Mount Bures, Essex Genealogy

England   Essex

Parish History
Mount Bures St John the Baptist is an Ancient Parish in Essex.

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.

The church may have been founded in 1059.

The church of ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST is built of rubble with Roman tile and ashlar dressings and has a chancel with north vestry, a central tower with shingled spire and short transepts, and a nave with south porch. The nave is probably late 11th-century and has an original north doorway and three windows, one blocked. The central tower was of similar date and the chancel was rebuilt in the 14th century. The south doorway and west window of the nave are also 14th-century, the porch and south window in the nave are 15th-century. In 1633 the church and tower windows needed glazing. In 1707 there were cracks in the wall on both sides of the north door and in the west wall. The spire was taken down and the tower heightened c. 1770. In 1875 the tower was very dilapidated. The church was restored in 1875 by Thomas Harris who took down the central tower and replaced it by one of larger plan, but similar height, and added the transepts and vestry, apparently reusing the old materials in the transepts. When the tower was taken down wall paintings were discovered at the east end of the nave on the south wall, probably representing St. Mary the Virgin meeting her cousin Elizabeth. In 1552 and 1768 there were four bells in the tower, but two were sold c. 1770. The two bells remaining in 1996 were both of the 15th century, one by Robert Burford, and one about 60 years later by Henry Jordan. The wooden church chest is of the 16th century. The church plate included a silver cup and paten of 1641, stolen c. 1993. In 1959 a stone statue of St. John the Baptist by B. Dobson was placed in a niche over the high altar on the north side.

From: 'Mount Bures: Church', A History of the County of Essex: Volume 10: Lexden Hundred (Part) including Dedham, Earls Colne and Wivenhoe (2001), pp. 74-75. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=15165&amp;amp;strquery=mount bures Date accessed: 14 February 2011.

Mount Bures is a small village and civil parish on the Essex and Suffolk borders. It takes its name from the mount or motte believed to have been built shortly after the invasion by William the Conqueror in 1066. For administrative purposes the civil parish is within the Colchester District of Essex County Council.

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
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Web sites
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