Halstead, Essex Genealogy

England   Essex   Essex Parishes

Parish History
Halstead St Andrew is an Ancient parish in the market town of Halstead. The later district church is Halstead Holy Trinity, Essex The town is situated in the Colne Valley, and originally developed on the hill to the north of the river. The name Halstead is said to have derived from the Old English hald (refuge, shelter, healthy) and stede (site, place or farm), meaning 'healthy farm' 'safe place' or 'place of refuge'.

The diocese of Chelmsford was created in 1914, prior to this Essex parishes were in the jurisdiction of the Bishops of London until 1845 when they transferred to the diocese of Rochester. The diocese of Chelmsford has 474 parishes and 600 churches and is the second largest region in the church of England outside London.

HALSTEAD (St. Andrew), a market-town and parish, and the head of a union, in the hundred of Hinckford, N. division of Essex, 17½ miles (N. N. E.) from Chelmsford, and 47 (N. E.) from London; containing 5710 inhabitants. This town is pleasantly situated on a gentle acclivity rising from the river Colne, and on the road from London to Norwich, through Bury St. Edmund's; it consists chiefly of one spacious street, containing some handsome and wellbuilt houses, is lighted with gas, and supplied with water from springs. In the reign of Elizabeth, many of the French Protestants being violently persecuted in their own country, fled to England, and, settling at Halstead and Colchester, introduced the manufacture of baize and says, now discontinued. Large silk-crape mills were established in 1825, on the site of a flour-mill, and employ about 800 persons, mostly females. An act was passed in 1846, for effecting railway communication with Colchester. A market for corn is held on Tuesday; and there are cattle-fairs on May 6th and October 29th. Courts leet and baron take place about once a year, by the lord of the manor; and the petty-sessions for the division of South Hinckford are held here on alternate Tuesdays. The powers of the county debt-court of Halstead, established in 1847, extend over the greater part of the registration-district of Halstead. There is a house of correction, in which is a tread-mill. The parish comprises 5632a. 1r. 14p., of which 4176a. 2r. 15p. are arable, 854a. 2r. 7p. pasture, 250 acres woodland and plantations, and about 70 appropriated to the cultivation of hops: there are numerous handsome seats. The living is a vicarage, valued in the king's books at £17; patron, the Bishop of London; appropriators, the Dean and Chapter, and Vicars Choral, of St. Paul's Cathedral, under whom the great tithes are held on lease by J. G. Sparrow, Esq., and have been commuted for £1350; the vicarial tithes have been commuted for £470, and the glebe comprises 5 acres. The church is a spacious edifice, in the later English style, except the chancel, which is in the decorated style; its spire is of wood, and occupies the place of one destroyed by lightning about 90 years ago. It contains many ancient monuments, brasses, and inscriptions; and probably belonged to a college of priests, founded here in the 14th of Edward IV., and the revenue of which, at the Dissolution, was £26. 5. 8. A district parish, named the Holy Trinity, was constituted in October 1844, under the act 6th and 7th Victoria, cap. 37; it comprises part of the town, from which it extends nearly two miles. The church is a very handsome and spacious edifice in the early English style, with a spire 150 feet in height, and cost about £5000. The living is a perpetual curacy, endowed by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners with £150 per annum, and in the patronage of the Bishop of London. At Greenstead-Green is a district church, dedicated to St. James, which was consecrated in Oct. 1845. It is a beautiful structure in the same style, built at the expense of Mrs. Gee, of Colne House, on a site presented by Mrs. Brewster, and has a tower which forms a conspicuous object for miles round; the fittings-up of the interior are exceedingly good, and at the east end is a window of stained glass. The total cost, including the endowment, schools, and parsonage, amounting to £8000, was defrayed by Mrs. Gee. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Bishop of Rochester. There are places of worship for Baptists, the Society of Friends, and Independents. A free grammar school, founded by Lady Ramsey in 1594, is endowed with a rent-charge of £20, and a house for the master. The family of Martin, in 1573, left lands producing £130 per annum, and Mrs. Holmes, in 1783, £4000 three per cents., for the benefit of the poor. The union comprises 16 parishes or places, and contains a population of 17,691. Thomas Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury in the reign of Edward IV., a distinguished patron of literature, was a native of Halstead.

From: Samuel A. Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 379-383. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50999&amp;amp;strquery=Halstead+St Andrew Date accessed: 16 February 2011.

Halstead is a town and civil parish located in Braintree District of Essex, England, near Colchester and Sudbury.

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
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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 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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