Little Dunmow, Essex Genealogy

England   Essex England    Essex Parishes



Parish History
Little Dunmow St Mary is an Ancient Parish in the county of Essex.

The village has a long history centred around the Parish Church which was founded in 1104 by Lady Juga Baynard, sister of Ralph Baynard, a Norman baron who gave his name to Baynard's Castle in London. After her death her son Geoffrey Baynard decided to found a priory in honour of St Mary. This Augustinian priory was founded in 1106, and one of its canons served as curate to the parish. The Lady chapel, now the parish church, became the east end of the choir of the large and stately Little Dunmow Priory church. It still has the magnificent columns and beautiful Gothic windows as evidence of its former grandeur. The monastic buildings stood to the southwest of the church but, along with much of the Priory, were razed to the ground after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, when the priory site, with the manors of Little Dunmow and Clopton Hall, were granted to the patron of the priory, Robert Radcliffe, earl of Sussex. However many fine 14th, 15th 16th- and 17th-century buildings may still be found in the village - notably Priory Place (on the site of the old Priory), Brick House (beside the footpath to Barnston as it approaches the Chelmer valley), Ivy House (at the junction of The Street and Brook Street, Monks Hall (at the junction of The Street and Grange Lane) and Rose Farm(At the Junction of Grange Lane and the Street). A number of thatched cottages are scattered around the village.

Little Dunmow was the original home of the Flitch Trials which now take place in Great Dunmow every four years. The ancient Flitch of bacon custom rewarded a couple who had been married in church and remained 'unregreted' for a year and a day, with a flitch of bacon. The claimants had to swear an oath kneeling on two sharp pointed stones in the churchyard. They were then carried through the village to be acclaimed. In later years they were carried in the Flitch Chair, thought to be made from pew ends from the Priory Church. The original kneeling stones and 15C Flitch chair can still be seen within the church. The last recorded Priory trial was held in 1751 but the custom was revived in Victorian times following the 1854 publication of the novel "The flitch of bacon" by William Harrison Ainsworth

In the last Flitch trials held on 12th July 2008, four couples were awarded the bacon. The next Flitch trial will be held on 14th July 2012.

DUNMOW, LITTLE (St. Mary), a parish, in the union and hundred of Dunmow, N. division of Essex, 2¼ miles (E. S. E.) from Great Dunmow; containing 385 inhabitants. It is celebrated for an ancient custom connected with the manor of Little Dunmow, of delivering a gammon, or flitch of bacon, on demand to any couple who, after having been married a year and a day, will swear that neither party has repented, and that no cause of quarrel or complaint has arisen between them. Before the Reformation the oath used to be administered, and the bacon given, by the prior of the convent; and since, the ceremony has been occasionally performed at a court baron before the steward of the manor. The institution of the custom is supposed to have taken place soon after the Norman Conquest, but the earliest instance on record of the delivery of the bacon, is in the 23rd of Henry VI., and the latest in 1751; and the whole number of successful claimants is said to have been but six couples. The living is a perpetual curacy, net income, £72; patron, the Rev. W. Toke; impropriator, E. Knight, Esq., whose tithes have been commuted for £515. 18. The church consists only of the south aisle and part of the nave of a church that belonged to a priory of Augustine canons founded in 1104, the revenue of which, at the Dissolution, was £173. 2. 4. Under an arched recess in the south wall is a coffin-shaped tomb, supposed to be that of Lady Juga, sister of Ralph Baynard, foundress of the priory; near it is a monument with the figures of an armed knight and his lady, thought to have been erected for Sir Walter Fitz-Walter, who died in 1198; and on the opposite side of the church is a monument with a female figure in alabaster, said to represent Matilda Fitz-Walter, famous in legendary story as the wife or mistress of Robin Hood, and the object of the illicit passion of King John, who is stated to have caused her to be poisoned, in revenge for having rejected his addresses.

From: 'Dundon - Dunsden', A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 102-105. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50930&amp;amp;strquery=dunmow Date accessed: 18 February 2011.

The town is part of the Uttlesford district of Essex County Council for local government administrative purposes.

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
Contributor: Include here information for parish registers, Bishop’s Transcripts, non conformist and other types of church records, such as parish chest records. Add the contact information for the office holding the original records. Add links to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection

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
Dunmow Poor Law Union,Essex

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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