Parish Registers for the Parish of Wimpole A Quick Guide to the Parish Registers and on Searching for Names
St Andrew's Parish Church, Wimpole
A local history and genealogy page for the Parish of Wimpole.
St Andrew's Parish Church.
A living church for the Parish of Wimpole, located within the National Trust's
Wimpole Hall Estate.
The Church is managed and maintained by the Parochial Church Council.
Parish Registers:
In medieval times there were no parish registers. Through the efforts of Thomas Cromwell in 1538 a mandate was issued by Henry VIII for churches to maintain parish records. This ordered that every parson, vicar or curate was to enter in a book every wedding, christening and burial in his parish. In 1558 Queen Elizabeth re-confirmed her father's mandate into law and many church records date from that year. Wimpole's own church records for baptisms, weddings and burials began in 1560.
In 1754, Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Act (and yes, that's our Lord Chancellor Hardwicke [1690-1764], interred in his memorial in Wimpole's Chicheley Chapel) required separate registers for banns and marriages. The act was passed to prevent clandestine and under-age marriages. To make the Act more effective, a special printed form was devised which called for the signatures of the officiating minister, the two witnesses and those of the bride and groom. Wimpole's Rectors began recording banns and marriages in the new format from 1755.
Parish Register Listings: As transcribed by
T.P.R.Layng in April 1983 [Preface] [Greyed out links are either incomplete pages or pages awaiting transcription]
* indicates page is unavailable. ** indicates some year transcriptions are available. † indicates complete page has been set to facilitate name searches.
The parish register pages for Wimpole are being progressively reset to facilitate name searches using the following 'phrase' formats within the search boxes provided [check the † symbol in the above listings]:
- "John Smith" [search using quote marks around the name as shown] when looking to
match an exact name.
- [John Smith] [search using square brackets around the name as shown] when looking to match any similar name.
- {John Smith} [search using braces around the name as shown] when looking to match any approximate name.
The search results will generally provide the first match found on each page. On long 'list' pages such as a register or a census page, there may well be other similar name matches further down the page and you are advised to use your browser's 'find on this page' facility to check and locate any additional matches.
This alphabetical name index [originating long before the era of internet search engines...] which lists over 1000 early Wimpole 'names' [and any variations] from the Registers, can still be helpful in suggesting alternate or obscure spellings of surnames.
For additional help and further advice on searching, visit the site's Search page.
Churchyard Records:
Although not part of the formal Parish Registers, St Andrew's Parish Church also maintains records of burials/interments and known graves in the Churchyard.
Churchyard Register
Alphabetical Index to Known Graves and Monumental Inscriptions Burials and Interments updated to September 2018.
Links to over 100 photographs added.
Churchyard Plans
(1) Churchyard Plan with Key showing locations of Known Graves.
(2) Memorial Garden Plan with Key showing locations of Interment Plots.
The Yorke Family Vault
The Vault under the Chicheley Chapel. Resting place of the 4th Earl of Hardwicke.
Preface to the 1560-1863 Transcripts:
[From the Title Page to the Transcriptions]
[Hard copy on paper, duplicated, maintained in folder.]
I have collated the register with the Bishop's Transcripts 1599-1812 but there are no B.T's
for 1601, 1631, 1642 to 1662, 1668 to 1671, 1682, 1692 to 1696, 1698, 1701, 1703, 1704, 1706, 1707, 1709, 1712, 1715 to 1718, 1720 to 1722 and 1805.
The first page of the earliest register contains the following: "This book was new bound May 1679 with the addition of some leaves of parchment. Those that were baptised from the year 1603 to the year 1618 were torn out of this book by the Parliament soldiers in the time of the civil war." [Doubt is thrown on this elsewhere in the register]
The communion plate was given by the Rt Hon Sir Thomas CHICHELEY, Master General of the Ordinance and Privy Councillor to King Charles II in 1679.
Registers contain annotations apparently in the handwriting of Robert PLUMTRE, notes on a storm in 1843, hard winter of 1844-45, the visit of Queen Victoria in 1843, church plate, glebe, tithes, brasses and restoration of the church, and the wills of Edmund BOULTEN and - BEHO, coachman to Lord Radnor dated 1757.
The Bishop's Transcript for 1599 states: we so also present Anne TITUN for forbidding George MORE banns of Matrimony in the Church.
I have copied a list of Rectors which have been indexed R.
I have not indexed godparents or witnesses to marriages.
This has been typed by C.L. and A E Hatton."
Postscript:
From the "Cambridge Evening News" of May 1977
"Births, marriages and deaths have become a way of life for Mr Peter Layng. For he has spent the last 11 years copying out parish registers. The first register he copied was of Stapleford when he was researching his wife's side of the family and his hobby took off from there. Now he spends almost every morning at the County Record Office and is working on his 45th register. He has copied out big registers such as Bassingbourn as well as small ones like Tadlow. His lists are typed up in quadruplicate by Mr Colin Hatton and his wife Angela."
This page was last updated on: 02 March 2020.
St Andrew's Parish Church, Wimpole A living church for the Parish of Wimpole, located within the National Trust's
Wimpole Hall Estate. The Church is managed and maintained by the Parochial Church Council.
