Bedfordshire 
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HOUGHTON-REGIS, a parish in the hundred of MANSHEAD, county of BEDFORD, 1¾ Mile (N.) from Dunstable, containing 1283 inhabitants. The living is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Bedford, and diocese of Licoln, rated in the king's books at £11.3.4. The Duke of Bedford was patron in 1819. The church, dedicated to All Saints, contains an ancient monument, with the statue of a man in armour beneath a highly decorated arch, in the early style of English architecture. A free school was founded and endowed, in 1654, by Thomas Whitehead, with an estate and £250, for the education of twenty poor children; the annual income is £50, and sixteen boys are instructed. This place, as its name imports, was anciently held in royal demesne.
[A Topographical Dictionary of England - Samuel Lewis - 1831]
The 1851 Census Index for Houghton Regis can be found in the 1851 Index to Census of Bedfordshire, Volume 6, Book 2 available from the Bedfordshire Family History Society.
Church of England
The church of St. Michael, formerly All Saints, is an ancient fabric of mixed styles, chiefly Decorated, consisting of chancel, clerestoried nave of five bays, aisles, south porch and a noble embattled western tower with an octagonal embattled turret at the south-west angle, and containing 6 bells : the chancel is Decorated, and the nave arcades belong to the same period: the clerestory and roof are plain Perpendicular : both nave and aisles are embattled : the Norman font is cylindrical, widening towards the top, and the whole exterior is richly carved in three bands, the lowermost being fluted; the base is cushioned, with cable moulding : there are brasses to John Waleys, vicar, 1400 ; William Waleys ; and Sir William Walley, vicar, 1506; besides several memorial slabs of ancient date: in an arch in the wall of the south aisle is an effigy of Sir John Sewell knt. formerly of this parish: there are also various monuments to members of the Brandreth family. The register dates from the year 1538.
[Kelly's Directory - Bedfordshire - 1898]
Non-conformist
There is an iron mission church in connection with St. Michael's, in Union street, Upper Houghton; Rev. William John Jones B.A. of the University of London, is curate. There are Baptist, Primitive Methodist and Wesleyan chapels at Houghton, and a Wesleyan chapel at Upper Houghton.
[Kelly's Directory - Bedfordshire - 1898
Church of England
The parish record transcripts for St. Michael are available on microfiche for the period 1538-1812 from the Bedfordshire Family History Society.
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[Last updated 20 June 2003 Martin Edwards]