Felsted Essex Family History Guide
Felsted is an Ancient Parish in the county of Essex.
Alternative names: Felstead
Parish church: Holy Cross
Parish registers begin:
- Parish registers: 1558
- Bishop’s Transcripts: 1801
Nonconformists include: Independent/Congregational and Society of Friends/Quaker.
Table of Contents
Adjacent Parishes
- Little Dunmow
- Little Leighs
- Stebbing
- White Notley
- Great Waltham
- Great Saling
- Braintree
- Rayne
- Great Leighs
Parish History
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870
FELSTEAD, a village and a parish in Dunmow district, Essex.
The village stands near the river Chelmer, and near the Braintree railway, 3½ miles ESE of Dunmow; and has a st. on the railway, and a post-office under Chelmsford.
The parish comprises 6, 247 acres. Real property, £10, 784. Pop., 1,804. Houses, 401. The property is much subdivided.
The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Rochester. Value, £500. Patron, Earl Cowley. The church is partly Saxon, has a tower, and needs restoration.
There is an Independent chapel.
A free grammar school for boys, natives of Essex, is here; has an income of upwards of £2, 000 from funds left by Lord Rich in 1554; and, since a settlement in chancery in 1852, has been under the control of a board of trustees.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848
FELSTED (Holy Cross), a parish, in the union of Dunmow, hundred of Hinckford, N. division of Essex, 4 miles (E. S. E.) from Dunmow; containing 1798 inhabitants.
This parish, the name of which signifies “the hilly place,” is separated from Dunmow by the river Chelmer; the soil is generally a strong wet loam, resting on a whitish clay marl.
The living is a vicarage, valued in the king’s books at £13. 16. 8.; net income, £396; patron and impropriator, the Earl of Mornington. The church, situated on elevated ground, is an ancient edifice, with a square embattled tower surrounded by a lantern of elegant design, and contains a superb monument to the memory of Lord Rich, who, by letters patent in the reign of Philip and Mary, founded an alms-house for three men and three women, under the superintendence of a chaplain: the chaplain, churchwardens, and parishioners form a body corporate.
In the reign of Elizabeth, a free grammar school was founded in connexion with the charity, and this respectable school reckons among its alumni Oliver, Richard, and Henry, sons of Cromwell, the Protector; and Drs. John Wallis and Isaac Barrow.
Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848
Parish Records
FamilySearch
Administration
- County: Essex
- Civil Registration District: Dunmow
- Probate Court: Court of the Archdeaconry of Middlesex (Essex and Hertfordshire Division)
- Diocese: Pre-1846 – London, Post-1845 – Rochester
- Rural Deanery: Hedingham
- Poor Law Union: Dunmow
- Hundred: Hinckford
- Province: Canterbury