: Survey of London: volume 24: The parish of St Pancras part 4: King’s Cross Neighbourhood, Walter H. Godfrey and W. McB. Marcham (editors), 1952; The Buildings of England London 4: North. Bridget Cherry and Nikolaus Pevsner. ISBN 0-300-09653-4.

John Richardson, A History of Camden: Hampstead, Holborn and St Pancras (Historical Publications Ltd, 1999)

Posted in Genealogy | 6 Comments »

19/12/2010 by Emma Jolly.

 In Highgate days that gap was yawning wide,

But awe and mystery were everywhere,

Most in the purple dark of thin St. Anne’s

John Betjeman

St Anne Brookfield is a parish in the north of the modern borough of Camden, and formally in the civil parish of St Pancras, and the old Pancras registration district. Originally stretching into Kentish Town, the estate of Brookfield bordered Hampstead Heath and Highgate, where its heights and rural air refreshed those emerging from the miasma of inner London.

The site of the church on the steep hill of Highgate Rise (now Highgate West Hill) was originally home to the Cow and Hare. This was conveyed to Richard Barnett Esq. by Harry Chester and his wife in 1838. After Richard’s death in 1851, his sister, Anne Barnett, erected the church of St Anne, Brookfield. The church was built in the Early English style and dedicated in 1853, just a few years before Anne’s own death in 1858.

St Anne’s peal of bells was given by the parish’s most famous resident, of the enormously rich Angela Burdett Coutts (1814-1906). Believed to be the richest woman in England, Baroness Burdett Coutts (as she later became) was a close friend of Charles Dickens and the inheritress of the fortune of bank owner, Thomas Coutts (her grandfather). On the death of her grandfather’s wife, she inherited all the land between Swain’s Lane and Highgate West Hill (except the Cow and Hare) in 1837, and bought the remaining land in the parish from the Chester Trustees in 1856. Her rural home, The Holly Lodge, lay just behind the church, but was demolished in the 1920s when it was replaced with the current Holly Lodge Estate.

Other notable features of the area are Highgate Cemetery and Holly Village (featured on the gothic episode of Grand Designs).

Transcriptions of monumental inscriptions for other churches in St Pancras, compiled Frederick Teague Cansick (1889), can be consulted at Camden Local Studies and Archives. LMA hold Bishops’ Transcripts for the church in reference DL/T/064, and London diocesan visitation returns for 1858 and 1862 are held at Lambeth Palace Library in references Tait 440/128 and Tait 441/237. Latter-Day Saints information on this parish can be found at https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/Brookfield_St_Anne,_Middlesex

Poet Laureate, Sir John Betjeman (1906-84), who was baptised at the church on 25 November 1906, lived for the first three years of his life at nearby Parliament Hill Mansions. The former ‘John Betjemann’ (his family changed their name in the Great War) referred to the church in his poem, NW5 & N6.

Whilst Betjeman was educated at the prestigious Highgate School, poorer parish children attended the National School of St Ann(e) Brookfield, built in 1870. Some pupils of this school lived in the parish of St Mary Brookfield - the next parish in the ‘Not on ancestry’ blog series.

Sources: ‘Additional Churches’, Survey of London: volume 24: The parish of St Pancras part 4: King’s Cross Neighbourhood (1952), pp. 140-146; ‘Nos 45 and 46 West Hill’, Survey of London: volume 17: The parish of St Pancras part 1: The village of Highgate (1936), pp. 67-68; John Betjeman, Summoned By Bells (1960)

Gate of Highgate East Cemetery, Chester Road

 A gate at Holly Village showing gothic detail

Posted in LMA, Lambeth Palace Library, Camden Local Studies, social history, Genealogy, London, Family History | No Comments »

16/12/2010 by Emma Jolly.

The recently indexed parish registers on ancestry.co.uk have proved invaluable in my research for clients with London ancestors. Previously, locating a vital event such as a baptism, marriage or burial before 1837 required lengthy searches through the microfilms at London Metropolitan Archives (LMA).

Even when a birthplace was discovered on a later census, this did not lead me to the correct church. Families often had their children baptised at a number of parishes in the area - particularly in the City where, even today, thirty eight churches survive within one square mile. One family I researched lived at the same address in Southwark throughout the period their children were born, but the baptisms took place at three separate churches: Southwark St George the Martyr, Southwark St Saviour, and St Giles Camberwell. For those unfamiliar with the area, this can be readily explained by the fact that St George the Martyr and St Saviour are in the same road (Borough High Street).

Since the digitization of the LMA’s London parish registers and the Guildhall Manuscript Library’s City parish registers (now held at LMA), life is easier. My London research is speedier and, often, cheaper. However, clients can be concerned when they can’t find their ancestors on ancestry. They know they lived in London; they were born in London, they died in London - so why aren’t they there?

The answer is that ancestry has only been able to digitize records if the original parish register is held at LMA. This can be confusing: St Giles in the Fields parish registers, for example, can be searched at LMA on microfilm. One set of its records from 1800-1812 can even be found on ancestry. But the original is still retained by the church.

There are four batches of London parish registers that have been uploaded to the ancestry website:

1. London, England, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812

2. London, England, Births and Baptisms, 1813-1906

3. London, England, Marriages and Banns, 1754-1921

4. London, England, Deaths and Burials, 1813-1980

The separation into pre-1812 and post-1813 registers marks the enforcement of George Rose’s Act in 1812. This followed up on Hardwicke’s Marriage Act of 1754, designed to stop clandestine marriages. Disorder continued, however, and Rose insisted that all baptisms, marriages and burials be recorded in separate registers. These registers were specially printed with columns marked for ‘When Baptized’, ‘Child’s Christian Name’, ‘Parents Name’, ‘Abode’, ‘Quality, Trade, or Profession’ and ‘By whom the Ceremony was Performed’. From 1813, registers are thus more organized and the content is less of a surprise.

So, clients ask, what is on ancestry and what isn’t? I visited LMA to clarify. Happily, I discovered that an official list is currently being compiled for publication on ancestry some time soon. In the meantime, there are lists in the LMA search room of churches whose registers have not been deposited with LMA.

Using this list, and comparing with what is on the ancestry site, I propose to write a series of blogs on the parishes that are not on ancestry. This will incorporate information on the records, my experience of researching that parish, and some social history of the area.

The first series of blogs will cover the modern London boroughs whose records I research most frequently: Camden, the City, Islington, and Tower Hamlets. I shall also blog a little on the Westminster churches whose records are held at neither LMA nor Westminster City Archives.

I hope you have enjoyed this blog and that you return to read about the first church in the Camden series - my own parish church of St Anne Brookfield (established 1853).

Posted in social history, London, Genealogy, Family History | 9 Comments »