Copford, Essex Family History Guide
Copford is an Ancient Parish in the county of Essex.
Alternative names:
Parish church: St Michael and All Angels
Parish registers begin:
- Parish registers: 1558
- Bishop’s Transcripts: 1629; 1639; 1800
Nonconformists include: Society of Friends/Quaker and Wesleyan Methodist.
Table of Contents
Adjacent Parishes
Parish History
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870
COPFORD, a parish in Lexden district, Essex; on the river Roman, 1½ mile E of Marks-Tey r. station, and 4 WSW of Colchester. It has a post-office under Colchester.
Acres, 2,397. Real property, £4,428. Pop., 775. Houses, 163. The property is subdivided. The manor belonged formerly to the Bishops of London. Copford Hall is the seat of the Harrisons.
The living is a rectory in the diocese of Rochester. Value, £680. Patron, the Lord Chancellor. The church has a Norman apse, and is good.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848
COPFORD, a parish, in the union of Lexden and Winstree, Witham division of the hundred of Lexden, N. division of Essex, 4 miles (W. S. W.) from Colchester; containing 645 inhabitants.
It is situated on the road from London to Colchester, and comprises a very irregular area, about thirteen miles in circumference. The lands are generally low, in some parts undulated, and the soil is gravelly, producing fair average crops; the scenery is in general pleasing, and enlivened with several fine sheets of water.
The manor was the property of the bishops of London from a remote period till the time of the Conquest.
The living is a rectory, valued in the king’s books at £15. 3. 4., and in the patronage of the Crown: the tithes have been commuted for £660, and the glebe comprises 74 acres, with a glebe-house. The church, an ancient structure, is principally of Norman architecture; the walls are of unusual thickness, and the chancel is circular.
Bonner, Bishop of London, who was lord of the manor, resided for a considerable time at Copford Hall.
Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848
Parish Records
FamilySearch
Directories
Post Office Directory of Essex, 1874 – Special Collections Online
Kelly’s Directory of Essex, 1882 – Special Collections Online
Kelly’s Directory of Essex, 1894 – Special Collections Online
Kelly’s Directory of Essex, 1902 – Special Collections Online
Kelly’s Directory of Essex, 1914 – Special Collections Online
Kelly’s Directory of Essex, Hertfordshire and Middlesex 1890 – Google Books
Poll Books
Maps
Vision of Britain historical maps
Administration
- County: Essex
- Civil Registration District: Lexden
- Probate Court: Court of the Commissary of the Bishop of London (Essex and Hertfordshire Division)
- Diocese: Pre-1846 – London, Post-1845 – Rochester
- Rural Deanery: Pre-1847 – Lexden, Post-1846 – Coggeshall
- Poor Law Union: Lexden and Winstree
- Hundred: Lexden
- Province: Canterbury