Clerkenwell St James, Middlesex Genealogy

England   Middlesex

Parish History
The churches of St. James and St. John, formerly the only churches, have each a distinct parochial district attached, and the parish of St. James is subdivided into three parts, viz., the district of St. James', of St. Mark's, and of St. Philip's. The living of St. James' is a perpetual curacy, with Pentonville chapel; net income, £712; patrons, the Inhabitants of Clerkenwell generally, paying church and poor's rates. The church is a substantial structure of brick with a handsome stone steeple, erected between the years 1788 and 1792, on the site of the ancient church of the priory of St. Mary, which had been previously modernised, and which, at the time of its being taken down for the erection of the present edifice, retained many vestiges of its Norman character, and contained the ashes of the last prioress of the nunnery; the last prior of St. John's; Weever, the antiquary; Bishop Burnet; and many other distinguished characters. This conventual church, on being made parochial, at the time of the dissolution of the priory, was dedicated anew to St. James the Less. The living of St. John's is a rectory not in charge, in the patronage of the Crown; net income, £260. The church, with large curtailments and alterations, is the choir of that belonging to the priory of the Knights Hospitallers. The ancient edifice was purchased of the Aylesbury family, in 1721, by Mr. Simon Michell, who, having repaired the choir, built the present west front, and covered the whole with a new roof, disposed of the church and adjoining grounds, in 1723, for £2950, to the commissioners for building fifty new churches in Queen Anne's reign, who constituted it a parish church, and caused it to be consecrated on St. John's day, December 27th. The interior of the building was much improved in 1845. Notwithstanding that it enjoys the privilege of religious rites, the incumbent of St. James' is entitled to the surplice fees, which he has received since the year 1771, when a lawsuit was successfully prosecuted for their recovery: there are separate churchwardens for St. John's church, but the inhabitants of both districts contribute to the repairs of the two churches, and the same overseers of the poor act for the whole.

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 626-632. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50882 Date accessed: 15 April 2010.

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