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England London  City of London

Guide to City of London ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.



History
The City of London is a city and county that contains the historic center and the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London from its settlement by the Romans in the 1st century AD to the Middle Ages, but the agglomeration has since grown far beyond the City's borders. The City is now only a tiny part of the metropolis of London, though it remains a notable part of central London.

Some recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area. In 1999, the remains of a Bronze Age bridge were found, again on the foreshore south of Vauxhall Bridge. This bridge either crossed the Thames, or went to a now lost island in the river. Dendrology dated the timbers to 1500 BC. In 2001 a further dig found that the timbers were driven vertically into the ground on the south bank of the Thames west of Vauxhall Bridge. In 2010 the foundations of a large timber structure, dated to 4000BC, were found on the Thames foreshore, south of Vauxhall Bridge. The function of the mesolithic structure is not known. All these structures are on the south bank at a natural crossing point where the River Effra flows into the Thames.

Numerous finds have been made of spear heads and weaponry from the Bronze and Iron Ages near the banks of the Thames in the London area, many of which had clearly been used in battle. This suggests that the Thames was an important tribal boundary.

Londinium was established as a civilian town by the Romans about seven years after the invasion of AD 43. London, like Rome, was founded on the point of the river where it was narrow enough to bridge and the strategic location of the city provided easy access to much of Europe. Early Roman London occupied a relatively small area, roughly equivalent to the size of Hyde Park. In around AD 60, it was destroyed by the Iceni led by their queen Boudica. The city was quickly rebuilt as a planned Roman town and recovered after perhaps 10 years, the city growing rapidly over the following decades.

At some time between 180 and 225 AD the Romans built the defensive London Wall around the landward side of the city. The wall was about 3 kilometers (1.9 mi) long, 6 meters (20 ft) high, and 2.5 meters (8.2 ft) thick. The wall would survive for another 1,600 years and define the City of London's perimeters for centuries to come. The perimeters of the present City are roughly defined by the line of the ancient wall.

Londonium was an ethnically diverse city with inhabitants from across the Roman Empire, including natives of Britannia, continental Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa.

In the late 3rd century, Londinium was raided on several occasions by Saxon pirates. This led, from around 255 onward, to the construction of an additional riverside wall. Six of the traditional seven city gates of London are of Roman origin, namely: Ludgate, Newgate, Aldersgate, Cripplegate, Bishopsgate and Aldgate (Moorgate is the exception, being of medieval origin).

By the 5th century the Roman Empire was in rapid decline, and in 410 AD the Roman occupation of Britain came to an end. Following this, the Roman city also went into rapid decline and by the end of the 5th century was practically abandoned.

The main focus of the following Saxon settlement was outside the Roman walls, clustering a short distance to the west along what is now the Strand, between the Aldwych and Trafalgar Square. It was known as Lundenwic, the -wic suffix here denoting a trading settlement. Recent excavations have also highlighted the population density and relatively sophisticated urban organization of this earlier Anglo-Saxon London, which was laid out on a grid pattern and grew to house a likely population of 10-12,000.

By the early 7th century the London area had been incorporated into the kingdom of the East Saxons. In 604 King Saeberht of Essex converted to Christianity and London received Mellitus, its first post-Roman bishop.

At this time Essex was under the overlordship of King Æthelberht of Kent, and it was under Æthelberht's patronage that Mellitus founded the first St. Paul's Cathedral, traditionally said to be on the site of an old Roman Temple of Diana (although Christopher Wren found no evidence of this). It would have only been a modest church at first and may well have been destroyed after he was expelled from the city by Saeberht's pagan successors.

Viking attacks dominated most of the 9th century, becoming increasingly common from around 830 onward. London was sacked in 842 and again in 851. The Danish "Great Heathen Army", which had rampaged across England since 865, wintered in London in 871. The city remained in Danish hands until 886, when it was captured by the forces of King Alfred the Great of Wessex and reincorporated into Mercia, then governed under Alfred's sovereignty by his son-in-law Ealdorman Æthelred.

In 1042 English rule was restored under Edward the Confessor. He was responsible for the foundation of Westminster Abbey and spent much of his time at Westminster, which from this time steadily supplanted the City itself as the center of government. Edward's death at Westminster in 1066 without a clear heir led to a succession dispute and the Norman conquest of England. Earl Harold Godwinson was elected king by the witangemot and crowned in Westminster Abbey but was defeated and killed by William the Bastard, Duke of Normandy at the Battle of Hastings. The surviving members of the witan met in London and elected King Edward's young nephew Edgar the Ætheling as king. However William the Conqueror eventually prevailed, signalling the last time England was to be defeated from abroad.

The new Norman regime established new fortresses within the city to dominate the native population. By far the most important of these was the Tower of London at the eastern end of the city, where the initial timber fortification was rapidly replaced by the construction of the first stone castle in England. The smaller forts of Baynard's Castle and Montfichet's Castle were also established along the waterfront. King William also granted a charter in 1067 confirming the city's existing rights, privileges and laws. Its growing self-government was consolidated by the election rights granted by King John in 1199 and 1215.

In 1097 William Rufus, the son of William the Conqueror began the construction of 'Westminster Hall', which became the focus of the Palace of Westminster.

In 1176 construction began of the most famous incarnation of London Bridge (completed in 1209) which was built on the site of several earlier timber bridges. This bridge would last for 600 years, and remained the only bridge across the River Thames until 1739.

Trade increased steadily during the Middle Ages, and London grew rapidly as a result. In 1100 London's population was somewhat more than 15,000. By 1300 it had grown to roughly 80,000. London lost at least half of its population during the Black Death in the mid-14th century, but its economic and political importance stimulated a rapid recovery despite further epidemics. Trade in London was organized into various guilds, which effectively controlled the city, and elected the Lord Mayor of the City of London.

Henry VIII's "Dissolution of the Monasteries" had a profound effect on the city as nearly all of this property changed hands. The process started in the mid 1530s, and by 1538 most of the larger monastic houses had been abolished. Holy Trinity Aldgate went to Lord Audley, and the Marquess of Winchester built himself a house in part of its precincts. The Charterhouse went to Lord North, Blackfriars to Lord Cobham, the leper hospital of St Giles to Lord Dudley, while the king took for himself the leper hospital of St James, which was rebuilt as St James's Palace.

The period saw London rapidly rising in importance among Europe's commercial centers. Trade expanded beyond Western Europe to Russia, the Levant, and the Americas. This was the period of mercantilism and monopoly trading companies such as the Muscovy Company (1555) and the British East India Company (1600) were established in London by Royal Charter. The latter, which ultimately came to rule India, was one of the key institutions in London, and in Britain as a whole, for two and a half centuries. Immigrants arrived in London not just from all over England and Wales, but from abroad as well, for example Huguenots from France; the population rose from an estimated 50,000 in 1530 to about 225,000 in 1605. The growth of the population and wealth of London was fueled by a vast expansion in the use of coastal shipping.

London's expansion beyond the boundaries of the City was decisively established in the 17th century. The dissolved monastery of the Charterhouse, which had been bought and sold by the courtiers several times, was purchased by Thomas Sutton for £13,000. The new hospital, chapel, and schoolhouse were begun in 1611. Charterhouse School was to be one of the principal public schools in London until it moved to Surrey in Victorian times, and the site is still used as a medical school.

The unsanitary and overcrowded City of London has suffered from the numerous outbreaks of the plague many times over the centuries, but in Britain it is the last major outbreak which is remembered as the "Great Plague" It occurred in 1665 and 1666 and killed around 60,000 people, which was one fifth of the population. Samuel Pepys chronicled the epidemic in his diary. On 4 September 1665 he wrote "I have stayed in the city till above 7400 died in one week, and of them about 6000 of the plague, and little noise heard day or night but tolling of bells."

The Great Plague was immediately followed by another catastrophe, albeit one which helped to put an end to the plague. On the Sunday, 2 September 1666 the Great Fire of London broke out at one o'clock in the morning at a bakery in Pudding Lane in the southern part of the City. Fanned by an eastern wind the fire spread, and efforts to arrest it by pulling down houses to make firebreaks were disorganized to begin with. On Tuesday night the wind fell somewhat, and on Wednesday the fire slackened. On Thursday it was extinguished, but on the evening of that day the flames again burst forth at the Temple. Some houses were at once blown up by gunpowder, and thus the fire was finally mastered. The Monument was built to commemorate the fire: for over a century and a half it bore an inscription attributing the conflagration to a "popish frenzy". The fire destroyed about 60% of the City, including Old St Paul's Cathedral, 87 parish churches, 44 livery company halls and the Royal Exchange.

Christopher Wren's plan for a new model London came to nothing, but he was appointed to rebuild the ruined parish churches and to replace St Paul's Cathedral. His domed baroque cathedral was the primary symbol of London for at least a century and a half.

At this time the Bank of England was founded, and the British East India Company was expanding its influence. Lloyd's of London also began to operate in the late 17th century. In 1700 London handled 80% of England's imports, 69% of its exports and 86% of its re-exports. Many of the goods were luxuries from the Americas and Asia such as silk, sugar, tea and tobacco. The last figure emphasizes London's role as an entrepot: while it had many craftsmen in the 17th century, and would later acquire some large factories, its economic prominence was never based primarily on industry. Instead it was a great trading and redistribution center. Goods were brought to London by England's increasingly dominant merchant navy, not only to satisfy domestic demand, but also for re-export throughout Europe and beyond.

The 18th century was a period of rapid growth for London, reflecting an increasing national population, the early stirrings of the Industrial Revolution, and London's role at the center of the evolving British Empire. It was said during this period that the sun never set on the British Empire!

In 1707 an Act of Union was passed merging the Scottish and the English Parliaments, thus establishing the Kingdom of Great Britain. A year later, in 1708 Christopher Wren's masterpiece, St Paul's Cathedral was completed on his birthday. However, the first service had been held on 2 December 1697; more than 10 years earlier. This Cathedral replaced the original St. Paul's which had been completely destroyed in the Great Fire of London. This building is considered one of the finest in Britain and a fine example of Baroque architecture.

Up until 1750, London Bridge was the only crossing over the Thames, but in that year Westminster Bridge was opened and, for the first time in history, London Bridge, in a sense, had a rival. In 1798, Frankfurt banker Nathan Mayer Rothschild arrived in London and set up a banking house in the city, with a large sum of money given to him by his father, Amschel Mayer Rothschild. The Rothschilds also had banks in Paris and Vienna. The bank financed numerous large-scale projects, especially regarding railways around the world and the Suez Canal.

The 18th century saw the breakaway of the American colonies and many other unfortunate events in London, but also great change and Enlightenment. This all led into the beginning of modern times, the 19th century.

During the 19th century, London was transformed into the world's largest city and capital of the British Empire. Its population expanded from 1 million in 1800 to 6.7 million a century later. During this period, London became a global political, financial, and trading capital. In this position, it was largely unrivaled until the latter part of the century, when Paris and New York began to threaten its dominance.

In 1829 the then Home Secretary (and future prime minister) Robert Peel established the Metropolitan Police as a police force covering the entire urban area. The force gained the nickname of "bobbies" or "peelers" named after Robert Peel.

19th-century London was transformed by the coming of the railways. A new network of metropolitan railways allowed for the development of suburbs in neighboring counties from which middle-class and wealthy people could commute to the center. While this spurred the massive outward growth of the city, the growth of greater London also exacerbated the class divide, as the wealthier classes emigrated to the suburbs, leaving the poor to inhabit the inner city areas.

As the capital of a massive empire, London became a magnet for immigrants from the colonies and poorer parts of Europe. A large Irish population settled in the city during the Victorian period, with many of the newcomers refugees from the Great Famine (1845–1849). At one point, Catholic Irish made up about 20% of London's population; they typically lived in overcrowded slums. London also became home to a sizable Jewish community, which was notable for its entrepreneurship in the clothing trade and merchandising.

As the capital of a massive empire, London became a magnet for immigrants from the colonies and poorer parts of Europe. A large Irish population settled in the city during the Victorian period, with many of the newcomers refugees from the Great Famine (1845–1849). At one point, Catholic Irish made up about 20% of London's population; they typically lived in overcrowded slums.[30] London also became home to a sizable Jewish community, which was notable for its entrepreneurship in the clothing trade and merchandising.[31]

In 1888, the new County of London was established, administered by the London County Council. This was the first elected London-wide administrative body, replacing the earlier Metropolitan Board of Works, which had been made up of appointees. The County of London covered broadly what was then the full extent of the London conurbation, although the conurbation later outgrew the boundaries of the county. In 1900, the county was sub-divided into 28 metropolitan boroughs, which formed a more local tier of administration than the county council.

London's population continued to grow rapidly in the early decades of the century, and public transport was greatly expanded. A large tram network was constructed by the London County Council, through the LCC Tramways; the first motorbus service began in the 1900s. Improvements to London's overground and underground rail network, including large scale electrification were progressively carried out.

During World War I, London experienced its first bombing raids carried out by German zeppelin airships; these killed around 700 people and caused great terror, but were merely a foretaste of what was to come. The city of London would experience many more terrors as a result of both World Wars.

The period between the two World Wars saw London's geographical extent growing more quickly than ever before or since. A preference for lower density suburban housing, typically semi-detached, by Londoners seeking a more "rural" lifestyle, superseded Londoners' old predilection for terraced houses. This was facilitated not only by a continuing expansion of the rail network, including trams and the Underground, but also by slowly widening car ownership. London's suburbs expanded outside the boundaries of the County of London, into the neighboring counties of Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent, Middlesex and Surrey.

Like the rest of the country, London suffered severe unemployment during the Great Depression of the 1930s. In the East End during the 1930s, politically extreme parties of both right and left flourished. The Communist Party of Great Britain and the British Union of Fascists both gained serious support. Clashes between right and left culminated in the Battle of Cable Street in 1936. The population of London reached an all-time peak of 8.6 million in 1939. Large numbers of Jewish immigrants fleeing from Nazi Germany settled in London during the 1930s, mostly in the East End.

During World War II, London, as many other British cities, suffered severe damage, being bombed extensively by the Luftwaffe as a part of The Blitz. Prior to the bombing, hundreds of thousands of children in London were evacuated to the countryside to avoid the bombing. Civilians took shelter from the air raids in underground stations.

The heaviest bombing took place during The Blitz between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941. During this period, London was subjected to 71 separate raids receiving over 18,000 tonnes of high explosive. One raid in December 1940, which became known as the Second Great Fire of London, saw a firestorm engulf much of the City of London and destroy many historic buildings. St Paul's Cathedral, however, remained unscathed. London suffered severe damage and heavy casualties, the worst hit part being the Docklands area. By the war's end, just under 30,000 Londoners had been killed by the bombing, and over 50,000 seriously injured, tens of thousands of buildings were destroyed, and hundreds of thousands of people were made homeless.

In the immediate postwar years housing was a major issue in London, due to the large amount of housing which had been destroyed in the war. The authorities decided upon high-rise blocks of flats as the answer to housing shortages. During the 1950s and 1960s the skyline of London altered dramatically as tower blocks were erected, although these later proved unpopular. In a bid to reduce the number of people living in overcrowded housing, a policy was introduced of encouraging people to move into newly built new towns surrounding London.

Through the 19th and in the early half of the 20th century, Londoners used coal for heating their homes, which produced large amounts of smoke. In combination with climatic conditions this often caused a characteristic smog, and London became known for its typical "London Fog", also known as "Pea Soupers". London was sometimes referred to as "The Smoke" because of this. In 1952 this culminated in the disastrous Great Smog of 1952 which lasted for five days and killed over 4,000 people. In response to this, the Clean Air Act 1956 was passed, mandating the creating of "smokeless zones" where the use of "smokeless" fuels was required (this was at a time when most households still used open fires); the Act was effective.

Starting in the mid-1960s, and partly as a result of the success of such UK musicians as the Beatles and The Rolling Stones, London became a center for the worldwide youth culture, exemplified by the Swinging London subculture which made Carnaby Street a household name of youth fashion around the world. London's role as a trendsetter for youth fashion was revived strongly in the 1980s during the new wave and punk eras. In the mid-1990s this was revived to some extent with the emergence of the Britpop era.

London's traditional status as a major port declined dramatically in the post-war decades as the old Docklands could not accommodate large modern container ships. The principal ports for London moved downstream to the ports of Felixstowe and Tilbury. The docklands area had become largely derelict by the 1980s, but was redeveloped into flats and offices from the mid-1980s onwards. The Thames Barrier was completed in the 1980s to protect London against tidal surges from the North Sea.

Toward the end of the century, and from a global perspective, London emerged as a World city widely compared to New York and Tokyo.

Around the start of the 21st century, London hosted the much derided Millennium Dome at Greenwich, to mark the new century. Other Millennium projects were more successful. One was the largest observation wheel in the world, the "Millennium Wheel", or the London Eye, which was erected as a temporary structure, but soon became a fixture, and draws four million visitors a year. The National Lottery also released a flood of funds for major enhancements to existing attractions, for example the roofing of the Great Court at the British Museum.

The London Plan, published by the Mayor of London in 2004, estimated that the population would reach 8.1 million by 2016, and continue to rise thereafter. This was reflected in a move towards denser, more urban styles of building, including a greatly increased number of tall buildings, and proposals for major enhancements to the public transport network. However, funding for projects such as Crossrail remained a struggle.

London still remains one of the major centers for Finance and Banking in the world, and is certainly the headquarters of world financial risk management known as Lloyd's of London.

Cemeteries (Civil)
That area defined as the City of London, rather than London with all its Boroughs, does not have a cemetery or crematorium. Instead residents use one of the seven major cemeteries, the primary cemetery being the City of London Cemetery, listed below:

City of London Cemetery and Crematorium


 * Aldersbrook Rd
 * Manor Park, London E12 5DQ
 * Phone: +44 20 8530 2151

Highgate Cemetery


 * Swain's Ln
 * Highgate, London N6 6PJ
 * Phone: +44 20 8340 1834

Brompton Cemetery


 * Fulham Rd
 * Kensington, London SW10 9UG
 * Phone: +44 20 7352 1201

Nunhead Cemetery


 * Linden Grove
 * London SE15 3LP
 * Phone: +44 20 7732 9535

Tower Hamlets Cemetery


 * Southern Grove
 * London E3 4PX
 * Phone: +44 20 8983 1277

Kensel Green Cemetery


 * Harrow Rd
 * London W10 4RA
 * Phone: +44 20 8969 0152

Abney Park Cemetery


 * 215 Stoke Newington High St
 * Stoke Newington, London N16 0LH
 * Phone: +44 20 7275 7557

Parishes
As the capital city, London has too many churches to identify individually. The following web sites can provide information on all:

https://www.london.anglican.org/ For north of the River Thames, and,

http://southwark.anglican.org/ For south of the River Thames.

Some of the more famous Central London churches follow:

Westminster Abbey


 * 20 Deans Yd
 * Westminster, London SW1P 3PA
 * Phone: +44 20 7222 5152

St Paul's Cathedral


 * St. Paul's Churchyard
 * London EC4M 8AD
 * Phone: +44 20 7246 8350

St Bartholomew the Great


 * West Smithfield
 * London EC1A 9DS
 * Tel: +44 (0)20 7600 0440

All Soul's


 * 2 All Souls' Pl
 * Marylebone, London W1B 3DA

St Pancras' Old Church


 * Pancras Rd
 * Camden Town NW1 1UL

St James's Church


 * 197 Piccadilly
 * London W1J 9LL
 * Tel: 020 7734 4511

Holy Trinity


 * Sloane St
 * Belgravia, London SW1X 9BZ
 * Phone: +44 20 7730 7270

St Anne's, Limehouse


 * Three Colt Street
 * London E14 7HA
 * Phone: +44 20 7987 1502

Non Conformists
Central London has numerous churches. Some of the major denominations follow:


 * Baptist
 * Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
 * Church of Christ Scientist
 * Church of Scotland
 * Chinese Church in London
 * Evangelical
 * International Christian Church
 * Jehovah's Witnesses
 * Lutheran
 * Methodist
 * Plymouth Brethren
 * Roman Catholic (including Cathedral)
 * Salvation Army
 * Seventh Day Adventist

There are a number of communities of non Christian religions including the following:


 * Baha'i
 * Buddhist
 * Scientology
 * Confucian
 * Jews
 * Muslim
 * Sikh

Civil Registration
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the UK government from July 1837 to the present day. Prior to that, the only available records were those kept by the ecclesiastical bodies. For later records contact the Swindon registration office as below.

Swindon has an office for the registration of BMD data. It follows:


 * Civic Offices
 * Euclid St, Swindon SN1 2JH
 * Phone: +44 1793 522738

On line websites follow:


 * Swindon Council Offices


 * BMD records


 * Wiltshire County BMD records

Local Histories

 * localhistories.com: Swindon


 * Swindon Council local history


 * Central Swindon History Through Time by Mark Child


 * Swindon Illustrated History by Mark Child

Maps and Gazetteers

 * Google Maps: Swindon


 * Michelin street map of Swindon


 * oldmapsonline: Swindon


 * Swindon Gazetteer


 * genuki gazetteer of Swindon

Newspapers

 * Swindon Advertiser


 * Wiltshire Gazette and Herald

Occupations
While agriculture and market town activites were the major activities in Swindon up to the 20th. century, anf still are important, Swindon has now developed a diversified employment base.

In the Insurance and Financial arena, such companies as Nationwide Insurance, Intrinsic Financial Services, and Connect Group PLC provide major employment opportunities.

In the electronics arena, Intel, nPower, Fairchild Semiconductor, and Tyco are large players in Swindon and the Southwest.

In transportation and automotive, First Great Western (railways), MAN Truck and Bus UK, Cambria Automobiles, Castrol.

In general manufacturing and engineering; The Hardware Group, Openwork Ltd., Swindon Pressings, Arval UK, and Dick Lovatt.

Also providing major employment opportunities is the power company, Npower Ltd.

Societies

 * Wiltshire Family History Society


 * Swindon Society for History


 * Wiltshire and Swindon History Center

Archives

 * Wiltshire and Swindon Archives


 * Wiltshire County Council Archives


 * The National Archives: Swindon


 * Historic England Archives

Web Sites

 * wikipedia: Swindon


 * Swindon Borough Council


 * Wiltshire County Council