Shenley, Hertfordshire Genealogy

England   Hertfordshire   Hertfordshire Parishes

Parish History
SHENLEY (St. Botolph), a parish, in the union of Barnet, hundred of Dacorum, county of Hertford, 6 miles (N. W.) from Barnet; containing 1220 inhabitants. This parish, the name of which, anciently Sheenley, is descriptive of its beautiful pasture lands, comprises 4056 acres, whereof 119 are common or waste. The scenery is generally of pleasing character, and enlivened with several handsome seats and numerous picturesque villas, among the former of which is Porters, once the property of the gallant Admiral Earl Howe. The substratum is principally chalk, which is extensively used for dressing the land; flints and gravel are abundant, and are used for repairing the roads. The village is on an eminence; some few of the cottagers are employed in the straw-plat manufacture. A small fair is annually held, chiefly for pleasure. The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at-£16. 8. 1½., and in the gift of the Rev. T. Newcome, the rector, in whose family both the patronage and the incumbency have remained in direct succession from the 1st of the reign of Elizabeth: the tithes have been commuted for £1189, and the glebe comprises 30 acres, with a rectory-house. The church is built of flints, with a wooden tower on the south side. Being inconveniently situated in a distant part of the parish, the present rector built a chapel of ease in the village, in 1840. There is a place of worship for Wesleyans, A chapel is supposed to have stood on a moated site in the park belonging to the house called Colney Chapel. Nicholas Hawksmoor, the architect, died at Shenley in 1727; and the Rev. Peter Newcome, rector of the parish, and who was author of the History of the Abbey of St. Albans, was interred here in the year 1797.

From: Lewis, Samuel A., A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848)

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

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 Hertfordshire 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
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