Earls Colne, Essex Family History Guide

Earls Colne is an Ancient Parish in the county of Essex.

Alternative names: Earls Colne, Great Colne

Parish church: St Andrew

Parish registers begin:

Parish registers: 1558
Bishop’s Transcripts: 1800

Nonconformists include: Particular Baptist and Society of Friends/Quaker.

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Adjacent Parishes

Parish History

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

COLNE (Earls, or Great), a village and a parish in Halstead district, Essex.

The village stands on the river Colne, adjacent to the Colne Valley and Halstead railway, ¾ of a mile SW of Colne r. station, and 3¼ SE by E of Halstead; and it has a post office, of the name of Earls-Colne, under Halstead, and a fair on 25 March.

The parish comprises 2,959 acres. Real property, £6,048. Pop., 1,540. Houses, 334. The property is subdivided.

A Benedictine priory, a cell to Abingdon, was founded here, in the time of Henry I., by Aubrey de Vere; and given, at the dissolution, to the Earl of Oxford. A seat of the Earls of Oxford, called Hall Place, with a park of 700 acres, also was here.

The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Rochester. Value, £494. Patron, H. H. Carwardine, Esq. The church was built in 1532; has a tower, partly of flint; and contains monuments of the De Veres, removed to it from the priory.

There are chapels for Baptists and Quakers, a neat recent institute with reading room, a free grammar-school, two other public schools, and six alms-houses.

Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].

A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848

COLNE, EARL’S (St. Andrew), a parish, in the union of Halstead, Witham division of the hundred of Lexden, N. division of Essex, 3½ miles (E. S. E.) from Halstead; containing 1385 inhabitants.

This parish takes the prefix to its name from the family of De Vere, earls of Oxford, to whom it belonged at the time of the Domesday survey; and its name, in common with others in the district, from the river Colne, over which is a bridge on the line of the Roman road from Colchester.

It is about ten miles in circumference, and consists chiefly of elevated ground; the soil is a kind of loam, partially mixed with sand, and, though not of great tenacity, tolerably fertile. A fair is held on March 25th.

The living is a vicarage, endowed with a portion of the rectorial tithes, and valued in the king’s books at £8. 10. 10.; patron, and impropriator of the remainder of the rectorial tithes, H. H. Carwardine, Esq. The great tithes have been commuted for £242. 14. 9., and the vicarial for £670.

The church is a handsome ancient edifice, with a massive tower partly of flint, and is ornamented with several monuments of the De Veres, which were removed from the church of a Benedictine priory founded here in the eleventh century by Aubrey de Vere, who became one of the monks.

The priory was dedicated to St. Mary and St. John the Evangelist, and was made a cell to the abbey of Abingdon, in Berkshire; at the Dissolution it had a prior and ten monks, with a revenue of £175. 14. 8.

There are places of worship for Particular Baptists and the Society of Friends.

Certain land was bequeathed by the Rev. Christopher Swallow, who died in 1539, for the support of a grammar school; the proceeds amount to £188 per annum.

Thomas Audley, lord chancellor of England in the reign of Henry VIII., was born in the parish.

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.

Martin John Arnold, Earl’s Colne, Essex, victualler, Dec. 16, 1831.

Pitstow John, Earl’s Colne, Essex, miller, Feb. 5, 1822.