Childerditch, Essex Genealogy

Guide to Childerditch, Essex ancestry, family history, and genealogy. Parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
CHILDERDITCH (All Saints and St. Faith), is a parish, in the union of Billericay, the hundred of Chafford, and S division of Essex; it is 2½ miles SSE from Brentwood.

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
Childerditch parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

Non-Conformist Churches

 * Independent/Congregational
 * Presbyterian

Poor Law Unions
Billericay Poor Law Union, Essex

'Surviving parish records include vestry minutes for 1726–89, 1808, and 1840–1913. In the 18th century the vestry rarely met more than once a year. The meeting-place was not recorded until 1783, when it was stated to be the church. The numbers signing the minutes were usually from four to six. Officers presenting accounts did not usually sign, so the total attendance was probably between seven and ten. John Groome, vicar from 1709 to 1760, attended meetings, apparently as chairman, until 1752, but his two successors appear not to have attended. Until 1850 there was one churchwarden, chosen until 1752 by the vicar, and thereafter by the vestry. From 1851 there were two, nominated respectively by the vicar and the vestry. There was one overseer of the poor until 1787, and thereafter two. There were two surveyors of highways. Until 1788 or later there was only one constable, but in the year 1743 there was also a headborough.

'The parish owned a row of cottages in Childerditch Street, which were let to the poor. Two of them were rebuilt by the vestry early in the 18th century. They were still occupied by the poor in 1839. They were sold in 1844. Childerditch had no workhouse, and in 1807 contracted to lodge eight paupers in Great Warley workhouse.

'The cost of poor relief was £117 in 1776, and averaged £142 between 1783 and 1785. (Between 1801 and 1821 inclusive it averaged £290, being highest in 1801 [£436] and 1819 [£406]). During that period poverty in Childerditch seems to have been slightly less serious than in the neighbouring parish of Cranham, which was of similar area and population. In the years 1813–15 some 30 parishioners, i.e. about one tenth, were on permanent relief, and 61 others received occasional relief.

'In 1835 Childerditch became part of Billericay 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

Websites
Essex Ancestors - offers images of genealogical records for the county of Essex ($)

Childerditch on GENUKI