Huntingdonshire

• Princes Street
  Huntingdon
  PE29 3PA
  Telephone: 01480 372738
  

• Open Monday, Tuesday and Friday
  Please see their website for details
• The office is closed on public holidays.

Parishes of birth were not recorded in the 1841 Census, although an indication 'Y' or 'N' was given as to whether they were born within the county. For those under the age of 14 the exact age is given, but the ages of those aged 15 or more are rounded down to the nearest 5 years below - so someone who stated he was 19 would have been recorded as 15. From the 1851 census the information is more meaningful.

The dates of UK Censuses are:

1841 - 7th June.
1851 - 30th March.
1861 - 7th April.
1871 - 2nd April.
1881 - 3rd April.
1891 - 5th April.
1901 - 31st March.
1911 - 2nd April.
1921 - 19th June.
1931 - 26th April.
The GRO District volume numbers for Huntingdonshire are:

1837 to 1852 - Vol. 14
1852 to 1946 - Vol. 3b
1946 to 1974 - Vol. 4B
1974 to date - Vol 9.

The availability of census information for the Huntingdonshire parishes is given on each Towns and Parishes page, and some can be obtained from the Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire FHS).

Census information in the UK is increasingly being transcribed onto the Internet by the Free BDM Project which is searchable.

Finally, several parishes on the north-western edge were assigned to Thrapston, Oundle and Stamford Registration Districts, and others on the south-eastern edge to the Cambridgeshire Registration District of Caxton.

These points need to be borne in mind, in particular by users of civil registration and Poor Law records.

Civil registration information in the UK is increasingly being transcribed onto the Internet by the Free BDM Project which is searchable.

Brett Langston has provided details of Registration Districts 1837-1930.

Certificates of birth, death and marriage which occured in Huntingdonshire, can be obtained from the Superintendent Registrar at the following District Register Offices:

• Huntingdon
• Oundle and Thrapston
• Peterborough
• Stamford

If ordering from a District Office, please note the following:

(a) the cost of a certificate is currently £6.50 - send a Sterling cheque payable to the Superintendent Registrar plus return postage or two International Reply Coupons.
(b) the GRO (formerly the St. Catherine's) Index references are of no value.
(c) for marriage certificates, the precise place of marriage must be given.
(d) Civil Registration in England and Wales began on July 1st 1837.

Certificates can also be obtained centrally by post from the UK Office of National Statistics directly.

There is a listing of marriages for 1856 Quarter 1 for District 3b for Huntingdonshire.

Whatever the benefits of the 1974 amalgamation with Cambridgeshire (and, if nothing else, there were certainly improvements in the care and use of local archives), the loss of the old county was keenly felt. The name Huntingdonshire was only briefly suppressed, as in 1984 the lower tier of English local government, which had itself been created out of the amalgamation of several borough, rural and urban authorities in 1974, cast off its name of the Huntingdon District Council, and renamed itself the Huntingdonshire District Council. In 1992, with the government committed to simplifying local administration, there existed the possibility that the District would win the argument to become a unitary authority, and so in effect regain county status. This hope still exists.

To equate modern Huntingdonshire with the county of our ancestors, however, is deceptive. Whilst the changes have not been on the scale or complexity of those affecting metropolitan areas, a modern road atlas contains pitfalls for the unwary who may use it as a guide to the ancient boundaries of the county.

As the amalgamations of 1965 and 1974 will have implied, Huntingdonshire was a small ancient county; only Middlesex (now absorbed into London) and Rutland (which had been amalgamated with Leicestershire in 1974, but has now been restored) were smaller. Its greatest dimensions were 30 miles north-to-south and 23 miles west-to-east, in a very crude diamond. These proportions are reflected in the basis of the lozenge in the county arms.

The medieval division of the county was into four Hundreds: Norman Cross, Leightonstone, Hurstingstone, and Toseland - representing (remarkably tidily) the northern, western, eastern and southern quarters of the county respectively. The hundredal division was actively used for many purposes into the 19th Century (including, for example, the 1841 Census) and for taxation and judicial purposes lasting even longer.

At the lowest administrative level, (i.e. the parish) some ancient anomalies were ironed out in the late 19 th Century. The detached Huntingdonshire parish of Swineshead, an island within Bedfordshire, was exchanged for the Bedfordshire parish of Tilbrook which formerly jutted into Huntingdonshire. Further north, the county boundary which ran through the parishes of Winwick, Luddington, Thurning and Lutton, was regularised, assigning Winwick wholly to Huntingdonshire and the others wholly to Northamptonshire. It was not until 1965 that a detached part of Tetworth at the southern tips of the county, including within it the parish church of Everton-cum-Tetworth, was transferred to Bedfordshire. At the same time a large part of Eaton Socon parish, across the river from St Neots, was transferred to Huntingdonshire from Bedfordshire. Family Historians beware!

Huntingdon PLU
St Neots PLU
St Ives PLU.

Each Poor Law Union established a Workhouse to provide indoor relief for the poor, however, many other Huntingdonshire parishes were included in the Poor Law Unions of other counties.

Chairman: Philip Saunders, Tel.: 01954-250421.
Secretary: Jean Burbidge, Tel.: 01487-773349.

• Details of the location of Land Tax Assessment records for Huntingdonshire can be found in the book " LAND and WINDOW TAX ASSESSMENTS " compiled by Jeremy Gibson, Mervyn Medlycott and Dennis Mills, 2nd edition 1998 and published by the Federation of Family History Societies.

• Details of the location of Window Tax Assessment records for Huntingdonshire can be found in the book " LAND and WINDOW TAX ASSESSMENTS " compiled by Jeremy Gibson, Mervyn Medlycott and Dennis Mills, 2nd edition 1998 and published by the Federation of Family History Societies.

• The majonty of the taxes and their records relate to the reign of Charles II (1660-1655), of which the Hearth Tax generated by far the most (surviving) records. and consequently is the best known and most useful. Others were the 1661 Free and Voluntary Present to the King, Subsidies and Aids, and the Poll Tax. On the accession of William and Mary. the Hearth Tax was repealed (1689). beIng replaced eventually by the Land Tax and the Window Tax - few records of which survive pre-1715, and these only for the more prosperous - and, for a short time, the 'Marriage Tax', which is of great use and interest to genealogists, but unfortunately only exists for a few places. Details of the location of these records and other later Stuart Tax Lists and the Association Oath Rolls can be found in the book " THE HEARTH TAX and other later Stuart Tax Lists and the ASSOCIATION OATH ROLLS " compiled by Jeremey Gibson, 2nd edition 1996 published by the Federation of Family History Societies.

• The Protestation, a form of oath of loyalty ostensibly to the King, but in fact to Parliament, was initiated in the House of Commons in May 1641, when Members themselves took it. Nine months later its scope was vastly widened, when instructions went out that it should be taken by every adult (male); very occasionally women were also recorded. Closely assodated with the Protestation was the Collection in Aid of Distressed Protestants in Ireland. The oath was taken and the collection made, often simultaneously, in February 1641/2 and March. Parliament-approved taxation records recommence, after Charles l's eleven years of personal rule, with Tudor-type Subsidies, to be collected during 1641. In July 1641 a Poll Tax was voted, but few records of this survive. Thirdly, an Assessment or Grant was agreed, to be collected in May and November 1642. This Assessment had a much lower tax threshold and consequently many more taxpayers are named. Details of the location of these records and other contempary listings can be found in the book " THE PROTESTATION RETURNS 1641-42 and other contemporary listings " compiled by Jeremey Gibson and Alan Dell, 1995 published by the Federation of Family History Societies.

• Church Commissioners. The body that manages the temporal affairs of the Church of England. Created in 1948 by the amalgamation of the former Ecclesiastical Commissioners (first appointed in 1836) and the commissioners of "Queen Anne's Bounty", the Church Commissioners are responsible for the administration of church properties and finances and for the reorganisation, when necessary, of parishes. These include the tithes due on church owned land; this was a common occurence throughout Cambridgeshire and the tithes were levied by a system whereby a landowner had to collect the money from other landowners in the parish), whether he managed to collect it or not, he had to pay it for the patish. Each landowner was nominated in turn each year. As can be seen by the various Twons and Parishes listed here much of the property was owned by the church.
• Tithes a tenth part of the produce of the land paid from quite early years of the Church to maintain the Clergy. In England, when the lord of a Manor built a Church on his estate, he often enforced payment of tithes to its priest as its endowment, and in time such allocation of tithes became general law. A Synod in 786 strongly enjoined the payment of tithes, which was enforced by law in 900. Tithes were of three sorts - 'praedial', of the fruits of the earth; 'personal', of the profits of labour; and 'mixed', partly of the ground and partly of the industry of man. They were further divided into 'great' (tithes of wheat, oats and other major crops) and 'small' (tithes of lambs, chicken and other minor produce). A Rector had all the tithes, but a Vicar only the small tithes. Gradually many landowners substituted annual cash payments instead of tithes. The Tithes Commutation Act (1836) converted tithes into rent charges dependent on the varying price of corn, but in 1918 the value was fixed, and in 1925 and 1936 further acts were passed (Tithe Redemption Act) to extinguish tithes. There are now no such things as tithes in England.
• Ecclesiastical Commission a permanent body, consisting of Bishops and certain lay members appointed by the Crown and the Archbishop of Canterbury, created in 1835 by Act of Parliament through the efforts of Sir Robert Peel to hold much of the property of the Church of England and make better use of it. The Commission abolished sinecures, diminished the chapters of cathedrals brought the incomes of bishops nearer to equality and increased the endowments of poor parishes. In 1948 it was united with Queen Anne's bounty to form a new body, the Church Commissioners for England.
• Queen Anne's Bounty. A fund established by Queen Anne in 1704. She surrendered her revenues from first fruits and tenths to the fund, which was to be used for the benefit of poorer beneficed clergy. In the 19th century the fund also received parliamentary wants and private donations. In 1948 the administration of the fund passed to the Church Commissioners.

  First fruits and tenths were payments made to the Pope by beneficed clergymen. In 1534 in England these were acquired by the King under Act. Various exemptions were made in 1535, 1536, 1558, 1706 and 1707. In 1703 an Act was passed enabling Queen Anne to employ these moneys in augmenting poor benefices, and since then they have been known as Queen Anne's Bounty, and have been administered by commissioners, first appointed in 1704. Existing legislation regarding Queen Anne's Bounty are Acts of 1703, 1716, 1777, 1780, 1801, 1803,1805, 1830, 1837, 1838, 1839, 1840, 1846, 1865, 1870, 1874, 1875, 1881, 1890, 1894, 1908. The Acts known as Queen Anne's Bounty Acts are those of 1703, 1716, 1803, 1838, 1840 and 1870.