Wivenhoe, Essex Genealogy

England   Essex   Essex Parishes



Parish History
Wivenhoe St Mary the Virgin is an Ancient Parish in Essex.

Wivenhoe may be derived from a Saxon name meaning Wifa's (Wiven) Ridge (hoe). Wifa was a person or tribe the town's area belonged to before the Norman Conquest. The town's first church, St. Mary-the-Virgin, is of Saxon origin. According to folk etymology, the name derived from "Wyvernhoe", originating from a mythical beast called a wyvern and the previously mentioned ridge (hoe).

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.

The church of ST. MARY, in High Street, has a chancel with north and south chapels and a north vestry, an aisled and clerestoried nave with north and south porches, and a west tower on which there is an open sided cupola. The walls are of rubble, which includes some Roman tile, with ashlar dressings. The tower was plastered in 1563 and the south side of the church was apparently plastered or rough cast in 1764. The plan is irregular and there is reused moulded stonework of the 13th century but the oldest standing parts are the mid 14th-century aisles which were originally of only two bays. The chantry chapel was perhaps in one of the aisles. The north chapel, west tower, and nave clerestorey were added late in the 15th century or early in the 16th. A wooden south porch was in existence by 1566, and a west gallery was added in 1568. The church was extensively repaired between 1561 and 1572, but by 1590 the building and the churchyard fence were in such decay that rain was penetrating the fabric and pigs were rooting up the graves. In 1633 the church was seriously in need of external repairs. Part of the north aisle and its east window required repair in 1684. The north aisle was repaired in 1699. A wooden cupola had been added to the roof of the tower by 1734. Plans were prepared by E. C. Hakewill for the enlargement and partial rebuilding of the church in 1858 and the work was completed in 1860. Before the alterations there was a gallery in the north chapel and another in the nave. Both were removed and the whole of the east end and much of the south aisle were demolished. A new chancel arch was built, one bay to the east of its predecessor, and both aisles were extended to three bays. Porches were added to north and south and a south chapel was provided in the rebuilt east end. A further restoration took place after the earthquake of 1884. A reredos was installed in the 1950s. The nave was levelled and a kitchen unit and lavatories were added at the south-west corner in 1987. A picture of the crucifixion by the Belgian painter, J. H. Mols, hung on the south wall of the south chapel in 1995. A new bell was bought in 1564. The main bell was broken in 1590. There were five bells in 1768. In 1905 a peal of six bells replaced one of a similar number of 1802. A church clock was mentioned in 1613. A clock with a bell was presented by Matthew Martin (d. 1749). The church plate includes a cup of 1562, probably bought to replace the silver chalice sold then, a paten of c. 1670-80 probably intended as a cover to the cup, and a flagon of 1709 given by N. Corsellis. The iron parish chest is probably Flemish, possibly a dower chest. The octagonal, 15th-century font was reinstated in the church, after being found in the graveyard in 1923, to replace one of 1860. There are brasses to (1) William, viscount Beaumont (d. 1507), a friend of John 13th earl of Oxford, (2) his widow Elizabeth (d. 1537), daughter of Richard Scrope, whose second husband was John 13th earl of Oxford, and (3) Thomas Westeley, Elizabeth's chaplain (d. 1535). A granite cross in the churchyard commemorates the dead of the two World Wars.

From: 'Wivenhoe: Church', A History of the County of Essex: Volume 10: Lexden Hundred (Part) including Dedham, Earls Colne and Wivenhoe (2001), pp. 290-292. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=15284&amp;amp;strquery=wivenhoe Date accessed: 10 February 2011.

Wivenhoe is a town in north eastern Essex, England, approximately 3 miles (4.8 km) south east of Colchester. Historically Wivenhoe village, on the banks of the River Colne, and Wivenhoe Cross, on the higher ground to the north, were two separate settlements but with considerable development in the 19th century the two have merged. For administrtive purposes the town is within the Colchester District of Essex County Counil.

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
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

In the 16th century bequests were often made for relieving the poor, and weekly collections are recorded for poor relief from 1577; regular cash payments and relief in kind were given. Occasional cash doles were made to poor per- sons, some of them sailors. Between 1576 and 1594 parish expenditure on poor relief was between c. £5 and £7 a year. In 1692 the justices ordered that the poor be badged and in 1701 that they be set to work. In 1726 Nicholas Corsellis granted for the use of the poor a cottage lying between Wivenhoe heath and Wivenhoe Cross, which was con- verted to a parish workhouse. In 1750 parish officers intended to build a new parish work- house, but they apparently extended the existing small workhouse instead. The surviving build- ing is arranged as a terrace of late 18th-century houses. There were 25 people in the workhouse in 1755, and 22 in 1756. In 1759 there were only c. 16 but also 10 households received outdoor relief. A spinning wheel was provided in 1757 and another in 1759, and in 1765 the workhouse master was a bayweaver from Colchester. The workhouse master and mistress were required to understand spinning. The wedding expenses of inmates were paid on four occasions between 1759 and 1765. The vestry agreed in 1766 that relief would be given in the workhouse only and that rents would be paid only in cases of sickness. By 1798 between 21 and 25 persons or families received regular out relief each quarter and there was a maximum of 16 persons in the workhouse at any one time. There were above 30 house holds receiving out relief in the period 1801-3. Numbers in the workhouse were significantly higher in the period 1799-1803. From c. 1800 more cash doles were paid than relief in kind; occasionally money was paid for making clothes for paupers. In 1826 there were 44 people receiving regular outdoor relief. A payment was made for the care of a parishioner at Bethlehem hospital (Lond.) in 1756. In 1798 there was a parish surgeon; in 1799 he inoculated 51 paupers. A surgeon was still employed in 1827. In 1807 the workhouse keeper was allowed 3s. 3d. per head a week. In 1823 and 1824 it was 3s. per head, though the amount could be varied slightly according to the number of inmates and the price of flour. Paupers were to be treated 'with kindness and humanity' and to receive three meat dinners a week 'such as is wholesome and good with pudding or dumpling'. Some poor children were put out to service in the 17th century. Many were apprenticed in the 17th to 19th centuries, mostly in Wivenhoe and Colchester, but also in other towns in north Essex and in ports on the east coast of England from Kent to Northumberland. The boys were bound mainly to mariners, fishermen, and oyster dredgers, with a few to weavers outside the parish in the 17th and 18th centuries, and the girls usually learned housewifery. In 1776 the cost of poor relief was £268 and in 1783-5 it averaged £289 a year. Expenditure rose to £845 in 1802, equivalent to c. 15s. 6d. per head of population, and then fluctuated between £507 and £631 in 1803-11 before rising again to range between £907 and £1,152 in 1817-21, equivalent to c. 16s. a head, in 1821. It fluctuated between £1,069 and £1,268 between 1822 and 1830, was £926 in 1831, equivalent to c. 10s. 10d. a head, and fell further to £694 in 1834. Poor law expenditure per head in Wivenhoe was always one of the lowest in Lexden hundred. In the early 19th century surveyors supervised the spreading of gravel and stones on the roads. Wivenhoe became part of Lexden and Winstree Highway District in 1868. An iron parish cage on Anchor Hill, repaired in 1810, was in use until c. 1850. Wivenhoe vestry used its few remaining powers after 1834 actively: a nuisance removal committee was set up in 1855 and a sanitary inspector employed; vigorous attempts were made to provide public services, preparing the way for the vestry's transformation into an urban district.

From: 'Wivenhoe: Local government', A History of the County of Essex: Volume 10: Lexden Hundred (Part) including Dedham, Earls Colne and Wivenhoe (2001), pp. 288-290. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=15283&amp;amp;strquery=wivenhoe Date accessed: 10 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.

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Web sites
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