Harlow Essex Family History Guide
Harlow St Mary and St Hugh is an Ancient Parish in the county of Essex.
Other places in the parish include: Potterstreet.
Alternative names: Harlow St John the Baptist, Harlow St Mary Magdalene
Parish church: St. Mary
Parish registers begin:
Harlow St Mary and St Hugh
- Parish registers: 1755
- Bishop’s Transcripts: 1629
Harlow St John the Baptist
- Parish registers: 1841
- Bishop’s Transcripts: None
Harlow St Mary Magdalene
- Parish registers: 1834
- Bishop’s Transcripts: None
Nonconformists include: Baptist and Jewish.
Table of Contents
Adjacent Parishes
Parish History
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870
HARLOW, a village, a parish, a sub-district, and a hundred in Essex.
The village stands adjacent to the Eastern Counties railway, near the river Stort and the boundary with Herts, 6 miles SSW of Bishop-Stortford; was once a market-town; is a seat of petty sessions; and has a head post-office, a railway station with telegraph, a police station, a good inn, and a fair on 28 and 29 Nov.
The parish contains also the hamlet of Potter-street, near which a famous fair for horses and cattle, called Harlow-Bush fair, is held on 9 and 10 Sept. Acres, 4,000. Real property, £10,064. Pop., 2,377. Houses, 493.
The manor-house, called Harlow-Bury, long in possession of the noble family of North, and occupied since 1736 by the Barnard family, is an ancient edifice recently modernized. An ancient chapel in its grounds is supposed to have been used by the monks of Bury St. Edmunds; retains a fine Norman door; and has been partly demolished, partly converted into a granary. Moor Hall is the seat of J. W. P. Watlington, Esq.
The head living and also two other livings, St. John and St. Mary, are vicarages in the diocese of Rochester. Value of the head one, £383; of St. John, £100; of St. Mary, not reported. patron of the head one, the Hon. Wm. North; of St. John, J. W. P. Watlington, Esq.; of St. Mary, the Vicar of Harlow.
The parish church stands on a rising ground; is ancient, cruciform, and good; and includes two chantry chapels, which went into disuse, but were restored in 1857 and 1862.
St. John’s church is recent and in the early English style.
St. Mary’s church stands about 2 miles S of the parish church, and is recent and picturesque.
There are two Baptist chapels, two national schools, a school college, a free school, a school for educating juvenile criminals, and charities £155.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848
HARLOW (St. Mary), a parish, in the union of Epping, hundred of Harlow, S. division of the county of Essex, 17 miles (W. by N.) from Chelmsford, and 23 (N. N. E.) from London; containing 2315 inhabitants.
The parish comprehends an area about eighteen miles in circumference.
The village, which was anciently the chief town in the hundred, is pleasantly situated on the road to Newmarket, and consists mainly of one street of considerable length, containing many neat and well built houses.
A considerable woollen-manufacture was formerly carried on, but the chief trade at present is spinning.
A market on Saturday, after having been long discontinued, was recently revived, the day being changed to Wednesday. A fair is held on the 9th of September, upon Harlow-Bush Common, nearly in the centre of which is Harlow-Bush House, where the Essex Archery Society hold their meetings: there is also a fair for horses and cattle, on the 8th of November, in the village; and the petty-sessions for the division are held here every Monday.
The Eastern Counties railway was opened from London to this place August 9th, 1841, and has been since extended.
The living is a vicarage, valued in the king’s books at £15. 7. 11.; net income, £383; patron and impropriator, the Marquess of Bute. The church was partly destroyed by fire in 1711, but was rebuilt, and its windows adorned with stained glass, at the expense of the Rev. Mr. Taylor, then vicar, and the gentry in the neighbourhood: the ancient tower, which rose from the centre of the original cruciform structure, has been replaced by a cupola.
Two other churches, dedicated respectively to St. John the Baptist and St. Mary Magdalen, are in the gift of the Vicar.
There is a place of worship for Baptists. Several small bequests have been left for the benefit of the poor.
Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848
Parish Records
FamilySearch
Administration
- County: Essex
- Civil Registration District: Epping
- Probate Court: Court of the Archdeaconry of Middlesex (Essex and Hertfordshire Division)
- Diocese: Pre-1846 – London, Post-1845 – Rochester
- Rural Deanery: Harlow
- Poor Law Union: Epping
- Hundred: Harlow
- Province: Canterbury