St Paul Covent Garden, Middlesex Genealogy

England   Middlesex   Middlesex Parishes

Parish History
St Paul Covent Garden, the church of, is situated on the western side of Covent Garden Market, and was erected by the Earl of Bedford, as a chapel of ease to St Martin in the Fields, for the convenience of his neighbouring tenantry, which were then much on the increase. It is in the form of a Vitruvian Tuscan temple, and was designed by Inigo Jones. it 1638, as appears from a manuscript in the Harleian collection at the British museum, printed in the Gentleman's Magazine of November, 1789, a dispute had arisen between the above named earl and the vicar of St Martin in the Fields, relative to the right of patronage to this newly built church, and that is was heard before teh Privy Council, who determined that it should be a chapel of ease to St Martin's, till an act of parliament should be passed to  make it parochial... In 1645, the precinct of Covent Garden was separated from the parish of St Martin, and made parochial, by an ordinance of the Lords and Commons, sitting at Westminster; but, being considered an illegal ordinance, an act of parliament was obtained immediately after the restoration of Charles II, in 1660, by which the patronage was vested in the Earl of Bedford and his heirs forever.

The church was built by Inigo Jones, by direction of the earl, as a mere barn... The walls were of brick, but were cased with stone about the year 1788... In 1795, the roof and interior was consumed by fire, which have been since substantially repaired and reinstated by the late Thomas Hardwick, Esq.

By the before-mentioned act, the patron has the privilege of nominating one of the churchwardens, the rector another and the parishioners elect a third. The church is by the same authority, a rectory, in the county and archdeaconry of Middlesex, in the diocese of London and in the patronage of the Duke of Bedford.

Adapted from: A Topograhpical Dictionary of London by James Elmes; published 1831

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 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.

Maps and Gazetteers
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 * England Jurisdictions 1851
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Web sites
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