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 Holborn (St Andrew) marriages 1599-1837
** If you would like a photocopy of the original register image please see the 'Comments' section below.**

The church of St Andrew, Holborn is the largest of Wren's parish churches and stands at the western end of Holborn Viaduct by Holborn Circus. It also served one of the biggest parishes in London (it actually spanned the boundary of London and Middlesex) out of which five new parishes were eventually formed.

The registers are large and contain many thousands of entries, as the parish has always been a popular place to marry. More significantly, the entries from the marriage registers do not appear on the International Genealogical Index or in Boyd's Marriage Index. Pallot's Marriage index has entries for 1780-1837 but these give only year and omit many of the details from the original registers.

Images of the original register can be seen at the Society on microfilms 3864-3872

Historical Notes

As the population of London increased at such a rapid rate (by some 500 percent between 1500 and 1600), parishes outside the city walls, like St Andrew Holborn, saw themselves changing from semi-rural communities into crowded residential and business areas. Many of the incomers were outsiders, refugees and artisan immigrants from Continental Europe or English migrants from the shires.

The Inns of Court and Chancery played a significant roll in the parish as benefactors of the church of St Andrew and as contributors during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries to the building of the tower and the new roof and purchasing the clock and bells. It was calculated that since 1539 one hundred and sixty-nine members of the Inns of Court and Chancery were buried at St Andrews. The dispersal of the estates of religious foundations after the dissolution (including St Bartholomew's) meant that land could be purchased and developed by aspiring gentry. Naturally property nearest the City was ripe for similar development. The manor of Holborn grew extensively over the sixteenth century and itself was sold off for gardens, housing and the new churchyard during the seventeenth century. Such estates were often purchased by lawyers.

The Bishop of Lincoln and the Bishop of Ely had held houses in the parish which were acquired by aristocrats such as the Wriothsleys, Earls of Southampton. The "Old Temple" or the Bishop of Lincoln's town house was pulled down to make way for Southampton House which in turn was replaced by Southampton Buildings in 1740. After Ely House was requisitioned, the Bishop of Ely was persuaded to lease the great garden and orchard to Sir Christopher Hatton, a favourite of Queen Elizabeth. After many quarrels between the family and the Bishop, the garden of the family estate of Hatton House was carved up into streets and built up with houses for persons of quality. The Bishops of Ely did regain possession of Ely Place and its chapel and used the house as a London residence. It was however used as a prison in 1641 (as the current Bishop was himself in the Tower) and there are several entries in the registers of St Andrew's which record the burials of prisoners there. Johns Evelyn's daughter was married in the re-consecrated chapel of Ely House in 1693. Unfortunately only a few of the registers for marriages in this chapel are to be found for the periods 1709-21, 1724-34, 1738-44 at Cambridge University Library. Also allegations applications for licences from the Bishop of London do refer to licences being issued for marriages in Ely chapel. The Bishop finally sold Ely House in 1772.

Related churches

A new church to serve the fine people was eventually carved out of the western part of the parish when the chapel of St George the Martyr was built in Queens Square in the 1706. The gentrification of the western edge of the parish was begun in the seventeenth century when the fields to the west of Lincoln's Inn were not laid out with walks to the approval of the Society of Lincoln's Inn but rather were sold by the crown for houses and tenements. These houses were for gentlemen and peers (who lived around the field in houses with an average of nearly eleven fireplaces each as listed in the Hearth Tax for 1664). But there were also crowded tenements, in-filled yards and subdivided houses to be found in Shoe Lane and Fetter Lane. The church of St Peter Saffron Hill was built (1830-32) in the "worst neighbourhood" "sunk in ignorance and vice of the saddest character". By tradition, Saffron Hillwas a Liberty and Extra Parochial Chapel along with Barnard's, Furnival's, Staple and Thavia's Inns. However no marriages appear to have taken place here. Marriages occurred in the chapels of Gray's Inn and Lincoln's Inn (1695-1754) and at the Temple Church (1628-1760). Holy Trinity Little Queen Street was built between 1829 and 1831 and Grays Inn was built in 1837-8. Traditionally the parish was High Anglican but Roman Catholics and nonconformists were to be found in the back streets with a number of meetinghouses and chapels spreading out from the poorer quarters in Fetter Lane.

Major rebuilding

The church of St Andrew escaped the fire but still needed rebuilding by Sir Christopher Wren and others during 1683-1695 and improvement continued in the eighteenth century and again in the 1860s with the construction of Holborn Viaduct which encroached on large parts of the churchyard. At that time over 10,000 bodies were removed and re-interred at Ilford City Cemetery.

Sequestration

Given this high church tradition, the living of St Andrew's was sequestered by Parliament in 1645. High Anglicanism was not a sensible choice in a parish that housed many of the lawyers and MPs who took part in the constitutional upheaval of the 1630s and 1640s. Both John Pym and Oliver Cromwell lived in the parish.

City connections

The parish of St Andrew Holborn lay either side of London's City Boundary but had such a strong entanglement with the City and, with the church itself lying within the City, its parish registers are held at the Guildhall Library. The parish fell within the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Archdeaconry of London, but people marrying in this parish frequently applied for licences from the Archbishop of Canterbury's Vicar-General and probably the Faculty Office. The records of the Bishop of London's licences should clearly also be examined.

Famous names

Always a prosperous parish, many famous names are to be found in the registers. Benjamin Disraeli was christened in 1817. Sir Edward Coke, Lord Chief Justice, was married to Lady Elizabeth Hatton in 1598; Marc Brunel father of I K Brunel, married Sophia Kingdom in 1799; William Hazzlit married Sarah Stoddart in 1808. Charles Lamb was best man and his sister Mary a bridesmaid.

Missing pages?

The Genealogists Magazine vol 10 no 12 1949 included an interesting note which is worth recording here in full.

The following information about the Parish Register of St. Andrew's Holborn is worth preserving. It is taken from a copy of The London Post or the Tradesman's Intelligence, dated " From Friday Nov. 22 to Monday Nov. 25 1717".
On Friday Night one Arnold, Deputy Clark of St Andrews Holborn, with his Accomplice, a Footman, were sent to New-gate, for Villainously tearing a Months Leaves out of the Parish Register-Book. The Occasion this; A Fellow who had been marry'd about six Years ago at St. Andrews Church; (where the said Marriage was Registered) had Occasion for another Wife, before the other's Death: And to prevent being found out in his Roguery of having two Wives, he agreed with Arnold, for 10. s. in hand, and a Note of 5� more, to tear the Month out of the Book; by which his first Marriage could not be proved: But the Matter being found out, its not doubted but they'll meet with due Reward for their Vilany.

The above announcement is confirmed by the following in The St James Evening Post dated "From Thursday, December 5, to Saturday December 7, 1717" On Thursday last the Under-Clark of St. Andrews, and the Person who employ'd him to tear a Leaf out of the Register-Book of Marriages of that Parish were try'd at the Session -House in the Old-Baily, and Convicted.

Bibliography

These notes were drawn from the following:

The London Encylopedia edited by Ben Weinreb and Christopher Hibbert, 1983
The Parish of St Andrew Holborn by Caroline M Barron with Penelope Huntingdon and Jane Roscoe, 1979
History of Parish Registers in England by J S Burn, 1862
National Index of Parish Registers volume 9 part 5 - London and Middlesex by Cliff Webb, 1995

Acknowledgements

The Society of Genealogists is grateful to the Guildhall Library for both permission to obtain copies of the register films and encouragement in the transcription project.

The project was led by Colin Allen under the guidance of Else Churchill, with development of the computer input program being undertaken by David Squire.

Thanks are due to the many volunteer transcribers and checkers who made the project possible.



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Holborn (St Andrew) marriages 1599-1754 Bride index
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