King’s Lynn St Nicholas, Norfolk Genealogy

History
King's Lynn St Nicholas was formed in 1146-1150 as a chapel in the parish of Lynn St Margaret.

The name "Lynn" has an ancient derivation, perhaps from a Celtic term meaning "pool" or from an Anglo-Saxon word for "torrent" both references to the estuary lake which emptied into the Wash. By the 14th century, the town ranked as the third port of England and is considered as important to England in Medieval times as Liverpool was during the Industrial Revolution. It retains two buildings that were warehouses of the Hanseatic League that were in use between the 15th and 17th centuries. They are the only remaining building structures of the Hanseatic League in England.

The town now known as King's Lynn was, in medieval times, rather Bishop's Lynn. This is because it was taken under the wing of the Bishop of Norwich in the late eleventh century, one of the earliest of numerous deliberate seigneurial foundations of "new towns" that took place between that time and the mid-thirteenth century. When Henry VIII took over the lordship of the town it was renamed King's Lynn However it is still referred to as Lynn locally and records often refer to it as Lynn Bishop's Lynn, Lynn Regis and later as King's Lynn.

The present building dates almost entirely from the 15th century, though the tower is earlier, and the spire was added by Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1869. It is described by the Churches Conservation Trust as the largest chapel in England and is in their care.

Church Records
Images of early records are available on Record Search. The early records refer to Lynn or Lynn Regis but are catalogued at the Norfolk Record Office as King's Lynn St Nicholas.

The Record Search images are under the waypoint Lynn St Nicholas.

The exact boundary of the parish formed later from within Lynn St Margaret is not known.

Registration Districts

 * King’s Lynn

Probate Jurisdictions
Norfolk Probate Jurisdictions Parishes I through N

Poor Law Unions

 * King’s Lynn    http://www.institutions.org.uk/workhouses/england/norf/kings_lynn_workhouse.htm

Maps
England Jurisdictions 1851