Boxted, Essex Genealogy

England   Essex   Essex Parishes



Parish History
Boxted St Peter 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.

Two historic manors are located in the parish - Boxted Hall and Rivers Hall - both are mentioned in the Doomsday records. Boxted was split into two settlements - 'Boxted' and 'Boxted Cross' during the plague - when non infected villagers moved across the valley from 'Old Boxted' to escape infection. A timber framed cottage called Songers is reputedly the oldest private dwelling in Essex dating back to 1280.

In 1630 the village vicar, George Phillips, and many other Boxted residents emigrated to America as part of the Great Migration. Phillips subsequently founded a church at Watertown on the Charles River in Massachusetts. Other Boxted residents went to Ipswich, Massachusetts.

Boxted heath to the southern end of the parish is mostly divided into nearly 70 small holdings which were originally built by the Salvation Army in the early 20th century under an initiative to create a land settlement or colony. These small holdings replaced the Priory farm that was here in the 19th century. although the old farm house and some outbuildings still remain.

The church known as ST. PETER since 1848, formerly St. Mary, has a chancel, nave with north and south aisles, south porch, and west tower. Built primarily of rubble with puddingstone and Roman brick, the nave, chancel arch, and tower are early 12th-century. The out lines of the original high windows remain above the north arcade. The aisles were probably added in the mid 14th century when the clerestory and the surviving crown-post nave roof were made. About the same time the small west window in the tower was replaced, and two windows were inserted in the east wall of the nave above the chancel arch. The chancel windows were probably renewed in the late 1530s, after the dissolution of Little Horkesley priory, when the chancel was in such bad repair that the incumbent refused to hold services there. Perhaps at the same time the tower was repaired in brick with brick angle buttresses. The timber-framed porch was added after 1586. A timber dormer window in the south aisle is dated 1604, and another in the clerestory may be 18th-century, perhaps to light a former south gallery. A west gallery on iron columns was added in 1836 with a grant from the Incorporated Society for the Enlargement and Building of Churches and Chapels (later The Incorporated Church Building Society). It now accommodates the organ of the same date. Minor repairs were ordered in 1633 and 1705. The church was restored c. 1870 by A. W. Blomfield, who extended the north aisle to form a vestry, refloored the chancel and tower, and reseated the chancel, nave, and tower. The chancel was repaired in the 1930s, when the ceiling may have been replaced. The tower was restored in the 1950s. In 1684 there was a silver cup engraved Boxted on its foot, and a pewter flagon and paten. The flagon and paten had been replaced in silver by 1810. In 1925 there was an unmarked cup, probably early-17th century, a copy of that cup dated 1836, a paten dated 1782, and two flagons dated 1778 and 1811. The surviving chest may be 17th-century. The font has a modern bowl, on an apparently early 19th-century artificial stone stem. Three bells were recorded in 1684 and 1845, but only two by 1870. In 1909 they were (i) Thomas Gardiner, Sudbury 1714 (ii) Thomas Mears, London, 1812. Monuments include five chancel floorslabs to 17th-century members of the Maidstone family, and a nave floorslab to Alexander Carr (d. 1681) and John Marr (d. 1683), servants of the earl of Oxford. The arms of George III hang on the north wall of the nave. The churchyard was expanded in 1868 by the addition of 36½ p. of land from Camping close.

From: 'Boxted: Church', A History of the County of Essex: Volume 10: Lexden Hundred (Part) including Dedham, Earls Colne and Wivenhoe (2001), pp. 65-67. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=15157&amp;amp;strquery=boxted Date accessed: 12 February 2011.

Boxted is a village and civil parish in Essex, England. It is located approximately 5 miles (8.0 km) north of Colchester and 24 miles (39 km) northeast of the county town of Chelmsford. The village is in the borough of Colchester and in the parliamentary constituency of North Essex. There is a Parish council. The village was the site of a series of skirmishes between Parliamentary and Royalist troops in July 1648, known as the Battle of Boxted Heath.

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

Census records
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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
Lexden and Winstree Poor Law Union, Essex

The lord of Boxted Hall held view of frankpledge in 1303, when the bailiff of the honor of Boulogne had 2s. from its profits. In 1641 the view elected one constable, one aletaster, and two supervisors and drivers of the common, and there were also surveyors of highways. Court business in the mid 17th century was generally restricted to land transfers, orders to maintain ditches and highways, and complaints of illegal encroachments on the heath. By 1648 there was a total absence of leet business and many defaulters. Courts baron were held irregularly by the second half of the 19th century, and ceased after 1909. The last admission to a copyhold was entered in the court books in 1912. The courts were originally held at Boxted Hall, but in 1881 legal advice was taken as to where to hold the court because the house had become separated from the manor and none of the remaining customary holdings possessed a suitable building. The courts leet at Rivers Hall in 1576 were probably medieval in origin. They had ceased by 1792 when courts baron were held. The last recorded court baron met in 1913, but enfranchisements continued into the 1930s and manorial rights finally lapsed in 1935. After the Hall became separated from the manor the courts were held at Cheshunts after 1859, and at the Cross inn from 1885. There were four overseers and two constables in 1756. The four surveyors recorded in 1759 had risen to 10 by 1768. The parish cage stood on a small green at Boxted Cross, from which Cage Lane takes its name. A poor rate was collected at Boxted in the later 16th century. In 1652 John Maidstone complained that he and others were unfairly rated. In 1776 a poor rate raised £134 os. 6d. Expenditure had increased to £466 8s. 2d. by 1801 and gradually increased to a peak of £1,523 6s. in 1821. Thereafter it fell, averaging c. £891 between 1822 and 1836. Boxted had a comparatively low level of poor relief per head of population throughout the later 18th and earlier 19th centuries. Outdoor relief was given to 27 people in 1813. In the same year 18 people received relief in the parish workhouse regularly and 5 occasionally. The workhouse, on the northeast side of Workhouse Hill, was probably demolished before 1838 when its site was Old Workhouse Yard.

From: 'Boxted: Local government', A History of the County of Essex: Volume 10: Lexden Hundred (Part) including Dedham, Earls Colne and Wivenhoe (2001), pp. 65. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=15156&amp;amp;strquery=boxted Date accessed: 12 February 2011.

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
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