Mortlake, Surrey Genealogy

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Parish History
MORTLAKE, a parish, in the union of Richmond, W. division of the hundred of Brixton, E. division of Surrey, 6½ miles (S. W. by W.) from London; containing 2778 inhabitants. The parish comprises 1168 acres, of which 150 are common or waste. The village is pleasantly situated on the south bank of the Thames, and on the road from London to Richmond; in the neighbourhood are several seats and villas. About the year 1616 a manufactory of tapestry was established, but it was destroyed in the time of the civil war: there are a small pottery for stone-ware, and a brewery; and the making of malt is carried on very extensively. The cultivation of asparagus is considerable; a great part of the land is occupied by market-gardeners. A farm of eighty acres, on the Richmond side of the parish, was the private property of George III.; and a portion of Richmond Park is in the parish. The Richmond railway has a station here, seven miles distant from NineElms, London. The living is a perpetual curacy; net come, £230; patrons and appropriators, the Dean and Chapter of Worcester, whose tithes have been commuted for £400. The church was founded in the fourteenth, and rebuilt in the sixteenth, century, and has undergone many modern repairs; the tower, which is very ancient, is of stone and flint, square, and embattled. The font, ornamented with rich tracery, was the gift of Archbishop Bourchier. Sir Philip Francis, supposed by some to be the author of the Letters of Junius, is buried here; also Dr. John Dee, and John Partridge, celebrated astrologers, the latter of whom was a native of Mortlake: the late Viscount Sidmouth was buried in the churchyard, in 1844. There is a place of worship for Independents. A free school founded in 1700, and endowed by the will of Dorothy, Lady Capel, in 1719, with part of the rental of an estate, from which it now receives about £35 per annum, was enlarged by subscription in 1815, when the national system was introduced. Edward Colston built almshouses in the parish for eight persons; John Juxon, in 1828, founded a house for four widows; and there are several small bequests for apprenticing children, and the benefit of the poor generally. An ancient house here belonged to General Ireton, where, it is said, Cromwell often held his councils; it was subsequently the residence of Edward Colston, the great benefactor to the city of Bristol, who, during his lifetime, expended more than £70,000 in the support of charitable institutions. The only remaining vestige of Mortlake House, anciently the residence of the archbishops of Canterbury, is the foundation of a single wall: Archbishops Peckham and Reynolds died here. Edward III. resided in the parish in 1352, and Queen Elizabeth frequently visited Dr. Dee at Mortlake.

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 345-350. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51160 Date accessed: 30 November 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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Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Surrey Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

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Web sites
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