Bedfordshire
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CARLTON, a parish in the hundred of WILLEY, county of BEDFORD, 1½ mile (S.) from Harrold, containing 429 inhabitants. The living is a rectory, consolidated in 1769 with that of Chellington, in the archdeaconry of Bedford, and diocese of Lincoln, rated in the king's books at £15.6.8. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, contains a tablet on which is recorded the long incumbency of the Rev. Thomas Wills, who was minister of Carlton and Chellington three score and ten years. There is a place of worship for Particular Baptists. This parish was formerly much intermixed with that of Chellington, but, under an act of enclosure in 1801, a distinct boundary has been established.
[A Topographical Dictionary of England - Samuel Lewis - 1831]
The 1851 Census Index for Carlton can be found in the 1851 Index to Census of Bedfordshire, Volume 2, Book 2 available from the Bedfordshire Family History Society.
Church of England
The church of St. Mary the Virgin, situated about a quarter of a mile from the, village, is, a stone building, in the Early English, Decorated and Perpendicular styles, with some, traces of Norman work, consisting of chancel, clerestoried nave, aisles, south porch and an embattled western tower, containing 4 bells: the font is Transitional, with rude interlaced carving and cable moulding round the basin, and is supported on tall circular columns: the Perpendicular chancel screen, though mutilated, remains, and there is a piscina; north of the chancel was once a chapel : there is a small inscribed brass to Joane Goddard, 1610, and inscribed stones to Thomas Wells, rector, 1642, aged about 100," Rev. Benjamin Rogers, 50 years rector, 1771, and Rev. Henry John Ellman, rector, 1829-62 : there are 140 sittings. The register dates from the year 1554.
[Kelly's Directory - Bedfordshire - 1898]
Non-conformist
The Baptist chapel was built in 1760, and has a burial ground adjoining.
[Kelly's Directory - Bedfordshire - 1898]
The parish record transcripts for St. Mary the Virgin are available on microfiche for the period 1554-1812 from the Bedfordshire Family History Society.
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[Last updated 5 May 2003 Martin Edwards]