Brooke, Rutland Genealogy

England   Rutland

Parish History
Brooke St Peter was formed as a chapelry of Oakham, Rutland Ancient Parish.

BROOKE (St. Peter), a parish, in the union and soke of Oakham, county of Rutland, 3 miles (S. S. W.) from Oakham; containing 113 inhabitants. A small priory for Canons Regular of the order of St. Augustine was founded here by Hugh Ferrars, in the time of Richard I., as a cell to the monastery of Kenilworth in Warwickshire, and dedicated to the Blessed Virgin: the revenue, in the 26th of Henry VIII., was valued at £43. 13. 4. Only an archway and a porter's lodge now remain, and the latter has been converted into a dovecote. The parish comprises by computation 1300 acres: the soil is a mixed red loam, alternated with a cold tenacious clay; the surface is hilly, and the lower grounds are watered by the river Gwash, which flows near the village. The living is annexed, with that of Langham, to the vicarage of Oakham.

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 400-405. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50835 Date accessed: 11 May 2011.

In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Brooke like this:

BROOKE, a parish in Oakham district, Rutland; on the river Gwash, near the Syston and Peterborough railway, 2½ miles SSW of Oakham. Post Town, Oakham. Acres, 1,560. Real property, £2,174. Pop., 112. Houses, 22. A small Augustinian priory was founded here, in the time of Richard I., by Hugh Ferrers; made subordinate to the monastery of Kenilworth; and given, at the dissolution, to Anthony Cooper. The living is a vicarage, annexed to the vicarage of Oakham, in the diocese of Peterborough. Charities, £17.

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
Deposited records are found at the Leicester and Rutland Record Office

Contact: The Record Office Telephone: 0116 2571080 Fax: 0116 2571120 E-mail: recordoffice@leics.gov.uk

Diocese of Peterborough : Brooke Bap 1576 - 1996 Marr 1582 – 1836 (Banns to 1984) Bur 1574 - 1996

Contributor: Include here information for parish registers, Bishop’s Transcripts 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

Census records
Contributor: Include an overview if there is any unique information, such as the census for X year was destroyed. Add a link to online sites for indexes and/or images. Also add a link to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection.

Poor Law Unions
Oakham Poor Law Union, Rutland

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Rutland 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
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
Contributor: Add any relevant sites that aren’t mentioned above.