East Ham, Essex Family History Guide

East Ham is an Ancient Parish in the county of Essex.

Other places in the parish include: Greenstreet.

Alternative names:

Parish church: St. Mary Magdalene

Parish registers begin:

Parish registers: 1696
Bishop’s Transcripts: 1639; 1800

Nonconformists include:

Table of Contents

Adjacent Parishes

Parish History

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

HAM, or (EAST HAM), a village and a parish in West Ham district, Essex. The village stands near the London and Southend railway, and near the river Roding, 1 mile WSW of Barking; and has a station on the railway, a police station, and a post office, of the name of East Ham, under Barking, London E.

The parish contains also the hamlet of Greenstreet; and extends from Wanstead Flats to the Thames at North Woolwich. Acres, 495; of which 40 are water. Real property, £1,564. Pop. in 1851, 550; in 1861, 2,264. Houses, 333. The increase of pop. arose partly from the opening of the railway station, partly from the establishment of industrial schools belonging to St. George-in-the-East.

The property is divided among a few. Some of the land is rich marsh, and affords pasturage for many cattle. The manor belonged anciently to Waltham abbey. Greenstreet House is said to have been built for Anne Boleyn, and belongs now to J. Morley, Esq.

The living is a vicarage in the diocese of London. Value, £865. Patron, Brasenose College, Oxford. The church is partly Norman; has a nave and two chancels, the upper chancel semicircular; and contains a piscina, and a monument to Edmund Neville, Lord Latimer. Dr. Stukeley, the antiquary, was buried in the churchyard.

A new church was built in 1863, at a cost of about £3,000; is in the late first pointed style, with some foreign features; consists of nave, transepts, and chancel, with central tower; and stands in a central situation.

There are national schools, alms houses with £75, and other charities, with £22.

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

A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848

HAM, EAST (St. Mary Magdalene), a parish, in the union of West Ham, hundred of Becontree, S. division of Essex, 6 miles (E.) from London; containing 1461 inhabitants.

This parish, which, previously to the Conquest, formed part of the endowment of Westminster Abbey, is bounded on the south-east by the river Thames, and on the west by Bow creek, which separates it from the county of Middlesex. It comprises 2520 acres, whereof about 1456 are upland, and 1000 marsh. In the hamlet of Greenstreet is a handsome mansion with a tower of brick, which was occasionally the residence of Henry VIII. and his queen, Anna Boleyn.

The living is a vicarage, valued in the king’s books at £14. 3. 9.; patron, the Bishop of London; impropriator, T. Wilson, Esq.: the great tithes have been commuted for £320, and the vicarial for £1000; the glebe comprises one acre. The church is an ancient structure in the Norman style, consisting of a nave and chancel, with a Lady chapel; the eastern extremity is semicircular: on the south side of the altar is a double piscina, with a bracket.

There is a place of worship for Wesleyans.

An almshouse for three men was erected, and endowed with £40 per annum, by Giles Breme, in 1621; besides which, considerable benefactions have been made for charitable purposes by the Latimer family and others.

Stukeley, the antiquary, who died in 1765, was buried in the churchyard.

Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848