Benefield, Northamptonshire Family History Guide

Benefield is an Ancient Parish in the county of Northamptonshire.

Other places in the parish include: Lodge in Rockingham Forest, Lower Benefield, Lower End, Upper Benefield, and Upper End.

Parish church: St. Mary

Parish registers begin:

• Parish registers: 1570
• Bishop’s Transcripts: 1698

Nonconformists include: Roman Catholic

Adjacent Parishes

• Glapthorn
• Aldwincle St Peter
• Great Weldon
• Brigstock
• Deene
• Pilton
• Oundle with Ashton
• Apethorpe with Woodnewton

Parish History

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

BENEFIELD, a parish in Oundle district, Northampton; adjacent to Rockingham forest, 3 miles W of Oundle r. station.

It consists of two divisions, called Upper End and Lower End, and embraces an extra-parochial tract in Rockingham forest; and it has a post office under Oundle. Acres, 5,100. Real property, £6,068. Pop., 527. Houses, 110. The property is divided among a few. The manor belongs to J. W. Russell, Esq. Nine holes, called the Swallows, occasionally suck up and absorb land floods.

The living is a rectory in the diocese of Peterborough. Value, £531. Patron, J. W. Russell, Esq. The church was recently restored, and is good.

A school has an endowed income of £10, and other charities £33.

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

A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848

Benefield (St. Mary), a parish, in the union of Oundle, hundred of Polebrook, N. division of the county of Northampton, 3½ miles (W.) from Oundle; containing 533 inhabitants.

This parish, including the lordship of Liveden, comprises 4468 acres, of which above 300 are woodland, and the remainder chiefly pasture; the soil is a strong tenacious clay, with an upper surface of dark loam, and the ground is varied with some gentle undulations, though generally level.

There are two villages about a mile apart, distinguished as Upper and Lower Benefield, the road from Oundle to Great Weldon proceeding through both.

The living is a rectory, valued in the king’s books at £35. 9. 7.; net income, £622; patron, Jesse Watts Russell, Esq., lord of the manor, and proprietor of the parish, with the exception of Liveden. The tithes were commuted for land in 1820: the old glebe, with a house and garden, is valued at £30 per annum; the entire glebe now consists of 470 acres.

The church comprises a nave, north and south aisles, and a deep chancel with a chapel at the north side, and has a tower and spire; the style of the body of the edifice is the transition Norman, and of the chancel, the decorated. The whole has been just restored, and part rebuilt, and the chancel richly illuminated throughout with painting, as practised in medieval times; the windows are of stained glass, and the oak carving highly finished.

About a furlong to the west of the village are nine of those cavities in the earth commonly called “Swallows,” into which the waters of the land-floods flow and disappear.

Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848

Parish Records

FamilySearch

Directories

Kelly Post Office Directory of Northamptonshire 1869 – Google Books

Kelly Post Office Directory of Northamptonshire 1885 – Archive.org

Administration

• County: Northamptonshire
• Civil Registration District: Oundle
• Probate Court: Court of the Bishop of Peterborough (Episcopal Consistory)
• Diocese: Peterborough
• Rural Deanery: Oundle
• Poor Law Union: Oundle
• Hundred: Polebrook
• Province: Canterbury