St Michael Wood Street with St Mary Staining, London Genealogy

England  London    London Parishes   St Michael Wood Street with St Mary Staining

Parish History
"St Michael Wood Street with St Mary Staining, the church of, is situated on the west side of Wood Street, Cheapside. The original church is of some antiquity, [as early as]...1328. The old church was destoryed by the common conflagration of 1666, and the present church was erected a few years after from the designs of Sir Christopher Wren. The neighbouring church of St Mary Staining was also destroyed at the same time, and the parish was united to this act of parliament. The patronage of this rectory was anciently in the abbot and convent of St Albans, till the suppression of the religious houses by Henry VIII, who sold it to WIlliam Barwell, who in 1558 conveyed it to the trustees for the parishioners, in which it still remains. After the fire of London, the adjacent parish of St Mary Staining was united to it by act of parliament; the patronage of which devolving to the crown after the Reformation, it is now in the gift of the Lord Chancellor, and the united rectory is presented to alternately by his Lordship and the parishioners. The united parishes are now a rectory in the city, diocese and archdeaconry of London, and in before mentioned patronage."

1. James Elmes, M.R. I. A., Architect. In “A Topographical Dictionary of London and its Envirions,” (London: Whittaker, Treacher and Arnot, 1831). Adapted.

Civil Registration
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. There are several Internet sites with name lists or indexes. A popular site is FreeBMD.

Church records
"Christenings 1663-c1895, Marriages 1674-1754, 1813-1895, Burials 1813-c1853 destroyed by enemy action, 1940, but see coverage of marriages in Boyd and Pallot indexes." Bishop's transcripts for eighteenth-century christenings have also been lost.

Images of surviving parish registers (burials for the eighteenth century, for example, survive) are browseable in the following online collection, and some of the names have been indexed:


 * London, England, Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1538-1812, courtesy: Ancestry ($).

To find the names of the neighboring parishes, use England Jurisdictions 1851. In this site, search for the name of the parish, click on the location "pin", click Options and click List contiguous parishes.

Contributor: Include here information for parish registers, Bishop’s Transcripts, nonconformist and other types of church records, such as parish chest records. Add the contact information for the office holding the original records. Add links to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection.

Census records
Contributor: Include an overview if there is any unique information, such as the census for X year was destroyed. Add a link to online sites for indexes and/or images. Also add a link to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection.

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Middlesex Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

Poor Law Unions
Contributor: Add information about the pertinent poor law unions in the area.

Maps and Gazetteers
Maps are a visual look at the locations in England. Gazetteers contain brief summaries about a place.
 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Web sites
Contributor: Add any relevant sites that aren’t mentioned above.