Plaistow St Mary Essex Family History Guide

Plaistow St Mary is an Ecclesiastical Parish in the county of Essex, created in 1844 from West Ham Ancient Parish.

Alternative names: Plaistow

Parish church: St Mary

Parish registers begin:

Parish registers: 1830
Bishop’s Transcripts: 1830

Nonconformists include: Baptist, Independent/Congregational, Roman Catholic, Society of Friends/Quaker, and Wesleyan Methodist.

Table of Contents

Adjacent Parishes

East Ham
Woolwich St Thomas
Poplar All Saints, Middlesex
West Ham
East Greenwich Christ Church, Kent
Charlton next Woolwich, Kent

Parish History

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

PLAISTOW, a village, a chapelry, and a ward, in West Ham parish, Essex.

The village stands on the great N sewer of the London sewage-works, adjacent to the London and Southend railway, 1½ mile SSE of Stratford, and 6¼ E by N of St. Paul’s, London; and has a station on the railway, a post-office under London E, and a metropolitan police station.

The chapelry was constituted in 1844, and curtailed in 1862 and 1867. Pop. in 1861, 11,214. Houses, 1,689. Pop. as curtailed, 6,714.

The living is a p. curacy in the diocese of London. Value, £300. Patron, the Vicar of West Ham. The church was built in 1830 at a cost of £4,800; and is in the Tudor style.

There are chapels for Independents and Quakers, and national, British, and Independent schools; and the last were built in 1866, at a cost of £2,500, and have accommodation for 500 children.

The ward comprises the larger portion of the parish; contains the Victoria docks and Silvertown; and consists, to a considerable extent, of marsh. Real property, in 1860, £81,004; of which £524 were in railway s. Pop. with Church-street ward, in 1851, 8,231; in 1861, 22,337. Houses, 3,418.

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

A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848

PLAISTOW, a ward and district chapelry, in the parish and union of West Ham, hundred of Becontree, S. division of Essex, 5 miles (E. by N.) from London.

It comprises 1967a. 2r. 14p., of which about 500 acres are under cultivation, or occupied with houses and gardens, and the remainder is chiefly marshy pasture; on the south is the Thames, and on the west Bow creek.

The living is a perpetual curacy; net income, £150; patron, the Vicar of West Ham. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, was completed in 1830, at an expense of £4800, towards which the Parliamentary Commissioners contributed £2300; it is a neat edifice in the later English style.

There are places of worship for Independents and Wesleyans.

The distinguished Edmund Burke resided here for some time.

Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848