Putney, Surrey Genealogy

England   Surrey   Surrey Parishes

Parish History
PUTNEY (St. Mary), a parish, in the union of Wandsworth and Clapham, W. division of the hundred of Brixton, E. division of Surrey, 4 miles (S. W.) from London; containing, with the hamlet of Roehampton, 4684 inhabitants. In Domesday book this place is styled Putelei, and it was subsequently called Puttenheath, or Pottenheath, since contracted into its present name. The village is situated on the southern bank of the Thames, opposite to Fulham, with which it is connected by a wooden bridge; it is lighted with gas, partly paved, and well supplied with water. Queen Elizabeth was a frequent visiter here at the house of a Mr. Lacy, who also had the honour to entertain James I. a short time before his coronation. During the civil war in the reign of Charles I., a bridge of boats was constructed across the Thames, and forts were erected on each side of the river, by order of the Earl of Essex, on the retreat of the royalists to Kingston, after the battle of Brentford; and in 1647, the head-quarters of the army under Cromwell were fixed at Putney, while the king was a prisoner at Hampton Court. An ancient ferry over the Thames at this place is mentioned in Domesday book, as yielding to the lord of the manor of Wimbledon a toll of twenty shillings per annum: in 1729, the bridge was erected, in pursuance of an act of parliament, at an expense of £16,000, subscribed by 30 shareholders, who purchased the ferry for £8000. The Richmond railway has a station here. On Putney Heath, to the south of the village, is an obelisk erected by the corporation of London, with an inscription commemorating the experiments made in 1776, by David Hartley, to prove the efficacy of a method of building houses fire-proof, for the trial of which he had in 1774 obtained a grant from parliament of £2500. The College of Civil-Engineers at Putney was founded in 1840, for the purpose of affording sound instruction in the theory and practice of civilengineering and architecture, and in all those branches of science and learning which are adapted to the present advanced state of society, and constitute an education that fits the student for any pursuit or profession. The living is a perpetual curacy; net income, £362; patrons and appropriators, the Dean and Chapter of Worcester. The church, founded as a chapel of ease to Wimbledon, was rebuilt about the reign of Henry VII., and in 1836 was again rebuilt, and the old tower restored, at an expense of £7000, defrayed by subscription, a rate, and a grant of £400 from the Incorporated Society. It is in the later English style, with the small chantry chapel (originally erected by Nicholas West, Bishop of Ely) removed from the east end of the south aisle, and rebuilt at the east end of the north side, the old style being preserved. At Roehampton is a separate incumbency. There is a place of worship for Independents. In 1684, Thomas Martyn bequeathed lands for the foundation and support of a charity school for twenty boys, sons of watermen; and by a decree of the court of chancery in 1715, the property was vested in trustees: the income is about £270. An almshouse for twelve men and women, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, was erected by Sir Abraham Dawes, who by will in 1639 endowed it with a rent-charge of £40, which subsequent benefactions have increased to £127 per annum. The proprietors of the bridge distribute £31 per annum to watermen, and watermen's widows and children; and the parish receives benefit from Henry Smith's and other charities. Putney was the birthplace of Bishop West, already mentioned; of Thomas Cromwell, made Earl of Essex by Henry VIII.; and of Edward Gibbon, the celebrated author of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, who was born in 1737. John Toland, a noted free-thinking writer, died at Putney, in 1722, and was interred in the churchyard; and Robert Wood, under secretary of state, who published The Ruins of Palmyra, and other curious archæological works, was interred in the new burialground, in 1771. William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, died at a house on Putney Heath.

From: Samuel A. Lewis, A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 621-623. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51226 Date accessed: 26 January 2011.

Civil Registration
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Church records
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Census records
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Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Surrey 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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