Ratcliffe, Middlesex Genealogy

England   Middlesex

Parish History
RATCLIFFE, a hamlet, partly in the parish of Limehouse, but chiefly in that of Stepney, union of Stepney, Tower division of the hundred of Ossulstone, county of Middlesex, 1 mile (E.) from London; containing 11,874 inhabitants. The name appears to be a corruption of Redcliff, an appellation probably derived from the red cliff or bank of the Thames, which river flows on the south. In Camden's time this was only a village inhabited principally by seafaring men, but it afterwards much increased in size and population, and the Highway, a broad street formerly planted on each side with elm-trees, at present consists of lines of houses, and extends to Limehouse. The Eastern Institution, in the Commercial-road, for the promotion of literature and science, was established in 1839 by a proprietary of shareholders: the building is of handsome appearance, with a portico of stone, and comprises reading and committee rooms, with a spacious hall for the delivery of lectures, and the performance of concerts. A district church, dedicated to St. James, was erected in 1838 by parliamentary grant; it is a neat building of brick, in the early English style, with a low spire, and contains 1200 sittings, of which 360 are free. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Bishop of London.—See Stepney.

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis (1848), pp. 638-640. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51231 Date accessed: 03 May 2010.

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 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.

Maps and Gazetteers
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 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Web sites
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