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England |  |
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Huntingdonshire Towns & Parishes |
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Information related to all of Huntingdonshire |
Huntingdonshire, Huntingdon, or Hunts, inland county, South Midland District, England; is bounded W. and N. by Northamptonshire, E. by Cambridgeshire, and S. by Bedfordshire; greatest length, N. and S., 30 miles; greatest breadth, E. and W., 23 miles; 229,515 acres; population 59,491. About a fourth of the county (in the NE.) forms a portion of the great "fen" district, the remainder consisting of a succession of gentle hills and dales. Huntingdonshire is almost wholly devoid of trees, and may be described as an agricultural and pastoral county. Scientific farming has of late greatly stimulated the productiveness of the soil, and the arable farms of the upland districts are peculiarly noted for superior grain. Green crops, also of excellent quality, are obtained, while market gardening and cattle rearing form profitable employments. Willows are the chief product of the fen district. The Nene, in the N. and NW., and the Ouse, in the interior, are the chief rivers; both are navigable for barges. The geology of Huntingdonshire belongs to the Oolite system: many fossils are found, and the hills on the W. abound with stone brash, or forest marble. With the exception of papermaking and the preparation of parchment, there are no manufactures of more than local importance." [Bartholomew's Gazetteer of the British Isles, 1887]
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Cambridgeshire County Record Office (Huntingdon)
See the Record office, Huntingdon's web site for details of opening.
The Broadway
St. Ives
HUNTINGDON
Cambridgeshire
PE27 5BXTelephone:- U.K. 01480 497314, Overseas +44 1480 497314
Email:-norris.st-ives-tc@co-net.comThe Norris Museum is the Museum of Huntingdonshire. It tells the story of this historic county from the earliest times to the present day. The Museum was founded by Herbert Norris, a St. Ivian, who left his lifetime's collection of Huntingdonshire relics to the town when he died in 1931.
Opening Hours:
May to September: Monday to Friday 10.00 am - 1 pm and 2 pm - 5 pm
Saturday 10 am - 12 pm and 2 pm - 5 pm
Sunday 2 pm - 5 pmOctober to April: Monday to Friday 10 am - 1 pm and 2 pm to 4 pm
Saturday 10 am - 12 pmThe Museum is closed Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Day and Good Friday.
Admission to the Museum is FREE. However, Library Users must make a prior appointment in order to use the documents.
Wood Lane,
Ramsey,
Huntingdon,
CambridgeshireTelephone:- U.K. 01487 814304, Overseas +44 1487 814304
Ramsey Rural Museum is housed in a variety of 18th Century farm buildings. The collections include a wide variety of agricultural implements and tools used by local craftsmen. There are many examples of well restored farm machinery.
Opening Hours:
The museum is open Thursdays and Sundays from April to September from 2pm until 5pm.
Census information was collected in Huntingdonshire every ten years starting in 1801, except for 1941 when the Country was at war. The original purpose of the census was to provide population statistics. However, the 1841 Census was the first meaningful one to help family history researchers because this is the earliest to list personal names. From then onwards the records show the names of each person at the address at which he or she spent the night of the census date. Returns become available for public inspection on the first working day of the year following the year in which they become one hundred years old. Researchers should be aware that there is much evidence to suggest that people did not always state their ages correctly.
Parishes of birth were not recorded in the 1841 Census, although an indication 'Y' or 'N' was given as to whether they were born within the county. For those under the age of 14 the exact age is given, but the ages of those aged 15 or more are rounded down to the nearest 5 years below - so someone who stated he was 19 would have been recorded as 15. From the 1851 census the information is more meaningful.
The dates of UK Censuses are:
1841 - 7th June.
1851 - 30th March.
1861 - 7th April.
1871 - 2nd April.
1881 - 3rd April.
1891 - 5th April.
1901 - 31st March.
1911 - 2nd April.
1921 - 19th June.
1931 - 26th April.The GRO District volume numbers for Huntingdonshire are:
1837 to 1852 - Vol. 14
1852 to 1946 - Vol. 3b
1946 to 1974 - Vol. 4B
1974 to date - Vol 9.The availability of census information for the Huntingdonshire parishes is given on each Towns and Parishes page, and some can be obtained from the Huntingdonshire FHS).
Census information in the UK is increasingly being transcribed onto the Internet by the Free BDM Project which is searchable.
Notwithstanding the parochial complexities, the ecclesiastical organisation of Huntingdonshire has been relatively simple. The medieval Archdeaconry of Huntingdon, within the Diocese of Lincoln, was virtually conterminous with the county, having in addition a detached area of Western Hertfordshire. The latter can virtually be discounted, but the connection with Lincoln, which lasted until the Archdeaconry was transferred to the Ely Diocese in 1837, is of some significance to the family historian. It gave rise to the special or 'peculiar'jurisdictions of Brampton, Buckden, Leighton Bromswold and Stow Longa (including Barham, Easton and Stow Longa), each having probate of Wills. Genealogical information relating to Huntingdonshire can therefore be found in Lincoln ecclesiastical records.
The Ely Diocese jurisdiction still predominates in much of Huntingdonshire.
Information on Methodism in Huntingdonshire, parts of Northamptonshire and Cambridgeshire can be found.
Further details of some of the churches in Cambridgeshire which is still extant in the year 2001 (and which encompasses the old Huntingdonshire) is available.
The Unions of parishes, established by the Poor Law Commissioners under the 1835 Act of Parliament, became registration districts with the introduction of civil registration of births, marriages and deaths in 1837, so superseding the medieval division of the county and even breaking with the ancient county boundaries. Only the Huntingdon Registration District lay wholly within the county; the other districts of St. Ives and St. Neots in their Registration County contained substantial parts of Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire, and much of the county falling in the Peterborough Registration District.
Finally, several parishes on the north-western edge were assigned to Thrapston, Oundle and Stamford Registration Districts, and others on the south-eastern edge to the Cambridgeshire Registration District of Caxton.
These points need to be borne in mind, in particular by users of civil registration and Poor Law records.
Details of civil registration districts 1837 - 1930 can be found on-line.
Information on civil registration in the UK explains the current organisation, and provides links to how birth, marriage and death certificates can be obtained.
Civil registration information in the UK is increasingly being transcribed onto the Internet by the Free BDM Project which is searchable.
Brett Langston has provided details of Registration Districts 1837-1930.
Certificates of birth, death and marriage which occured in Huntingdonshire, can be obtained from the Superintendent Registrar at the following District Register Offices:
If ordering from a District Office, please note the following:
(a) the cost of a certificate is currently £6.50 - send a Sterling cheque payable to the Superintendent Registrar plus return postage or two International Reply Coupons.
(b) the GRO (formerly the St. Catherine's) Index references are of no value.
(c) for marriage certificates, the precise place of marriage must be given.
(d) Civil Registration in England and Wales began on July 1st 1837.
Certificates can also be obtained centrally by post from the UK Office of National Statistics directly.
There is a listing of marriages for 1856 Quarter 1 for District 3b for Huntingdonshire.
Harvard Law School Library Catalogue of Medieval and Early Modern Deeds - includes summaries of deeds relating to Huntingdonshire. They have been on-line but currently, their link is not working.
Trade Directories of Huntingdonshire (and some other counties) in 1830 can be searched.
The entire Hatfield's Gazetteer and Directory of Huntingdonshire in 1845, to which an index of both names and places has been added, is also available on a set of 12 microfiche (Fiche Set: D-46) from the Huntingdonshire Family History Society Publications List.
Various Trade Directories can be found from the Historical Directories web site.
Searchable shipping records, which contain passenger lists, for those which took part in emigration from the United Kingdom and Ireland are being transcribed by the Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild. THeir site is temporarily unavailable but a link will be provided when it is back up and running.
The Bishop of Ely delegated authority to each parish as to whether they would permit their parish registers to be filmed by the LDS. Very few have agreed, although the situation is constantly under review and it is hoped that permission will be given for more registers to be filmed for inclusion. In the meantime, the Huntingdonshire Family History Society are transcribing the registers onto microfiche; available fiche are listed on the Publications List and is described on each parish page (see Towns and Parishes below).
There is a list of professional researchers who can help those who need assistance in their research.
The Victoria History of the Counties of England series for Bedfordshire covers the history, including village, town, social, economic and natural history, of the county in several volumes. An index to the pages for Huntingdonshire is available on-line.
The villages and places of Huntingdonshire in 1086 is recorded in the Domesday Book. The county has existed as a distinct area since Anglo-Saxon times. For the most part the county, as recorded in the Domesday survey, is identical to that which nearly nine centuries later, in 1965, was amalgamated with the Soke of Peterborough (the small autonomous area of Northamptonshire to the north) to form the County of Huntingdon and Peterborough. That administrative county survived nine years until 1974 when it was united with Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely to the east, to form the present administrative county of Cambridgeshire. On 1st April 1998, Peterborough Urban area became a separate unitary authority - in effect a separate county, into which some of the northern parishes of Huntingdonshire have now been incorporated.
Whatever the benefits of the 1974 amalgamation with Cambridgeshire (and, if nothing else, there were certainly improvements in the care and use of local archives), the loss of the old county was keenly felt. A map depicting the towns and villages in Huntingdonshire is available.
The name Huntingdonshire was only briefly suppressed, as in 1984 the lower tier of English local government, which had itself been created out of the amalgamation of several borough, rural and urban authorities in 1974, cast off its name of the Huntingdon District Council, and renamed itself the Huntingdonshire District Council. In 1992, with the government committed to simplifying local administration, there existed the possibility that the District would win the argument to become a unitary authority, and so in effect regain county status. This hope still exists.
To equate modern Huntingdonshire with the county of our ancestors, however, is deceptive. Whilst the changes have not been on the scale or complexity of those affecting metropolitan areas, a modern road atlas contains pitfalls for the unwary who may use it as a guide to the ancient boundaries of the county.
As the amalgamations of 1965 and 1974 will have implied, Huntingdonshire was a small ancient county; only Middlesex (now absorbed into London) and Rutland (which had been amalgamated with Leicestershire in 1974, but has now been restored) were smaller. Its greatest dimensions were 30 miles north-to-south and 23 miles west-to-east, in a very crude diamond. These proportions are reflected in the basis of the lozenge in the county arms, now used by the Huntingdonshire District Council.
The medieval division of the county was into four Hundreds: Norman Cross, Leightonstone, Hurstingstone, and Toseland - representing (remarkably tidily) the northern, western, eastern and southern quarters of the county respectively. The hundredal division was actively used for many purposes into the 19th Century (including, for example, the 1841 Census) and for taxation and judicial purposes lasting even longer.
At the lowest administrative level, (i.e. the parish) some ancient anomalies were ironed out in the late 19th Century. The detached Huntingdonshire parish of Swineshead, an island within Bedfordshire, was exchanged for the Bedfordshire parish of Tilbrook which formerly jutted into Huntingdonshire. Further north, the county boundary which ran through the parishes of Winwick, Luddington, Thurning and Lutton, was regularised, assigning Winwick wholly to Huntingdonshire and the others wholly to Northamptonshire. It was not until 1965 that a detached part of Tetworth at the southern tips of the county, including within it the parish church of Everton-cum-Tetworth, was transferred to Bedfordshire. At the same time a large part of Eaton Socon parish, across the river from St Neots, was transferred to Huntingdonshire from Bedfordshire. Family Historians beware!
Information on historic locations and buildings is available.
- Old maps of the parishes in the county of Huntingdonshire are available.
- A map depicting England and Wales (1660 to 1892) is available to help locate Huntingdonshire and its surrounding counties during this period.
- A site providing address searching and road atlas maps for the UK, is available at The UK Street Map Page. That for Huntingdonshire can be obtained.
- A map depicting the towns and villages in Huntingdonshire is also available. Moreover there is a separate map showing Huntingdonshire Parishes
- For downloadable maps of Huntingdonshire visit www.yourmapsonline.org.uk
- Antique prints and maps of Huntingdonshire can be purchased.
Searchable maps of areas in modern Huntingdonshire can also be found.
Directory of medical licences issued by the Archbishop of Canterbury 1535-1775 for Huntingdonshire
Some War Memorial inscriptions for Huntingdonshire are available. Thes einclude the Huntingdonshire Boer War memorial.
GENWEB information on military matters in Huntingdonshire is available.
Records of soldiers who served in the Huntingdonshire Cyclist Battalion of the first World War (1914 to 1919) is available on microfiche (Fiche D-40) from the Huntingdonshire FHS Bookstall.
The list, which is in alphabetical order, contains: surname, christian names, HCB service number, town/village they were living at time of enlistment, the address in that location, date/place of enlistment, army service number and Regiment (if they transferred), date wounded and/or date killed.
There is a searchable database of soldiers who died in the Boer War from the memorials of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire on the Cambridgeshire FHS website.
The Huntingdonshire Surnames List lists those Surnames which are being researched by individuals who are email-capable. It provides the opportunity for those researching the same or similar sounding names to contact each other. It is updated monthly on the 1st.
There is an outline of the history of the Argentein family in the 11th to 13th centuries.
For Huntingdonshire, various runs of the Huntingdon, Bedford, Cambridge & Peterborough Gazette 1818-39, which continued as the Cambridge Independent Press are to be found in the Norris Library (see under Archives and Libraries), St Ives, Cambridge Central Library, Cambs Record Office, and Bedfordshire Record Office. There was also a Huntingdon, Northampton, Bedford & Cambridge Weekly Journal 1825-28.
Huntingdonshire County News 1886-1920+ is available in the Norris Library; Huntingdonshire Chronicle 1889-1900 is in the Cambridge Library); Huntingdonshire Post 1893-1920+ (some are available in the Norris Library). The St Ives & Hunts/Cambs/Eastern Counties Gazette 1857-60 became the Huntingdonshire News 1860-73; the Hunts County Guardian 1870-93 also has runs in the Norris Library; Huntingdon Library where there is an index in progress; Hunts & Cambs Observer 1890-93.
There are various runs in Norris Library/ Cambridge Library of the St. Neots Advertiser; St. Neots Chronicle, and Hunts. & Cambs. Observer.
The on-line Newspaper which covers parts of Huntingdonshire (notably Huntingdon, St. Ives and districts) is the Cambridge Evening News.
The Hunts Post is a local Huntingdon newspaper containing the main news from the area, plus information about events in the area and the nationally-recognised newspaper itself. It also acts as a guide to the district.
The Poor Law Union arrangements in Huntingdonshire were quite complex. There were three Poor Law Unions established in the county itself:
Huntingdon PLU
St Neots PLU
St Ives PLU.Each Poor Law Union established a Workhouse to provide indoor relief for the poor.
However, many other Huntingdonshire parishes were included in the Poor Law Unions of other counties.
Yelling and Great Gransden came under Caxton PLU in Cambridgeshire. Sibson-cum-Stibbington came under Stamford PLU in Lincolnshire, and nearly 30 parishes in the north-west of the county came under three Northamptonshire PLUs. In particular some 21 of these parishes in the north of the county fell into the Peterborough PLU. The details are included in the parish pages - See Towns & Parishes below).
See also under Civil Registration above.
Births and Deaths occurring in the Huntingdon Workhouse, St. Ives Workhouse and St. Neots Workhouse are available from the Huntingdonshire FHS Bookstall as Fiches D-10, D-9 and D-11 respectively.
The Huntingdonshire FHS looks after the whole of the old county of Huntingdonshire, on behalf of the Federation of Family History Societies for England and Wales. However, the Peterborough and District FHS (see below) also has an interest in the parishes which were formerly in the Peterborough Poor Law Union. There is an email link to the Huntingdonshire FHS at: huntsfhs@genfair.com.
The Society aims to encourage research into Huntingdonshire History. Records of Huntingdon, the Society's journal is published annually. During the winter months a wide-ranging programme of monthly lectures is held on Thursday evenings in the Council Chamber of Pathfinder House, St. Mary's Street, Huntingdon, commencing at 7.30 p.m. to which visitors are welcome. A social evening is held at Christmas and an Annual General Meeting in May. During the summer, coach excurtions to places of historical interest within the old county and farther afield are organised. Each excursion is led by a member of the Society or a local expert.p p
Chairman: David Cozens, 70 Upwood Road, Bury, Cambridgeshire
PE17 1PA. Tel.: 01480-815229.
Secretary: Mrs Mary Hopper, 3 The Lanes, Houghton, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire
PE17 2BW. Tel.: 01480- 463007.
The Peterborough & District FHS looks after the area of the Soke of Peterborough (formerly part of Northamptonshire) and certain Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, and Northamptonshire parishes in the surrounding areas.
| The Huntingdonshire parishes concerned are: | ||
| Alwalton Chesterton Elton Glatton Morborne Stanground Water Newton |
Botolphbridge Connington Farcett Haddon Orton Longueville Stibbington Woodstone |
Caldecote Denton Folksworth Holme Orton Waterville Stilton Yaxley |
Details of the location of Land Tax Assessment records for Huntingdonshire can be found in the book "LAND and WINDOW TAX ASSESSMENTS" compiled by Jeremy Gibson, Mervyn Medlycott and Dennis Mills, 2nd edition 1998 and published by the Federation of Family History Societies.
Details of the location of Window Tax Assessment records for Huntingdonshire can be found in the book "LAND and WINDOW TAX ASSESSMENTS" compiled by Jeremy Gibson, Mervyn Medlycott and Dennis Mills, 2nd edition 1998 and published by the Federation of Family History Societies.
The majonty of the taxes and their records relate to the reign of Charles II (1660-1655), of which the Hearth Tax generated by far the most (surviving) records. and consequently is the best known and most useful. Others were the 1661 Free and Voluntary Present to the King, Subsidies and Aids, and the Poll Tax. On the accession of William and Mary. the Hearth Tax was repealed (1689). beIng replaced eventually by the Land Tax and the Window Tax - few records of which survive pre-1715, and these only for the more prosperous - and, for a short time, the 'Marriage Tax', which is of great use and interest to genealogists, but unfortunately only exists for a few places.
Details of the location of these records and other later Stuart Tax Lists and the Association Oath Rolls can be found in the book "THE HEARTH TAX and other later Stuart Tax Lists and the ASSOCIATION OATH ROLLS" compiled by Jeremey Gibson, 2nd edition 1996 published by the Federation of Family History Societies.
The Protestation, a form of oath of loyalty ostensibly to the King, but in fact to Parliament, was initiated in the House of Commons in May 1641, when Members themselves took it. Nine months later its scope was vastly widened, when instructions went out that it should be taken by every adult (male); very occasionally women were also recorded. Closely assodated with the Protestation was the Collection in Aid of Distressed Protestants in Ireland. The oath was taken and the collection made, often simultaneously, in February 1641/2 and March.
Parliament-approved taxation records recommence, after Charles l's eleven years of personal rule, with Tudor-type Subsidies, to be collected during 1641. In July 1641 a Poll Tax was voted, but few records of this survive. Thirdly, an Assessment or Grant was agreed, to be collected in May and November 1642. This Assessment had a much lower tax threshold and consequently many more taxpayers are named.
Details of the location of these records and other contempary listings can be found in the book "THE PROTESTATION RETURNS 1641-42 and other contemporary listings" compiled by Jeremey Gibson and Alan Dell, 1995 published by the Federation of Family History Societies.
Church Commissioners. The body that manages the temporal affairs of the Church of England. Created in 1948 by the amalgamation of the former Ecclesiastical Commissioners (first appointed in 1836) and the commissioners of "Queen Anne's Bounty", the Church Commissioners are responsible for the administration of church properties and finances and for the reorganisation, when necessary, of parishes. These include the tithes due on church owned land; this was a common occurence throughout Cambridgeshire and the tithes were levied by a system whereby a landowner had to collect the money from other landowners in the parish), whether he managed to collect it or not, he had to pay it for the patish. Each landowner was nominated in turn each year. As can be seen by the various Twons and Parishes listed here much of the property was owned by the church.
Tithes a tenth part of the produce of the land paid from quite early years of the Church to maintain the Clergy. In England, when the lord of a Manor built a Church on his estate, he often enforced payment of tithes to its priest as its endowment, and in time such allocation of tithes became general law. A Synod in 786 strongly enjoined the payment of tithes, which was enforced by law in 900. Tithes were of three sorts - 'praedial', of the fruits of the earth; 'personal', of the profits of labour; and 'mixed', partly of the ground and partly of the industry of man. They were further divided into 'great' (tithes of wheat, oats and other major crops) and 'small' (tithes of lambs, chicken and other minor produce). A Rector had all the tithes, but a Vicar only the small tithes. Gradually many landowners substituted annual cash payments instead of tithes. The Tithes Commutation Act (1836) converted tithes into rent charges dependent on the varying price of corn, but in 1918 the value was fixed, and in 1925 and 1936 further acts were passed (Tithe Redemption Act) to extinguish tithes. There are now no such things as tithes in England.
Ecclesiastical Commission a permanent body, consisting of Bishops and certain lay members appointed by the Crown and the Archbishop of Canterbury, created in 1835 by Act of Parliament through the efforts of Sir Robert Peel to hold much of the property of the Church of England and make better use of it. The Commission abolished sinecures, diminished the chapters of cathedrals brought the incomes of bishops nearer to equality and increased the endowments of poor parishes. In 1948 it was united with Queen Anne's bounty to form a new body, the Church Commissioners for England.
Queen Anne's Bounty. A fund established by Queen Anne in 1704. She surrendered her revenues from first fruits and tenths to the fund, which was to be used for the benefit of poorer beneficed clergy. In the 19th century the fund also received parliamentary wants and private donations. In 1948 the administration of the fund passed to the Church Commissioners.
First fruits and tenths were payments made to the Pope by beneficed clergymen. In 1534 in England these were acquired by the King under Act. Various exemptions were made in 1535, 1536, 1558, 1706 and 1707. In 1703 an Act was passed enabling Queen Anne to employ these moneys in augmenting poor benefices, and since then they have been known as Queen Anne's Bounty, and have been administered by commissioners, first appointed in 1704. Existing legislation regarding Queen Anne's Bounty are Acts of 1703, 1716, 1777, 1780, 1801, 1803,1805, 1830, 1837, 1838, 1839, 1840, 1846, 1865, 1870, 1874, 1875, 1881, 1890, 1894, 1908. The Acts known as Queen Anne's Bounty Acts are those of 1703, 1716, 1803, 1838, 1840 and 1870.
A map showing Huntingdonshire Parishes is available.
Most information in the parish pages under the "Description" and "Church History" has been taken from the VICTORIA COUNTY HISTORY SERIES for HUNTINGDONSHIRE. Acknowledgement is made to this valuable source without which the pages couldn't have been written.
Acknowledgement is also given to the Cambridgeshire County Council Library Services, who provided many of the old photographs used on the parish pages.
A copy of the list of Huntingdonshire Parish Registers, which are in the Library of the Society of Genealogists, are now on-line.
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