Braintree, Essex Family History Guide
Braintree is an Ancient Parish and a market town in the county of Essex.
Other places in the parish include: Rayne Hatch Farm.
Alternative names:
Parish church: St Michael the Archangel
Parish registers begin:
- Parish registers: 1660
- Bishop’s Transcripts: 1800
Nonconformists include: Baptist, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Independent/Congregational, and Particular Baptist
Table of Contents
Adjacent Parishes
Parish History
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870
BRAINTREE, a small town, a parish, a subdistrict, and a district in Essex.
The town stands on the river Blackwater, on the Roman road to Colchester, and on the Blackwater-Valley and Bishops-Stortford railway, 6¼ miles north-north-westward from the Witham Junction of the Eastern Counties railway, and 12 miles NNE of Chelmsford.
It arose, in the Roman Catholic times, from thorough fare of pilgrims into Suffolk and Norfolk; fell fast into decay after the Reformation; and revived under the influence of trade.
The manor was known, at the Conquest, as Great Rayne or Branchetren; and belonged, till the time of Edward VI., to the Bishops of London.
The town is straggling; occupies a rising ground; and connects on the N with Bocking. The streets, for the most part, are narrow; and many of the houses are old and timbered. A corn exchange was built in 1839.
The parish church stands on a high mound, thought to have been the site of an ancient camp; is later English and spacious, with a tall spire; was enlarged, prior to the Reformation, with the proceeds of three plays acted in it; and contains the tomb of Dr. Collins, physician to Peter the Great.
The site of the former church, and some vestiges of a palace of the Bishops of London, are ½ a mile distant.
The town has a head post office, a railway station with telegraph, two banking offices, two chief inns, four dissenting chapels, a mechanics, institute, a free school, and some charities; and it is a seat of petty sessions and a polling-place, and publishes a weekly newspaper.
The Independent chapel is a large and handsome edifice, built in 1832; and the free school has £18 a year from endowment, and educated Ray the naturalist.
A weekly market is held on Wednesday; and fairs on 8 May and 2 Oct. A considerable woollen trade sprang up in the time of Elizabeth, but went into decay; and a trade in silk and crape is now carried on.
Dawes, the archbishop, and Tusser, the agricultural poet, were born in the neighbourhood. Pop., 4,305. Houses, 980.
The parish comprises 2,242 acres, of which 58 lie detached within Stisted. Real property, £16,324. Pop., 4,620. Houses, 1,051. The property is much sub-divided.
The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Rochester. Value, £300. Patron, Rev.J. Cartwright.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848
BRAINTREE (St. Michael), a market-town and parish, and the head of a union, in the hundred of Hinckford, N. division of Essex, 11 miles (N. by E.) from Chelmsford, and 40 (N. E.) from London; containing 3670 inhabitants.
This place is described in Domesday book under the head of “Raines,” including also the village of “Raine,” to which it was at that time a hamlet, and from which it was separated in the reign of Henry II.
From its situation on the road leading from London into the counties of Suffolk and Norfolk, it is supposed to have derived considerable benefit from the numerous pilgrims who passed through it, on their way to the shrines of St. Edmund at Bury, and Our Lady of Walsingham; and the population having consequently increased, it was made a market-town in the time of John.
In the early part of the reign of Elizabeth, the Flemings, as has been supposed, fleeing from the persecution of the Duke of Alva, settled at Braintree, and introduced the manufacture of woollen-cloth; but it appears that that manufacture had existed long before, it being noticed so early as 1389, in an act of parliament, intituled “The clothes of certain counties tacked and folded shall not be put to sale before they be opened.”
The town is pleasantly situated on an eminence, and consists of several streets irregularly formed and inconveniently narrow. The houses in the central part, now the only remaining portion of the old town, are in general ancient, and many of them are built of wood; but in the principal street, which is the grand thoroughfare, are many well-built modern houses.
The woollen trade has given place to the manufacture of silk, which has been introduced into the neighbourhood within the last 40 years, and in its various branches now affords general employment to a rapidly increasing population.
The manufacture of silk-crape has more recently been established; in this branch about 1400 people are employed by the Messrs. Courtauld in the towns of Braintree, Bocking, and Halstead, in machine-making, spinning, weaving, dyeing, and crape-finishing.
The total number of persons employed in the silk trade in these towns, in a recent year, was 2210, of which 660 were crape-weavers in hand and power looms, 450 silkweavers in other branches, and 1100 factory hands.
Straw-platting has also been introduced, and affords occupation to a considerable number of females. In 1846 an act was passed for the construction of a railway to Witham and Maldon. The market, which is said to be equal to any in the county, is on Wednesday; the fairs commence on May 7th and October 2nd, each continuing for three days, and the latter is a great mart for cattle and hops.
The county magistrates hold a petty session for the division on alternate Wednesdays. The powers of the county debt-court of Braintree, established in 1847, extend over the registration-district of Braintree. The town is the place for returning two knights for the northern division of the shire.
The parish comprises 2249a. 1r. 19p. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king’s books at £12. 3. 4., and in the patronage of Lady Stewart; net income, £212; impropriator, the Earl of Winchilsea.
The church, a spacious structure on the summit of a mount, apparently the site of an ancient camp, is principally of later English architecture, with a tower in the early style, surmounted by a shingled spire of later date. It was enlarged in the reign of Henry VIII., the expense being defrayed out of the proceeds of many plays performed in it, during the interval from 1523 to 1579, and of which several curious particulars are recorded in the churchwardens’ accounts.
There are places of worship for Baptists, the Society of Friends, Independents, and Methodists.
An ancient grammar school, in which the eminent naturalist, John Ray, received his education, is supported partly by an endowment of land now let for £18 a year, bequeathed by J. Coker, Esq., partly by an annuity of £45 left by the Rev. James Burgess, and partly by voluntary contributions.
In the reign of Charles I., Henry Smith, alderman of London, who, from the habit of wandering like a beggar, accompanied by his dog, obtained the appellation of “Dog Smith,” bequeathed £2800 to the poor of this and 13 other parishes; and there are many other charities in the town, yielding altogether nearly £200 per annum.
The union of Braintree comprises 14 parishes or places, and contains a population of 15,097: the workhouse, calculated for the reception of 300 inmates, cost £6342.
About half a mile distant there were, till lately, the ruins of a church founded before the Conquest, and formerly the parish church: the site of a Roman camp, now called the Cherry Orchard, is pointed out; and many sepulchral urns, fragments of Roman pottery, and Roman coins, have been found, besides three British gold coins, supposed to be of Boadicea.
This was the scene of one of the earlier martyrdoms, that of Richard Pygott, in the reign of Mary. Samuel Dale, M.D., editor of the History and Antiquities of Harwich, resided here, and assisted Ray in collecting the more rare plants in Essex; the Rev. Mr. Challis, professor of astronomy at Cambridge, is a native of the place.
Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848
Parish Records
FamilySearch
Bankrupts
Below is a list of people that were declared bankrupt between 1820 and 1843 extracted from The Bankrupt Directory; George Elwick; London; Simpkin, Marshall and Co.; 1843.
Butcher Philip, Braintree Heath, Essex, horse dealer, Feb. 3, 1821.
Hayward William, Braintree, Essex, tailor, Feb. 2, 1830.
Pearse William Chaney. Braintree, Essex, grocer and draper, June 17, 1823.
Watson Charles, Braintree, Essex, carpenter and builder, Nov. 26, 1839.
Maps
Vision of Britain historical maps
Administration
- County: Essex
- Civil Registration District: Braintree
- Probate Court: Court of the Commissary of the Bishop of London (Essex and Hertfordshire Division)
- Diocese: Pre-1846 – London, Post-1845 – Rochester
- Rural Deanery: Hedingham
- Poor Law Union: Braintree
- Hundred: Hinckford
- Province: Canterbury