Edmonton All Saints, Middlesex Family History Guide
Edmonton All Saints is an Ancient Parish in the county of Middlesex.
Other places in the parish include: Palmers Green, Lower Edmonton, Church Street, and Bury Street.
Alternative names:
Parish church: All Saints
Parish registers begin:
- Parish registers: 1557
- Bishop’s Transcripts: 1629; 1800
Nonconformists include: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Independent/Congregational, Roman Catholic, and Wesleyan Methodist.
Table of Contents
Adjacent Parishes
Parish History
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870
EDMONTON, a parish, a sub-district, a district, and a hundred in Middlesex. The parish lies on the Enfield branch of the London and Hertford railway, and on the New River, 8 miles N by E of St. Paul’s, London; contains Lower Edmonton, Upper Edmonton, Southgate, Winchmore-Hill, Palmers-Green, and the wards of Bury-street, Church-street, Fore-street, and South-street; includes part of Enfield chace.
It is a seat of petty sessions; and has a railway station at Lower Edmonton, and two post-offices, of the names of Edmonton and Southgate, under London N. The central part of it figured at Domesday as Edelmeton; was anciently a town; is now a long broken street, has four churches, nine dissenting chapels, a coach factory, a court house, and a police station; and may be regarded as a suburb of London.
The parish church consists of nave, chancel, and north aisle, with square embattled tower; was encased with bricks in 1772; had anciently a chantry; and contains monuments of the Huxleys and the Myddletons, and three old brasses. St. James’ church is at Upper Edmonton; St. Paul’s, at Winchmore Hill; Christ-church, at Southgate; and the last of these is a large edifice in the pointed style. The remains of the poet Lamb, and those of his sisters, with a monumental stone, are in the churchyard. An Independent chapel, built in 1850, at a cost of £6, 000, is a handsome structure, in florid Gothic.
The court-house is a modern edifice, on the site of an old seat of the Snells. Latymer’s school, for educating and clothing boys, has £327 from endowment; Stanbridge’s school, for educating and clothing girls, bears the inscription, “A structure of Hope, founded in Faith, on the basis of Charity, 1784;” Wild and Styles’ alms-houses have £160; and all charities, inclusive of these, have £633.
Edmonton figures in Cowper’s poem of John Gilpin; and is known also for “a merry devil” and “a witch,” each of whom has been made the subject of a play. The merry devil was a Peter Fabell, who seems to have acquired notoriety by sleight-of-hand tricks; and the witch was an Elizabeth Sawyer, who was put to death for alleged sorcery in 1621.
The parish comprises 7, 480 acres. Real property, £53, 447. Pop., 10, 936. Houses, 2, 079. The property is much subdivided. The manor belongs to Sir W. Curtis, Bart. Pymmes was the seat of Lord Burleigh; Bury Hall, of President Bradshaw; and Bush Hill, of the Myddletons. The parochial living is a vicarage, and the livings of Upper Edmonton, Southgate, and Winchmore Hill, also are vicarages, in the dio. of London. Value of the first, £1,160; of the second and the third, each £200; of the fourth, £100. Patrons of the first, the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul’s; of each of the others, the Vicar.
Owen, the author of “Critica Sacra,” was vicar; Tillotson, the archbishop, when dean, resided in the parsonage; and Dr. B. Taylor, the mathematician, was a native.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848
EDMONTON (All Saints), a parish, and the head of a union, in the hundred of Edmonton, county of Middlesex, 7 miles (N.) from London; containing 9027 inhabitants.
This place, which had risen into some consideration prior to the Conquest, is in Domesday book called Ædelmeton, probably as having been the residence of some distinguished personage during the heptarchy. The extensive forest in the neighbourhood, of which Enfield Chace formed a part, made it the resort of many individuals, who occasionally retired hither to enjoy the diversion of hunting; and from its convenient distance from the metropolis, it became the residence of many opulent families.
The village stands pleasantly on the high road to Hertford, along which it extends for more than a mile, containing, exclusively of small dwellings, several ranges of respectable houses, and, in detached situations, many elegant mansions and villas; it is well lighted with gas, and amply supplied with water. The New River intersects several parts of the parish, producing a picturesque effect in the grounds and meadows through which it winds.
A considerable coach manufactory affords employment to more than 60 persons; and an extensive trade in timber is carried on by means of the Lea river navigation, which passes within three-quarters of a mile of the village. A station on the Eastern Counties railway is also situated here. Fairs, chiefly for pleasure, are held on St. Giles and Ascension days, on a part of Enfield Chace, near Southgate, in the parish, under letters-patent of James I.
The petty-sessions for the division are held at the Angel inn on alternate Fridays, and a court leet and court baron are held on the Tuesday in Whitsun-week: the powers of the county debt-court of Edmonton, established in 1847, extend over the sub-registration-districts of Edmonton, Enfield, and Tottenham.
The living is a vicarage, valued in the king’s books at £18; net income, £1550; patrons and appropriators, the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul’s, London: the tithes were commuted for land and corn-rents in 1799. The church is a spacious ancient structure in the later English style, once of flint stone; in 1772 it was cased with brick, but it has a square embattled tower in its original state. At Southgate and Winchmore-Hill are separate incumbencies. There are places of worship for Baptists, the Society of Friends, Independents, and Wesleyans.
A charity school for boys was founded in 1624, by Edward Latymer; a charity school for girls was established by subscription in 1778, and a national school in 1822. The poor law union of Edmonton comprises seven parishes or places, of which five are in Middlesex, and one in each of the counties of Essex and Hertford; and contains a population of 52,569. On Bush Hill, in the parish, are remains of a large circular encampment, supposed to have been the site of a British town, and near which Sir Hugh Myddelton had a residence. Bury Hall, the seat of President Bradshaw, retains many of its original features.
Peter Fabell, a learned man of eccentric character, who flourished in the reign of Henry VII., and obtained the reputation of being a conjuror, is said to have been born in the parish, which became noted by the production of a drama, founded upon some of his alleged exploits, and called the “Merry Devil of Edmonton,” first printed in 1608. The place also gave rise to a tragedy founded on the history of an unfortunate woman who was condemned and executed on a charge of witchcraft, in 1621; and it has been lastly celebrated as the scene of Cowper’s popular ballad of John Gilpin, in allusion to which there is a painting in front of the Bell inn.
Dr. Brook Taylor, secretary to the Royal Society, and author of an ingenious treatise on Perspective, was born here in 1685; and Archbishop Tillotson resided here constantly while Dean of St. Paul’s, and occasionally after his translation to the primacy.
Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848
Edmonton Parish Records
FamilySearch
Administration
- County: Middlesex
- Civil Registration District: Edmonton
- Probate Court: Court of the Commissary of the Bishop of London (London Division)
- Diocese: London
- Rural Deanery: Not created until 1858
- Poor Law Union: Edmonton
- Hundred: Edmonton
- Province: Canterbury