Cambridgeshire
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Nearby Places
Nearby churches
Transcriptions of the headstones in St Mary's churchyard can be found on Sharon Walker's website.
The Census Records from 1841-1891 can be found in the Cambridge Record Office and at Wisbech Library. In addition the 1851 Census for Ely is available in full transcript form, on microfiche, from the Cambridgeshire Family History Society Bookstall.
"The Church of St. Mary, standing at a short distance from the cathedral, is a building of stone in the transitional and Early English styles, consisting of chancel, clerestoried nave of seven bays, aisles, south transept, north porch and a western tower with hexagonal spire of the Decorated period, containing a clock and 8 bells, of which the 7th was cast in 1670, the third in 1766, and all the others in 1781: in the chancel is an arcaded double piscina and canopied sedilia; a smaller but similar piscina remains in the south transept: on the south-west buttress of the tower is a tablet recording the burial of five persons who were executed at Ely in 1816 for robberies at Ely and Littleport during the riots in May of that year: the church was rebuilt about 1215, by Bishop Eustachius, on the site of a former church; the arches of the nave arcades may be his work, but the heavy circular pillars are not improbably part of the original structure; the curious mixture in this church of Norman and Early English features in the arches and columns, is perhaps unique: the building was restored in 1878-9 at a cost of £2,597, and a vestry was added in 1899: it affords 500 sittings. The register dates from the year 1670."
[Kelly's Directory - 1900]
Ely St Mary: Records of baptisms 1670-1880, marriages 1670-1868, burials 1670-1888 and banns 1763-1885 reside in the Cambridge Record Office. The Bishop's Transcripts for the years 1559-1648, 1661-1853 can be found in the Cambridge University Library. Transcripts exist in the Cambridge Record Office for baptisms & burials 1599-1649, 1661-71 and marriages 1754-64 as well as indexed transcripts for marriages 1599-1754. The parish record transcripts for Ely St Mary are available on microfiche from the Cambridgeshire Family History Society Bookstall.
Land Tax: records were compiled afresh each year and contain the names of owners and occupiers in each parish, but usually there is no address or place name. These records reside in the Cambridge Record Office for the years 1750-1948.
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[Last updated 22 March 2003 Martin Edwards]