Barking, Essex Genealogy

England   Essex   Essex Parishes



Parish History
BARKING (St. Margaret), a parish, and formerly a market-town, in the union of Romford, hundred of Becontree, S. division of Essex, 23 miles (S. W.) from Chelmsford, and 7 (N. E.) from London; containing 8718 inhabitants, of whom 3751 are in the town of Barking, exclusively of 987 men and boys engaged in the fishery, who were at sea at the time of the enumeration. The name of this place, formerly written Berking, is by some deduced from the Saxon words Beorce, a birch-tree, and Ing, a meadow; by others from Berg-Ing, signifying a fortification in the meadows, probably from an ancient intrenchment about a quarter of a mile on the road to Ilford, of which there are still considerable vestiges. The town derived its early importance from a very extensive and distinguished abbey, founded in 670, by Erkenwald, Bishop of London, for nuns of the Benedictine order, and dedicated to the Virgin Mary, which was governed by a long succession of abbesses, of whom many were of noble, and some of royal, descent. In 870, Barking was burnt by the Danes, the abbey destroyed, and many of the nuns were massacred, and the rest dispersed; but the abbey was afterwards rebuilt, about the year 970, by Edgar, whose queen, Elfrida, presided over it after his decease; and at the Dissolution its revenue amounted to £1084. 6. 2¾. Soon after the Conquest, William retired to the town, till the completion of the Tower of London, which he was then building to keep the citizens in subjection; and here he was visited, during the preparations for his coronation, by Edwin, Earl of Mercia, and Morcar, Earl of Northumberland, with many of the English nobles, who swore fealty to him on the restoration of their estates. The town is situated on the small river Roding, which, after flowing in two branches, unites with the Thames about two miles below: it is lighted with gas, by a company recently formed. The inhabitants are principally occupied in the fishery; a number of vessels sail to the Dutch and Scottish coasts, and, on their return, the fish is forwarded to Billingsgate in smaller vessels. There is a convenient wharf at Barking creek, which is navigable to Ilford for vessels of eighty tons' burthen, by which the neighbourhood is supplied with coal and timber; and near it is a large flour-mill, formerly belonging to the abbey. A fair is held on Oct. 22nd. The upper part of the building which was formerly the market-house, is appropriated to the purpose of a town-hall: attached to it is a small prison. The parish comprises a considerable portion of Hainault forest, and is divided into four wards, namely, Barking Town, Ripple, Great Ilford, and Chadwell: it is seven miles in length from north to south, and about four in breadth from east to west. The lands are fertile and highly cultivated, and many hundred acres in the vicinity are appropriated to the cultivation of potatoes for the London market. The living is a vicarage, valued in the king's books at £19. 8. 11½.; net income, about £900; patrons and impropriators, the Warden and Fellows of All Souls' College, Oxford. The church is a handsome structure, with a lofty tower of stone; it consists of a nave, a south aisle, two north aisles, and a chancel, and contains some ancient monuments. The [Independent, Quaker and Roman Catholic--St Patrick] dissenters have...places of worship. Of the conventual buildings of the abbey there now remains only the gateway, over which is the chapel of the Holy Rood: the arch is finely pointed, and enriched with deeply receding mouldings: above is a canopied niche under a fine window of three lights, the whole forming a square embattled tower, with an octagonal turret at one of the angles. It is called the Fire-bell gate, from its having anciently contained the curfew. Among the ruins of the abbey have been found a fibula and a gold ring, on which were engraved the Salutation of the Virgin, and the letters I. M."

From: Lewis, Samuel A., A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848). URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50777

Barking is an Ancient Parish and a market town in the county of Essex. Other places in the parish include: Barking Town, Ripple, and Chadwell. Other churches under Barking Parish were erected at (Great) Ilford in 1831, now an ecclesiastical parish; and at Aldborough-Hatch (1846) and Barking-Side (1840), and a chapel attached to St. Mary's Hospital, Ilford.

The Ancient Parish church of St Margaret was built in the grounds of St Mary's Abbey, which was founded by Benedictine Nuns around 666, but dissolved by Henry VIII in 1541. Captain James Cook married Elizabeth Batts in the Church on 21 December 1762.

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.

Barking was a large ancient parish of 12,307 acres in the Becontree hundred of Essex. It was divided into the wards of Chadwell, Ilford, Ripple and Town. A local board was formed for Town ward in 1882 and it was extended to cover Ripple ward in 1885. In 1888 Ilford and Chadwell were split off as a new parish of Ilford, leaving a residual parish of 3,814 acres.The parish became Barking Town Urban District in 1894 and the local board became an urban district council. The urban district was incorporated as the Municipal Borough of Barking in 1931. It was abolished in 1965 and split with the majority merged with the former area of the Municipal Borough of Dagenham to form the London Borough of Barking. Barking land that was west of the River Roding, which included part of Beckton, became part of the London Borough of Newham. In 1980 the London Borough of Barking was renamed Barking and Dagenham.

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 includes images for the town churches including St Margaret. See also

St Alban baptisms and Marriages,St Erkenwald, St Patrick (formerly the Church of the Ascension) St Paul

Barking Congregational Church, Barking Hospital Upney Lane,Barking meeting (Society of Friends) Bishop's Transcripts burials in parish churchyard, Shaftesbury Society Greatfields Hall, King Edward's Road marriages,

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
Romford 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
Contributor: Add any relevant sites that aren’t mentioned above.