West Bergholt, Essex Genealogy

England   Essex

Parish History
Contributor: Add a general overview of the history of this parish. It can be a few sentences or a couple of paragraphs.

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
Contributor: Include here information for parish registers, Bishop’s Transcripts, non conformist 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.

Index for the Census may be searched at FamilySearch Historical Records

http://www.1881pubs.com/ for details of public houses in the 1881 census

Poor Law Unions
Lexden_and_Winstree_Poor_Law_Union,_Essex

Few records of vestry government survive. There were three constables 1578 and two surveyors of highways in 1608. The Bergholt Hall manor pound probably lay between the Hall and Lexden Road where Pound field survived in 1843. Stock was rescued from Cooks Hall pound in 1823. The brickbuilt parish cage stood on a triangle of waste on the crossroads near the White Hart in 1857. It was demolished about 1870. In 1776 a poor rate raised £100 7s. 6d. Expenditure had nearly doubled by 1783-5 and reached a peak of £831 19s. 8d. in 1801. It fell quite sharply to £249 10s. 10d. in 1804 but then crept upwards again, averaging c. £418 between 1805 and 1823. In 1824 expenditure suddenly leapt to £810 1s. and was generally high throughout the rest of the 1820s. Expenditure in 1830 fell to £234 2s. but averaged c. £581 between 1831 and 1836. Throughout poor relief expenditure per head of population was one of the lowest in the hundred. The three almshouses 'on the green' in 1768, probably unendowed, may have later become the parish workhouse sited on the heath edge south-west of New Church Road near its junction with Lexden Road. It presumably shut and was demolished c. 1834.

From: 'West Bergholt: Local government', A History of the County of Essex: Volume 10: Lexden Hundred (Part) including Dedham, Earls Colne and Wivenhoe (2001), pp. 34-35. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=15140&amp;amp;strquery=west bergholt Date accessed: 14 February 2011.

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
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
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