Huntingdon St Mary and St Benedict Huntingdonshire Family History Guide
Huntingdon St Mary and St Benedict is an Ecclesiastical Parish in the county of Huntingdonshire, created in 1668 from Huntingdon St Mary Ancient Parish and Huntingdon St Benedict Ancient Parish.
Other places in the parish include: Hinchinbrook.
Alternative names: Huntingdon St Benedict
Parish church: St Benedict, St Mary
Parish registers begin:
Huntingdon St Mary and St Benedict
- Parish registers: 1593
- Bishop’s Transcripts: 1604
Huntingdon St Benedict
- Parish registers: 1574
- Bishop’s Transcripts: 1604
Nonconformists include: Society of Friends/Quaker and Wesleyan Methodist.
Table of Contents
Adjacent Parishes
Parish History
A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848
HUNTINGDON, a borough and market-town, and the head of a union, in the hundred of Hurstingstone, county of Huntingdon, 59 miles (N. by W.) from London; containing 3507 inhabitants. This place, called by the Saxons Huntantun, and in the Norman survey Huntersdune, appears to have derived its name from its situation in a tract of country which was anciently an extensive forest abounding with deer, and well suited for the purposes of the chase.
A castle was built here in 917, by Edward the Elder, and enlarged by David, Earl of Huntingdon and King of Scotland, to whom King Stephen had given the borough; but becoming a retreat for the disaffected in the reign of Henry II., it was levelled with the ground. This fortress is supposed, from the form of its outworks, which may still be traced, to have been the site of Duroliponte, a station of the Romans. A mint was established here at a very early period, and coins of Edwy and of his successors, until the time of William Rufus, were struck and issued from the town.
Huntingdon has been honoured with many royal visits: James I., on his arrival from Scotland, with all his court, was sumptuously entertained by Sir Oliver Cromwell, uncle of the Protector, in his princely mansion of Hinchinbrook, a spacious quadrangular building in the Elizabethan style, in which, also, Charles I. frequently partook of the hospitality of its possessor.
Prior to the commencement of the civil war, that monarch kept his court at Huntingdon, where he carried on his negotiations with the parliament then sitting in London; and during the subsequent contests it was repeatedly the head-quarters of his army. Not long after the breaking out of the war, however, it appears to have fallen into the hands of the parliament; for it is stated to have been plundered, in August 1645, by the royalists, commanded by the king in person.
In 1646, the king, on his route from Holmby to Hampton Court, in the custody of Cornet Joyce and the parliamentary commissioners, was lodged at Hinchinbrook House, at that time belonging to Colonel Montague, then an officer in the army of the parliament, but afterwards, on joining Charles II. at the Restoration, created Earl of Sandwich; from whose lady the captive monarch received every tribute of sympathising loyalty, and by whose courage he was protected from the insults of a factious mob. In 1745, the inhabitants, assisted by the surrounding gentry, came forward to support the reigning dynasty against the claims of the Pretender, and raised a large sum of money for that purpose.
The town is pleasantly situated on a gentle acclivity, on the northern bank of the river Ouse, over which is an ancient stone bridge of six arches connecting it with Godmanchester. It has one principal street, extending a mile in length, and intersected at right angles by several smaller streets; the houses are in general large, well built, and of handsome appearance, and the town is paved, lighted with gas, and amply supplied with water.
The environs are agreeable, and from the Castle Hill the prospect is varied and extensive. Within a quarter of a mile of the town is a meadow called Portholm, more than two miles in circumference, on which is one of the finest race-courses in the kingdom: the races take place in August, continuing three days, during which, and usually for a fortnight after, the theatre, a small edifice erected in 1800, is open.
There are two public subscription reading-rooms, and a literary and scientific institution has lately been erected; it is a chaste and pleasing structure in the Grecian style, with a cornice surmounted by a statue of Minerva. In 1821, an horticultural society was established. Monthly assemblies are held during the season, in a suite of rooms in the town-hall, and public balls take place there in the race week.
The trade is principally in wool and corn: there are two breweries. The Ouse is navigable for small vessels from Lynn, and for barges from this town to Bedford. An act was passed in 1845 for effecting railway communication with Cambridge and with Ely, and the lines were opened in 1847: the great railway from London to York will also pass by.
The market, on Saturday, is plentifully supplied with corn and provisions: fairs are held on the Tuesday before Easter, and on the second Tuesday in May, for cattle of all sorts; there is a statute-fair about two weeks before Michaelmas, on a day fixed by the mayor, and large cattle-markets are held on the Saturday before Old Michaelmas-day, and on the third Saturday in November. The market-place occupies a spacious square in the centre of the town.
Huntingdon was first incorporated in 1206, by charter of King John, which was confirmed and extended by Henry III. and succeeding sovereigns until the 6th year of the reign of Charles I., when it was renewed with modifications. Under that charter the government was vested in a mayor, recorder, and 11 aldermen, forming the common-council, together with a high steward, town-clerk, two sergeants-at-mace, and other officers.
By the act of the 5th and 6th of William IV., cap. 76, the corporation now consists of a mayor, 4 aldermen, and 12 councillors; and the mayor and late mayor are justices of the peace, the county magistrates having concurrent jurisdiction within the town. This borough, jointly with the neighbouring parish of Godmanchester, sends two representatives to parliament; the mayor is returning officer. Petty-sessions are held every Wednesday, before the mayor; and there is a court of record, for the recovery of debts to any amount, once in three weeks.
The assizes, the election of members of parliament for the county, and the general quarter-sessions of the peace, are also held here: the powers of the county debt-court of Huntingdon, established in 1847, extend over the registration-districts of Huntingdon and St. Ives.
The town-hall is a handsome building, erected in 1745, by subscription, on the site of the old court-house, and surrounded with piazzas, under which the market is kept; above the ground floor is a suite of assemblyrooms, and the ball-room is ornamented with portraits of George II. and III., with those of their queens, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, and one of John, Earl of Sandwich, by Gainsborough. A new prison has been erected on the western side of the great north road.
Huntingdon was formerly much more extensive than it is at present, and contained fifteen parish churches, the greater number of which had fallen into decay before Leland’s time; only four were then remaining, and two of these were destroyed during the parliamentary war.
The old borough at present comprises the parishes of All Saints, containing 568; St. Benedict, 814; St. John the Baptist, 1057; and St. Mary, 1068 inhabitants. The living of All Saints’ is a rectory, with that of St. John the Baptist’s united, the former valued in the king’s books at £6. 11. 10½., and the latter at £6. 7. 6.; it is in the patronage of the Crown, and the net income is £190.
The church of All Saints’ is a venerable and handsome structure, partly in the early and partly in the later English style, with a square embattled tower, strengthened with buttresses, ornamented with niches, and crowned by pinnacles; the chancel is early English, and has a remarkably good doorway, now walled up. The nave is separated from the chancel by a lofty and finely pointed arch, and from the aisles by pointed arches resting upon clustered columns; the oak roof is richly carved, and there are several ancient monuments, among which are some to the ancestors of Oliver Cromwell. The registry books of the parish of St. John contain an entry of the baptism of the Protector, in 1599.
The living of St. Mary’s is a rectory, united with the discharged rectory of St. Benedict’s, and valued in the king’s books at £10. 0. 5.; it is in the patronage of the Crown, and the net income is £162. The church of St. Mary’s was rebuilt in 1620, and is in the later English style, with a square embattled tower, strengthened by buttresses, and profusely ornamented with niches and sculpture. The nave is separated from the aisles by finelypointed arches, and octangular and circular columns alternately: the font is of octangular form, and supported on a column encircled by small pillars; in the chancel are several handsome monuments, and in other parts of the church some mural tablets. There are places of worship for the Society of Friends, Independents, and Wesleyans.
St. John’s Hospital is of uncertain date; the earliest notice of it occurs in the year 1261, in the rolls of the Bishop of Lincoln, from which it appears to have been founded and endowed in the reign of Henry II., by David, Earl of Huntingdon, for the maintenance and relief of poor people, and the support of a free grammar school.
The free grammar school is open to the sons of inhabitants, for classical instruction. There is a scholarship for a boy from this town at Peter House, Cambridge, founded by Thomas Miller, who gave for that purpose land now producing £20 per annum, tenable from admission until obtaining the degree of M.A.; also a scholarship founded in Christ’s College, Cambridge, for a native of Huntingdon.
Richard Fishborn, in 1625, gave £2000 in trust to the Mercers’ Company, London, for the maintenance of a lecture, a Latin grammar school, and an almshouse in the town: this sum, together with £4560 arising from other donations, was in 1630 vested in the purchase of the manor of Chalgrave, in the county of Bedford, now producing a revenue of £700 per annum, of which £60 are paid to a lecturer, and £175 to trustees for charitable uses.
A school for boys was established by a decree of chancery in 1735, under the will of Lionel Walden, who in 1719 had bequeathed £500 for that purpose; the net income is £90, and 25 of the scholars are clothed in green by a bequest of £26 per annum by Gabriel Newton, alderman of Leicester, in 1760. National central schools are supported by subscription; and there are various charitable bequests for distribution among the poor.
The union of Huntingdon comprises 33 parishes or places, and contains a population of 18,431; a workhouse has been built on the western side of the great north road, close to the town; and the old workhouse has been sold, and converted into an iron-foundry.
Of the monastic establishments that existed here, was a priory of Black canons, dedicated to St. Mary, founded prior to the year 973, and removed by Eustace de Lovetot in the reign of Stephen, or that of Henry II., to the eastern part of the town; the revenue, at the Dissolution, was £232. 7.: there are no remains.
A priory for nuns of the Benedictine order was removed from Eltesley, in the county of Cambridge, to Huntingdon, the revenue of which, at the Dissolution, was £19. 9. 2.; the site was granted by Henry VIII. to Sir Richard Cromwell, who erected the mansion of Hinchinbrook House, with part of the materials.
A convent of Augustine friars was founded in the parish of St. John, in the reign of Edward I., which subsisted until the Reformation; and in the latter part of the sixteenth century, the site of the friary belonged to Robert Cromwell, whose son became Protector.
Here was also an hospital dedicated to St. Margaret, for a master and leprous brethren, to which Malcolm, King of Scotland and Earl of Huntingdon, was a benefactor, and which was annexed to Trinity Hall, Cambridge, in 1445, by letters-patent of Henry VI.: the only remains are two tenements with small gardens attached, called the Spitals, usually occupied rent-free by poor widows or families. The learned Henry of Huntingdon, author of a history of England, continued to the reign of Stephen; and Oliver Cromwell, were natives of Huntingdon. The town gives the title of Earl to the family of Rawdon-Hastings.
Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848
Parish Registers
Marriage Licences and Allegations
London Marriage Licences and Allegations 1521 to 1869
The following have been extracted from London Marriage Licences 1521 to 1869.
Abbreviations. — B. Bishop of London’s Office; D. Dean and Chapter of Westminster; F. Faculty Office of Archbishop of Canterbury; V. Registry of the Vicar-General of Canterbury.
Benton, Jerome, of St. Andrew Hubbard, London, turner, and Isabel Cowper, of St. Margaret, Lothbury, spinster, daughter of John Cowper, of Huntingdon, co. Huntingdon, baker, gen. lic., 21 July, 1589. B.
Bowyer, Thomas, of All Hallows-in-the-Wall, London, clerk, bachelor, 25, and Frances Beard, spinster, 21, daughter of Thomas Beard, late of the town and county of Huntingdon, D.D., deceased, in the consent of her mother, the widow Beard, of Godmanchester, said county — at St. Faith, London. 17 Jan. 1632/3. F.
Colley, John, of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Middlesex, tailor, and Dorothy Natt, of All Hallows Staining, London, spinster, daughter of Roger Natt, of Huntingdon, co. Huntingdon, yeoman — at St. Bride, London. 22 Oct. 1616. B.
Source: London Marriage Licences 1521 to 1869; Edited by Joseph Foster; London 1887
Administration
- County: Huntingdonshire
- Civil Registration District: Huntingdon
- Probate Court: Court of the Commissary of the Bishop of Lincoln and of the Archdeacon in the Archdeaconry of Huntingdon
- Diocese: Pre-1837 – Lincoln, Post-1836 – Ely
- Rural Deanery: Huntingdon
- Poor Law Union: Huntingdon
- Hundred: Huntingdon Borough
- Province: Canterbury