St Mary Le Strand, Middlesex Genealogy

Guide to St Mary Le Strand, Middlesex ancestry, family history, and genealogy: Parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
St. Mary-le-Strand with the Duchy of Lancaster is a parish, in the city and liberty of Westminster. The patron is the Crown. It is a parish in the Strand Poor Law Union, the Precinct of the Savoy, and the Liberty of the Rolls.

St. John the Baptist, Savoy is a parish, in the city and liberty of Westminster. The patron is the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

STRAND, a district in Middlesex; forming part of the metropolis, immediately W of Temple Bar; cut into four sub-districts, and containing St. Anne-Soho, St. Paul-Covent-Garden, St. Mary-le-Strand, and St. Clement-Danes parishes, and St. John-Baptist-Savoy precinct. The places of worship, in 1851, were nine of the Church of England, two of Independents, two of Baptists, one of Welsh Calvinistic Methodists, one of Lutherans, one of Roman Catholics, one of Jews.

'St Mary-le-Strand, the church of, is situated in the middle of the Strand opposite the south end of Drury Lane, and nearly opposite Somerset House.



'The original church belonging to this parish is mentioned so early as 1222, when it was called St Mary, and the Innocents of the Strand. It then stood in a spacious church yard, on the south side of the Strand, where the eastern wing of Somerset House is now built; but was taken down, as is mentioned in the preceding article [see St Mary Staining], and that of St John the Baptist, in the Savoy, (see those articles,) by order of Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, to make way for his palace, named after him, Somerset House. The parishioners used the chapel of St John aforesaid, till the act of parliament passed for erecting the fifty new churches, when the first stone of this building was laid on the 25th of Feb. 1714, and was finished and consecrated on the 1st Jan. 1723, when instead of its ancient name, it was called St Mary-le-Strand. This church was the first of the fifty new churches, and was erected from the designs of James Gibbs, architect, to the church of St Martin in the Fields.

'The church is a rectory, in the diocese of London, in the county and archdeaconry of London, in the county and archdeaconry of Middlesex, and in the patronage of the Lord Chancellor.'

Church records
St Mary Le Strand parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

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


 * Records are also available at the London Metropolitan Archives.

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.

1634-1900 Rate Books

 * Westminster Rate Books at findmypast - (£).

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
The Westminster, Poor Law and Parish Administration collection at findmypast includes:


 * 1639-1644 - St Mary le Strand, Admissions
 * 1639-1645 - St Mary le Strand, Paupers
 * 1739-1799 - St Mary le Strand, Apprentice records

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

Websites

 * St Mary le Strand (official website). Tips for family historians, history, photographs, visitor directions.
 * St Mary Le Strand on GENUKI