Great Warley, Essex Genealogy

England   Essex   Essex Parishes  Great Warley



Parish History
Great Warley or Warley (Great), is a parish in Romford district, Essex; 3 miles S of Brentwood railway station. It includes the hamlet of Warley Street. A chapelry, called Christchurch Great Warley, was formed in 1855, out of Great Warley, Shenfield and South Weald parishes.

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
Online images are available Seax - Essex Archives Online From the Essex Record Office St Mary the Virgin See also Christ Church

Essex Online Parish Clerks (OPC)

Poor Law Unions
Romford Poor Law Union, Essex

The parish records include vestry minutes (1736–1855), churchwardens' accounts (1792–1844), and overseers' rates (1827–33) and accounts (1800–48). The vestry normally met four or five times a year, but more often in times of distress: from 1793 to 1820 there were never fewer than six meetings a year, and usually eight or nine. The place of meeting, when specified, was the church, but in 1785 the vestry agreed to meet alternately at the Thatchers and the Magpie public houses, spending each time 5s. on the overseer's account. The rector or curate normally took the chair when present. Attendance at meetings was occasionally as high as ten, but five or six was a more usual number in the 18th century and three or four in the 19th century. Those who attended were the substantial farmers of the parish, and the parish offices revolved among them. There were two churchwardens throughout the period. In 1755 one was elected by the parishioners, the other by the rector and parishioners jointly; the following year the same two men were wardens, but the first was stated to be appointed 'by the sole authority of the rector'. Thereafter there was always a rector's warden. Between 1736 and 1749 the vestry nominated two overseers, but after 1749 submitted four names; the duties, however, were usually performed by a single overseer. In 1761–2 Mrs. Hannah Mead was overseer, with William Mead as her deputy. Overseers normally held office for a single year, but John Forster was overseer from 1816 to 1821, and Thomas W. Mayhew held the office from 1822 to 1836, when Great Warley joined the Romford union. (fn. 153) Both were salaried. One or two constables were nominated by the vestry in most years up to 1808, but only one seems to have acted. There were also two surveyors of the highways. All the parish officers collected rates, and the vestry minutes until 1781 record summaries of their accounts. Statute labour on the highways continued in Great Warley in the 18th and 19th centuries. In 1756 composition for services was authorized, but the provision of substitutes was forbidden. In 1834 half the highway duty was to be performed, and half paid by composition; two-thirds of the duty was demanded in 1843: for every £50 rateable value, six days duty with a cart and two horses was required. No one rated at less than £50 might offer less than three days duty. The rateable value of the parish was about £1,200 in 1737 and £1,811 in 1801. It rose to £2,446 in 1817, just over £3,000 in 1839, and £3,664 in 1842. Expenditure by the overseer of the poor averaged about £60 a year in the four years 1736–40, but in the period 1740–73 was about £110 a year, with more being spent in the last decade than earlier. For the rest of the 18th century the only series of figures available gives the rates voted to the overseer: he appears to have needed about £160 yearly from 1773 to 1786 but only about half that amount from 1786 to 1793. From 1793 the sums needed rose rapidly. In 1800–1 the overseer spent £878, and in the following year £675; for the years 1802–6 his expenditure averaged £432, and for 1816–30 £512. Thereafter expenditure dropped. In the mid 18th century Great Warley had few poor. Only eight inhabitants received regular weekly allowances in 1746, and only an occasional parish apprentice is named in the records: in 1743 the parish received £10 from an inhabitant who refused to take one. Outdoor relief was given; and the parish also had several poorhouses, including two made in 1757 by converting the former watch-house. By 1783 there was on Headley common a parish workhouse, which seems to have accommodated about 20. In that year Little Warley first rented space in the workhouse; ( Upminster also used it in the years 1784–6, as did Hutton in 1806. In 1829 it was reckoned unsuitable for future use, and the vestry therefore decided to join nine parishes in Ongar hundred in forming, under Gilbert's Act, a poor-law union with a workhouse at Stanford Rivers.  The parish workhouse and 7 poorhouses were sold for £240 in 1830.  From 1831 to 1836 Great Warley kept about 10. paupers in the workhouse at Stanford Rivers. A parish doctor was employed in 1758, and in 1785 it was agreed that the poor might be inoculated at parish expense. No parish doctor is recorded between 1764 and 1800. In 1804 Dr. Butler of Brentwood agreed to attend Great Warley's poor both in the parish and within five miles of Brentwood. In 1816–17 Dr. Richardson was retained as the parish doctor but other doctors received casual payments. Apart from the years 1822–5 Dr. Richardson continued to treat the parish poor until 1836, when Great Warley became part of Romford poor-law union.

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