White Colne, Essex Genealogy

England   Essex   Essex Parishes



Parish History
White Colne St Andrew (formerly All Saints) is an Ancient Parish in Essex.

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.

The church of ST. ANDREW, formerly ALL SAINTS, comprises chancel, aisleless nave with south porch and south vestry, and west tower. The late 11th-century church seems to have consisted only of the nave, which has Roman brick quoins, and the chancel. It was remodelled in the 14th-century when a west tower and spire were added, and windows and the chancel arch replaced. A south porch was recorded in 1622. The chancel was out of repair in 1584 and 1589, but neither the vicar nor the farmer of the rectory would accept responsibility for it. The nave also needed repair in 1607, and in 1707 the church was very dilapidated. By c. 1730 the spire and top of the tower had fallen down. The church was thoroughly repaired c. 1760. A vestry had been made under the tower by 1840, and a small gallery was erected in 1846. Between 1866 and 1872 the church was so thoroughly restored, to plans by C. J. Moxon, that little of the original work remained. The tower appears to have been almost entirely rebuilt; in the nave and chancel plaster ceilings were removed, walls were repaired, all the window tracery was replaced, and the south porch was completely rebuilt. A vestry, added on the south side of the chancel, had to be rebuilt in 1890. Traces of the 15th-century wall paintings of stars and fleursdelis discovered in 1869 remained in 1922 but had disappeared by 1949. Three modern niches in the east wall of the nave, behind the pulpit, may replace a reredos for a medieval nave altar; a single, Perpendicular, niche survives to the south of the chancel arch. In the chancel are a 14th-century piscina and aumbry. The 17th-century pulpit is a composite piece, incorporating probably Continental carvings of St. James the Great, St. Augustine of Hippo, and the Virgin and Child; it was in the church before 1866 and may have been introduced at the c. 1760 restoration. The font was apparently replaced c. 1760 and again in 1870. The 3 bells in the church c. 1548 were later 'exchanged' with those of Earls Colne. By c. 1730 there was only one bell. A treble was added in 1878 and the earlier bell was recast in 1880. The treble was stolen in 1971. The plate includes a silver cup of 1563 with a slightly later paten cover, another paten of 1789 given by M. R. Hills of Colne Park, Colne Engaine, and a silver salver of 1746. The churchyard was extended in 1891 and 1966; the lych gate was erected in 1923 in memory of Harris and Mary Hills of Berwick Hall.

From: 'White Colne: Church', A History of the County of Essex: Volume 10: Lexden Hundred (Part) including Dedham, Earls Colne and Wivenhoe (2001), pp. 136-138. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=15205&amp;amp;strquery=white colne Date accessed: 17 February 2011.

White Colne is a village and civil parish in the Braintree District of Essex County Council for local government purposes. It is on the north side of the River Colne, opposite Earls Colne, and on the Colchester road, 4 miles East South East of Halstead. It traces its history back to the Domesday Book and beyond.

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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Online images are available Seax - Essex Archives Online From the Essex Record Office

Census records
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Index for the Census may be searched at FamilySearch Historical Records

http://www.1881pubs.com/ for details of public houses in the 1881 census

Poor Law Unions
Halstead Poor Law Union, Essex

Courts, probably with view of frankpledge, were being held for Berwick Hall manor by c. 1500. Seventeenth century courts elected a constable and presumably tasters of bread and of ale. They dealt with the usual range of minor offences, amercing tenants for encroaching on the waste, taking in lodgers, and failing to scour ditches; a man was presented c. 1656 for allowing mangy horses to pasture on the common. Courts leet ceased c. 1735. Courts baron continued, their business confined to recording transfers of copyhold, until 1868 or later. Inglesthorpe and Bart Hall manors had no courts c. 1730, nor is there any earlier record of such courts. No records of vestry government survive from before 1836. In the mid and later 19th century the vestry met in the church vestry or at the King's Head and was usually chaired by one of the churchwardens. Attendance was often poor; in 1859 and 1863 no parishioners attended the Easter meeting. A salaried surveyor was appointed in 1837 and a salaried assistant overseer in 1842. Expenditure on the poor between 1776 and 1834, although usually lower than average for the hundred, was comparatively high per head of population. Total expenditure was £77 in 1776 and, unusually, fell between 1783 and 1785 to an average of £74. By 1803 expenditure per head, £1 12s. 11d., was one of the highest in the hundred. Expenditure fell from £342 or £1 9s. 4d. a head in 1813 to £218 in 1815 and 1816, then rose to £452 or £1 10s. 4d. a head in 1818. It remained between £350 and £450 a year for much of the 1820s, but rose to £567 or £1 9s. 6d. a head, one of the highest per capita expenditures in the hundred, in 1830, and remained high until 1834. The presumably unendowed 'almshouses', two in the former glebe house and one at Wenthouses, recorded in the earlier 18th century were probably used as pauper housing. One may have become the workhouse which was in use in 1803 but disused by 1813. The town house which the vestry sold in 1840 may have been the house at Wenthouses.

From: 'White Colne: Local government', A History of the County of Essex: Volume 10: Lexden Hundred (Part) including Dedham, Earls Colne and Wivenhoe (2001), pp. 135-136. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=15204&amp;amp;strquery=white colne Date accessed: 17 February 2011.

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
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Web sites
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