Stepney St Dunstan, Middlesex Genealogy

Guide to Stepney St Dunstan, Middlesex ancestry, family history, and genealogy: Parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
STEPNEY (St. Dunstan and All Saints), a parish, and the head of a union, in the Tower division of the hundred of Ossulstone, county of Middlesex, 2½ miles E from St. Paul's Cathedral, London. The parish includes also the hamlets of Mile-End New Town, Mile-End Old Town, and Ratcliffe. There are places of worship for Baptists, the Society of Friends, the Connexion of the Countess of Huntingdon, Calvinistic Methodists, and Roman Catholics, and three meeting-houses for Independents.

St Dunstan Stepney, the [parish] church of, is situated between Whitehorse Lane, Commercial Road, and Stepney Green. Stepney is a very ancient village, and was formerly a considerable distance from London. Stow mentions, that in 1299 a parliament was held at the house of Henry Wallies, Mayor of London, who resided in this village, and here Edward I confirmed the great charter of liberty. It was originally one of the largest parishes in England, and contained within its boundaries, what are now the parishes of St Marylebone, at Stratford, St Mary, Whitechapel, St Anne, Limehouse, St John Wapping, St Paul, Shadwell, St George, Ratcliffe Highway, Christ Church, Spitalfields, and St Matthew, Bethnal Green. All these parishes have been separated from it, yet it still remains one of the largest within the Bills of Mortality, as it still contains the hamlets of Mile-End Old and New, Ratcliffe and Poplar.

At what period this ancient church was built is not at present known, but it appears to be a relic of the architecture of the fourteenth century. There was a church here so long ago as the time of the Saxons, when it was called the church of All Saints, and we read of the Manor of Stiben Heath, under the reign of William the Norman; when the church changed its name does not appear. it is a large structure, consisting of a chancel, a nave, and two aisles. At the west end is a plain tower, containing a peal of twelve bells.

For a considerable number of years this parish largely served as the apparent parish of choice of many merchant maritime and sailors of the Royal Navy. It is a rectory, in the county of Middlesex, in the diocese of London, is exempt from any archdeaconry... There are numerous additional chapels attached to this parish (see the link above--"A List of District Churches and Chapels...)"

Places of worship were built for the Quakers (the Society of Friends), the New Connexion of the Countess of Huntingdon, Calvinistic Methodists, for Baptists, Roman Catholics, and three meeting-houses for Independents.

The "Victoria County History"' of Stepney (1998) is available online. It includes chapters on manors, estates, economic history, local government, churches, Roman Catholicism, Protestant nonconformity, and charities for the poor.

See A List of District Churches and Chapels of Ease In Stepney Parish.

Church records
Early vestry minutes have been published:


 * Hill, G.W. and W.H. Frere. Memorials of Stepney Parish; That is to Say The Vestry Minutes from 1579 to 1662 ... To Which is Appended a Reprint of Gascoyne's Map of the Parish, 1703. Guildford: Billing & Sons, 1890-91. Digital version at Google Books - free.

To find the names of the neighbouring parishes, use England Jurisdictions 1851. In this site, search for the name of the parish, click on the location "pin", click Options and click List contiguous parishes.

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.

1600 Subsidy

 * 1600 - Lay Subsidy Returns for London, Middlesex, Surrey (north) 1593-1600: Lymehouse, Lymehouse adhuc, Mylende, Mylende adhuc, Rattcliffe, and Rattclyffe adhuc (TNA E179/142/234) at Alan H. Nelson website - free

1640 Protestation Return

 * Stepney (including Limehouse, Poplar, Blackwall, Old Ford, Stratford Bow, Spitalfields, Bethnal Green, Mile-End, St. Leonard Bromley, and Ratcliffe) (House of Lords), Copy:.

1666 Hearth Tax

 * Stepney, courtesy: British History Online - free

1693-1694 Four Shilling in the Pound Aid

 * St Dunstan Stepney at British History Online - free.

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Middlesex Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

Manorial Records
Records survive for three manors in Stepney Parish: Poplar Manor (1423-1921), Shadwell Manor (1300-1756), and Stepney Manor (1318-1894). The Manorial Documents Register will help you locate these records.

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

Websites
Stepney on GENUKI