East Donyland, Essex Genealogy

England Essex  Essex Parishes  East Donyland

Guide to East Donyland, Essex ancestry, family history, and genealogy. Parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
East Donyland or Donyland (East), is a parish in Lexden district, Essex; it is on the river Colne, at the influx of the river Roman, it is adjacent to the Wivenhoe railway, 3 1/2 miles SSE of Colchester.

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
 parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

Poor Law Unions
Lexden and Winstree Poor Law Union, Essex

No records of vestry government survive. Two overseers of the poor were recorded in 1655 but only one in 1737. There was a surveyor of the highways in 1608. In 1650 the inhabitants were presented at quarter sessions for failing to maintain their roads. In 1642 the poor seafarers of East Donyland needed help to maintain their poor. A poor rate in 1737 raised £22 15s., but the overseer spent £23 9s. 6d. In 1776 expenditure on the poor was £82 11s., but between 1783 and 1785 it aver- aged only £47 3s. 4d. In the earlier 19th century expenditure per head of population was in most years the lowest in the hundred. Total expendi- ture reached £269, roughly 12s. 8d. per head of population in 1813, but fell to £231 or c. 10s. 3d. a head in 1815. The number of people relieved declined in the same period from 32 to 26. Expenditure rose fairly steadily to £383 14s. or 14s. a head in 1819 before falling to £212 10s. or 7s. 6d. a head in 1821. It rose slightly in the 1820s and early 1830s, reaching £403 or 11s. 8d. a head in 1833. Daniel Bayley of Newmarket (Cambs.) in 1754 surrendered to the churchwardens and overseers for the use of the poor a house which was apparently used as pauper housing until it was sold in 1838.

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
Maps are a visual look at the locations in England. Gazetteers contain brief summaries about a place.


 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain