Quendon, Essex Genealogy

England   Essex   Essex Parishes



Parish History
Quendon All Saints is an Ancient Parish in Essex.

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.

QUENDON, a parish, in the union of SaffronWalden, hundred of Uttlesford, N. division of Essex, 6 miles (N. N. E.) from Bishop-Stortford; containing 213 inhabitants. The parish is situated on the road to Newmarket, and comprises 643 acres, of which 189 are pasture, and 106 wood; the surface is agreeably diversified, and the soil, though various, fertile. Quendon Hall, which has been rebuilt in a handsome style, is surrounded by a fine park. The living is a discharged rectory, valued in the king's books at £9, and in the patronage of Mrs. Cranmer: the tithes have been commuted for £150, and there are 35 acres of glebe. The church is a small ancient edifice.

From: Samuel A. Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 623-627. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51227&amp;amp;strquery=quendon Date accessed: 15 February 2011.

The name of Quendon is thought to derive from the Old English words "scene" and "den", meaning women's valley, thought to refer to the small valley the village is situated in.

The history of Quendon is closely associated with its close neighbour, Rickling village. Historically these two villages were separated by some distance, but it is thought that either due to the heavy loss of life during the 14th Century by the Black Death or a significant fire in the old wooden buildings of the day, caused much of the village to relocate its current position. The original Rickling village was closely sited near its own, now isolated parish church, approximately 1.5 km away. Today, the villages nestle together and the boundary is almost unnoticeable.

Despite the close geographic tie between these two neighbours, the parishes were distinct until the late 20th century. The historic "Coffin Path" bridleway was used for the parish residents of Rickling to travel to its own church some distance over the fields.

Quendon is located on the B1383 (formerly the A11 trunk road) between Saffron Walden and Bishop's Stortford. The trunk road status was lost due to the opening of the parallel M11 motorway. Quendon is part of Quendon and Rickling civil parish and the district of Uttlesford. The first mention of a postal service in the village was in 1793 and Quendon had a Penny Post service from 1813.

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
Contributor: Include here information for parish registers, Bishop’s Transcripts, non conformist and other types of church records, such as parish chest records. Add the contact information for the office holding the original records. Add links to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection

Online images are available Seax - Essex Archives Online From the Essex Record Office

Census records
Index for the Census may be searched at FamilySearch Historical Records

http://www.1881pubs.com/ for details of public houses in the 1881 census

Poor Law Unions
Saffron Walden Poor Law Union, Essex

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
Contributor: Add any relevant sites that aren’t mentioned above.