All Saints in Stanway and Lexden, Essex Genealogy

England   Essex

Parish History
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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 ruined church of ALL SAINTS com- prises a nave with a north porch and a west tower. Nothing survives of the 13th- or early 14th-century church comprising chancel, nave, and bell tower, the nave of which collapsed in the 1380s or 1390s. The nave was rebuilt c. 1400, and the north aisle, whose arcade sur- vives, and the west tower may have been built at the same time. There was an alabaster reredos behind the high altar in 1477, and the 'light beam' was painted in 1521. The church was repaired by John Swinnerton (d. 1616) as a pri- vate chapel; the chancel arch and north arcade were blocked with brick, and a brick north porch bearing the Swinnerton arms was added. By the early 18th century the church was 'utterly decayed', and has remained so.

From: 'Stanway: Churches', A History of the County of Essex: Volume 10: Lexden Hundred (Part) including Dedham, Earls Colne and Wivenhoe (2001), pp. 270-273. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=15277&amp;amp;strquery=stanway Date accessed: 11 February 2011.

The church of ST. ALBRIGHT (ETHEL- BERT), of flint and rubble with limestone and Roman brick dressings, comprises chancel with south chapel, and nave with south aisle, west bell turret, and north porch. The late 11th- century church comprised undivided nave and chancel, possibly entered by a west door. The nave walls and probably some of the rafters sur- vive. The chancel was rebuilt and the north porch added in the 15th century, perhaps by the Tey family, whose arms survived in the east window in the 1630s. The bell turret was built about the same time. The church was repaired in the 1620s and 1630s, and regularly main- tained thereafter. In 1707 there were north and south porches, but the south porch was later replaced by a small vestry which was demolished c. 1800. There was a west gallery by 1856. The church was extended eastwards in 1826, the medieval chancel being incorporated into the nave. The south vestry was rebuilt c. 1860. The church was enlarged and restored in 1879 when a new chancel with south vestry was built, a south aisle added to the nave, the gallery removed, and the north porch rebuilt, to plans by Sir G. G. Scott. The 15th-century piscina from the medieval chancel was rebuilt in the new one, and the 15th-century arcade from the demolished St. Runwald's church, Colchester, was rebuilt between the chancel and vestry. The bell turret and roofs were repaired in 1936. The octagonal 15th-century font has alternating chalices and blank shields on its faces. The church plate is modern, the 3 chalices recorded in 1552 having been sold or lost; there are 2 pewter plates of c. 1750. There were at least two bells in 1541, and three in 1684. In 1856 they were: (i) 1574, (ii) John Thornton 1710, (iii) Miles Gray 1610, but the first two were taken down in 1890 and sold in 1892. The remaining bell was repaired in 1936. The graveyard was extended in 1858, 1897, and 1935. A lich gate was built as a war mem- orial in 1920.

From: 'Stanway: Churches', A History of the County of Essex: Volume 10: Lexden Hundred (Part) including Dedham, Earls Colne and Wivenhoe (2001), pp. 270-273. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=15277&amp;amp;strquery=stanway Date accessed: 11 February 2011.

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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