Bow, Middlesex Genealogy

Return to the Middlesex Parishes page.

BOW, a parish and a subdistrict in Poplar district, Middlesex. The parish is called also Stratford-le-Bow; lies on the river Lea, and on the North Loudon and Eastern Counties railways, within Tower Hamlets borough, in the eastern suburbs of London, 4 miles ENE of St. Pauls; includes the village of Stratford, the hamlet of Old Ford, and part of Victoria Park; and has a station of Bow on the North London railway, a station of Stratford on the Eastern Counties railway, and post offices of Bow, Bow-Road, and Old Ford, under London E. Acres, 809. Real property, £78,460. Pop., in 1841, 4,626; in 1861, 11,590. Houses, 1,848. The name Bow alludes to a bow-shaped, three-arched bridge across the Lea, built by Matilda, the queen of Henry I. and not taken down till 1834; and the name Stratford alludes to a ford in the Lea, on the line of the Roman road or "stratum" to Layton. A new bridge, in lieu of the ancient one, with one oblique arch of 70 feet, was erected in 1839, at a cost of £11,000. Bow was once famous for cream and cakes; it also carried on an extensive manufacture of porcelain; and it had a notable annual fair which became so great a nuisance, that it was suppressed by parliament. It now has dye-houses, large breweries, and the East London waterworks; and takes a character from the proximity of the India docks. The parish was formerly a chapelry to Stepney, and became parochial in 1717. The living is a rectory in the diocese of London. Value, £349.* Patron, the Bishop of London. The church was built in the time of Henry II.; presents a curious mixture of Norman and early English; and has a low tower and an eight-sided corner turret. The vicarage of Old Ford is a separate benefice. A Baptist chapel, in the Byzantine style, at a cost of nearly £7,000, was built in 1867. There are other dissenting chapels, two endowed schools with £27 and £254, and charities £170.-The subdistrict contains also the parish of Bromley St. Leonard. Pop., 35,667.

John Marius Wilson, In “Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales,” (Edinburgh: A, Fullerton & Co., 1870). Online | here.

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
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. Here is a list of church records on microfilm at the Family History Library (FHL) in Salt Lake City.

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.