Ramsden Crays, Essex Genealogy

England   Essex

Parish History
Ramsden Crays St Mary was an Ancient Parish in Essex. This church is now privately owned but it was once St. Mary's, the parish church of Ramsden Crays that is now called Crays Hill. Except for the belfry, the church was completely rebuilt in 1871 and some of the 15th century windows were used from the original church.

The diocese of Chelmsford was created in 1914, prior to this Essex parishes were in the jurisdiction of the Bishops of London until 1845 when they transferred to the diocese of Rochester. The diocese of Chelmsford has 474 parishes and 600 churches and is the second largest region in the church of England outside London.

RAMSDON-CRAYS (St. Mary), a parish, in the union of Billericay, hundred of Barstable, S. division of Essex, 2 miles (E. S. E.) from Billericay; containing 282 inhabitants. This place, named in Domesday book Ramesdan, belonged at the time of that survey to Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, and Ralph, brother of Ilger; there were then two manors, which are now united and have one manor-house. The parish comprises by computation 1199 acres, is situated on the road from London to Southend, and intersected by the river Crouch. The soil is various, the lower part consisting of a fine hazel mould, and the upper of a mixture of clay with loam, forming good corn land; the parish borders on the north upon some extensive woods and commons. The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £20, and in the gift of the family of Knox: the glebe consists of 80 acres, and the tithe rent-charge is £290. The church is a small ancient edifice.

From: 'Rame - Rapps', A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 633-638. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51230&amp;amp;strquery=crays hill Date accessed: 03 February 2011.

Ramsden Crays is a civil parish in the Basildon District of Essex, England.

The parish includes the village of Crays Hill.

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

Maps and Gazetteers
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 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Web sites
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