Northampton Priory of St Andrew, Northamptonshire Genealogy

England Northamptonshire  Northamptonshire Parishes

Parish History
NORTHAMPTON, a borough and market-town, having separate jurisdiction, and the head of a union, locally in the hundred of Spelhoe, S. division of the county of Northampton, of which it is the chief town, 66 miles (N. W. by N.) from London, on the road to Leicester. This place, from its situation to the north of the river Nene (termed by Camden the Avon, and more anciently known as the Aufona), is by some antiquaries supposed to have been called North Aufonton, of which they consider its present name to be a contraction; by others it is said to have been known to the Saxons as Hamtune, and to have received the prefix North to distinguish it. The last parliament held here was summoned in the fourth year of the reign of Richard II. This parliament, together with the convocation of Canterbury, sat in the chancel of All Hallows' church, now All Saints', the castle having fallen into a ruinous state. The town is pleasantly situated on the acclivity of an eminence rising gradually from the north bank of the river Nene, over which are two bridges of stone, that to the south being a good structure of three elliptic arches. The borough comprises the parishes of All Saints, St. Giles, St. Peter, 1029, and St. Sepulchre. There were formerly seven parochial churches within the walls and two without, of which only four are remaining. St. Catherine's church, in the parish of All Saints, built by subscription was consecrated October 10th, 1839. The parish of St. Giles comprises about 800 acres, of which 100 consist of meadow watered by the river Nene on the south. A church district named St. Edmund's was formed out of St. Giles' parish in 1846 by the Ecclesiastical Commission: the living is in the gift of the Crown and the Bishop of Peterborough, alternately. The living of St. Peter's is a rectory. Governors of St. Katherine's Hospital, London. The living of St. Sepulchre's is a discharged vicarage. The church is thought to have been built by the Knights Templars, after the model of the church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, and is one of four buildings of that kind remaining in the kingdom: it is of circular form, with a cupola in the centre of the roof, which is supported on eight round Norman columns and plain pointed arches; there is also a western tower surmounted by a spire. A handsome church, called St. Andrew's, has lately been consecrated in the parish. Among the Monastic institutions that existed here, were, the priory of St. Andrew, founded about 1076. There are places of worship in the town for Baptists, the Society of Friends, Huntingtonians, Independents, and Wesleyans. At the northern extremity of St. Sepulchre's parish, stands the Roman Catholic collegiate chapel of St. Felix, named after the apostle of the East Angles in the 7th century.

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.

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Northamptonshire 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