Whitechapel St Mary, Middlesex Genealogy

England Middlesex  Middlesex Parishes

Whitechapel St Mary, Middlesex family history and genealogy research page. Guide to parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
WHITECHAPEL (St. Mary), a parish, and the head of a union, in the Tower division of the hundred of Ossulstone, county of Middlesex; adjoining the city of London. There are places of worship for Baptists, Independents, Wesleyans, and other dissenters. In Little Aylie-street is the German Lutheran church, dedicated to St. George, a neat building with a campanile turret; and in Hooper's-square is a German Calvinistic chapel.

Additional information:

The church building has been demolished.

1831 description:

St Mary Whitechapel [1558], the church of, stands at the eastern end of Whitechapel High Street, at the south side of the beginning of the Whitechapel, or Mile-End Road. This church is of some antiquity, as appears from Hugh de Fulbourn, being its rector in 1329. It was originally a chapel of ease to the parish of Stepney, and is supposed to have received its epithet white, from the colour of its walls. The ancient name of this church was St Mary Matfel, which signifies a woman recently delivered of a son, alluding to the birth of Christ, to whose mother it is dedicated. The old church becoming very ruinous, it was taken down in 1673, and rebuilt as at present [~1830]. This church was anciently a rectory, in the gift of the rector of Stepney, in whose successors the patronage continued till 1711, when it was purchased by the principal and scholars of Brosenose College, Oxford. It is a rectory, in the diocese of London, and exempt from archidiaconal jurisdiction.

Also known as St Mary Matfellon.

View a List of District Churches and Chapels Within the Parish of St Mary Whitechapel.

Church records
To find the names of the neighbouring parishes, use England Jurisdictions 1851. In this site, search for the name of the parish, click on the location "pin", click Options and click List contiguous parishes.

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.

1666 Hearth Tax

 * Hearth Tax: Middlesex 1666: Whitechapel at British History Online - free.

1693-1694 Four Shilling in the Pound Aid

 * St Mary Whitechapel at British History Online - free.

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.

Poor Law Unions
Contributor: Add information about the pertinent poor law unions in the area.

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

Web sites

 * GENUKI: Middlesex, Whitechapel
 * Sketch of Whitechapel St Mary Parish Church, courtesy: London Ancestor