Writtle, Essex Genealogy

England   Essex   Essex Parishes



Parish History
Writtle All Saints is an Ancient Parish in the county of Essex. Highwood, Essex is a chapelry of Writtle.

The Domesday Book mentioning a church and priest in Writtle suggests that Christian worship in the village pre-dated the Norman Conquest; the early 13th century nave and chancel seem to be extensions of an 11th century construction which itself replaced a Saxon church. During the mediaeval period, the church "changed hands" several times, revenues being received by the Prior of Bermondsey in the 12th century, and then by the Hospital of the Holy Ghost in Rome from the early 13th; the turbulent reign of Richard II saw the church being seized by the king, eventually coming under the control of William of Wykeham's New College, Oxford in 1399.

The church has twice suffered arson attacks in recent history - the first in 1974, the second in 1991.

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.

WRITTLE (All Saints), a parish, and formerly a market-town, in the union and hundred of Chelmsford, S. division of Essex, 2½ miles (W. by S.) from Chelmsford; containing 2521 inhabitants. Morant and other writers have placed here the Cæsaromagus of Antoninus. The remains of a royal palace, built by King John in 1211, and which occupied an acre of ground surrounded by a deep moat, are still visible. The place has been long divested of the greater part of its trade by the rising importance of the town of Chelmsford; but malting and brewing are still carried on, and there is an oil-mill in the vicinity. Courts leet and baron are held, and the inhabitants have the privilege of appointing their own coroner. The parish is the most extensive in the county, comprising 8410 acres, of which 163 are common or waste. It abounds with every variety of surface and scenery; the soil is generally fertile, much of it adapted for wheat, and hops of good quality are grown in several parts. The living is a vicarage, with the donative of Roxwell annexed; net income, £718; patrons and impropriators, the Warden and Fellows of New College, Oxford. The great tithes have been commuted for £2300, and the vicarial for £572. 10. The church is an ancient and spacious structure, with a massive square tower surmounted by a lantern turret, and contains numerous elegant and interesting monuments. A chapel was erected in the Highwood Quarter, and consecrated in Oct. 1842: it is built of red brick, is in the early English style, and cost £1200. There is a place of worship for Independents. Almshouses for six people were endowed with land now producing £55 per annum, by Thomas Hawkins, in 1607; and John Blencowe, in 1774, founded a school with an income of £82 per annum, of which two-thirds are given to the parish of Writtle, and the remainder to that of Roxwell. About four miles north-east of the church, in the middle of a wood, a hermitage was founded in the reign of Stephen, which in that of Henry II. was attached to St. John's Abbey, Colchester.

From: Samuel A. Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 695-698. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51433&amp;strquery=writtle Date accessed: 22 February 2011

The estate and village were later a possession of Isabel de Brus (Bruce), via a grant of Henry III and a known residence of her grandson Robert, father to the future king.[7][8] For a time thereafter it was leased to a Francis and Joan Bache, but the estate was taken by Isabel's great-grandson, Robert The Bruce, King of Scots, in the 1320s. It was in Writtle in 1302 that Robert had married his second wife, Elizabeth de Burgh; there is some evidence to suggest he was also born in the village rather than in Turnberry Castle, but the story is possibly conflated with that of his father of the same name.

Another well known historic figure who lived in Writtle was Sir John Petre (1549–1613). He sat as a Member of Parliament for Essex from 1584 to 1587 and also served as Lord Lieutenant of Essex. In 1603 he was raised to the peerage as Baron John Petre, the first baron of Writtle. Baron Petre publicly acknowledged that he was a Roman Catholic and refused to follow the Church of England during the time of Queen Elizabeth I and King James I. He died in October 1613, aged 63, and was succeeded in the barony by his son William, who later married Katherine Somerset. One person from Writtle who did help to bring about the English Reformation was Dr. John Bastwick (1593–1654), a religious zealot who opposed Roman Catholic ceremonial in the years before the outbreak of the English Civil War.

The village and civil parish area mile west of Chelmsford and for administraive purposes part of Colchester Borough and District in Essex County Council.

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
Contributor: Include here information for parish registers, Bishop’s Transcripts, non conformist and other types of church records, such as parish chest records. Add the contact information for the office holding the original records. Add links to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection

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

Census records
Contributor: Include an overview if there is any unique information, such as the census for X year was destroyed. Add a link to online sites for indexes and/or images. Also add a link to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection.

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
Chelmsford Poor Law Union, Essex

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

Web sites
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