Esher, Surrey Genealogy

England   Surrey

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Parish History
ESHER (St. George), a parish, in the union, and partly in the hundred, of Kingston, E. division, but chiefly in the Second division of the hundred of Elmbridge, W. division, of Surrey, 3¾ miles (S. W.) from Kingston: containing 1261 inhabitants. It comprises 2075 acres, whereof 799 are pasture, 407 arable, and the remainder chiefly gardens and houses: the soil is principally sand, but with a mixture of sand and some clay. In this parish are situated the mansions of Claremont and Esher Place. The former, well known as the seat of the Princess Charlotte, is the property of the King of the Belgians; it was frequently the residence of the Queen in her younger days, and has been occasionally since Her Majesty's accession to the throne. The latter was the place to which Cardinal Wolsey retired when he fell into disgrace, but there are no remains of his palace, with the exception of the gateway flanked with towers, which forms an exceedingly picturesque object from the grounds. The scenery is highly interesting, being enriched with mansions and seats of the first order. There is a fair for horses on September 4th. A station on the London and South-Western railway is situated near the village. The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £9. 18. 4.; net income, £400; patron, Henry John Pye, Esq., who appoints, if possible, a kinsman of the founder of Wadham College, Oxford. The church is neatly fitted up, and contains at the east end a highly finished painting of Our Saviour by Sir Robert Ker Porter, who presented it to the parish in 1837, and whose mother was for some time a resident here. Adjoining Esher Common, an hospital or priory was founded in the reign of Henry II., the site of which is now called Sandon Farm.

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel A. Lewis (1848), pp. 181-186. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50950 Date accessed: 18 November 2010.

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 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.

Maps and Gazetteers
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 * England Jurisdictions 1851
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Web sites
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