Great Dunmow Essex Family History Guide
Great Dunmow is an Ancient Parish and a market town in the county of Essex.
Alternative names:
Parish church: St. Mary
Parish registers begin:
- Parish registers: 1538
- Bishop’s Transcripts: 1629; 1800
Nonconformists include: Baptist, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Independent/Congregational, and Society of Friends/Quaker.
Table of Contents
Adjacent Parishes
- High Roding
- Little Dunmow
- Great Canfield
- Little Canfield
- Stebbing
- Barnston
- Great Waltham
- High Easter
- Little Easton
- Great Easton
- Lindsell
Parish History
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870
DUNMOW (Great), a small town and a parish in Dunmow district, Essex. The town stands on an eminence on the right bank of the river Chelmer, adjacent to the Bishop-Stortford and Braintree railway, at the Junction of the Ongar line, 8½ miles W of Braintree, and has a r. station.
It dates from the Roman times; was connected by a Roman road with Colchester; and is identified with a Roman station, which some antiquaries think to have been Villa Faustini, but a greater number call it Cæsaromagus. Vestiges of the Roman road, in several places, still exist; and very many Roman coins and other Roman antiquities have been found in the vicinity.
The town consists chiefly of two good streets; had formerly a market on Saturday, and has now one on Tuesday; has also fairs on 6 May and 8 Nov.; is a seat of petty sessions and a polling-place; and has a post-office, of the name of Dunmow, under Chelmsford, a chief inn, a town-hall, a church, three dissenting chapels, a Roman Catholic chapel, a literary institution, three public schools, a workhouse of 1839, and alms-houses, charities, £69. There was formerly likewise a market-cross.
The church is large and ancient; has a five-light decorated window, and a western embattled tower; and has been partially repaired.
The manufacture of baize and blankets was, at one time, extensively carried on; but both this and a subsequent kind of manufacture are extinct.
The local government was vested, by a charter of Mary, in a recorder, a bailiff, and 12 burgesses; but has long been inert.
The parish comprises 6, 746 acres. Real property, £13, 621; of which £100 are in gas-works. Pop., 2, 976. Houses, 600. The property is subdivided.
The manor belonged anciently to the Crown; was given at Domesday to Hamo Dapifer, and by Henry VIII. to his queen Catherine; and passed afterwards to the Maynards of Easton Lodge. An ancient brick mansion, a short distance west of the church, belongs to Sir P. Brydges Henniker, Bart. Dunmow-highwood is a meet for the Essex hounds.
The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Rochester. Value, £500. Patron, the Lord Chancelor.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848
DUNMOW, GREAT (St. Mary), a parish, and the head of a union, in the hundred of Dunmow, N. division of Essex, 12½ miles (N. N. W.) from Chelmsford, and 37½ (N. E. by N.) from London; containing 2792 inhabitants.
It is supposed by Bishop Gibson to be the site of the Roman station Cæsaromagus, and this conjecture has been adopted by other antiquaries; coins have been discovered at several places near the town, and the road leading from it to Colchester, which was probably Camalodunum, displays some indications of Roman construction. At the time of the Norman survey it was the chief place in the hundred to which it gives name, and in 1250 it was made a market-town: it is agreeably situated near the river Chelmer, and consists mainly of two streets.
Formerly the manufacture of baize and blankets was carried on very extensively; at present there is only a small establishment for making sacking and coarse cloth. The market, which was on Saturday, has been discontinued; but there are fairs on May 6th and Nov. 8th, for cattle.
The inhabitants obtained a charter of incorporation from Philip and Mary, which was confirmed by Elizabeth, the government being vested in a recorder, bailiff, and twelve burgesses; but the officers do not now possess magisterial authority, and the only duty they perform is the appointment of a constable, bread-weighers, and leather-sealers, which takes place on the Tuesday after Michaelmas-day.
The powers of the county debt-court of Dunmow, established in 1847, extend over the registration-district of Dunmow. The petty-sessions for the division are held here. The parish is of considerable extent, comprising 6661 acres, of which 144 are common or waste; on the banks of the Chelmer are some of the finest meadows in the county, and the soil is generally fertile.
The living is a vicarage, valued in the king’s books at £18. 13. 4.; patron, the Bishop of London; impropriator, Sir G. H. W. Beaumont, Bart.: the great tithes have been commuted for £1510, and the vicarial for £580; the glebe contains half an acre, with a house. The church is a spacious edifice in the decorated and later English styles, consisting of a nave, aisles, and a chancel with a fine window: it has many ancient and interesting monuments.
Here are places of worship for Particular Baptists, the Society of Friends, and Independents; and an almshouse for ten poor persons.
The union comprises 25 parishes or places, and contains a population of 19,884.
Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848
Parish Records
FamilySearch
Maps
OS Grid Reference: TL6238222049 (all-numeric format: 562383 222049) Lat/Long: 51.872901, 0.359064
Administration
- County: Essex
- Civil Registration District: Dunmow
- Probate Court: Court of the Archdeaconry of Middlesex (Essex and Hertfordshire Division)
- Diocese: Pre-1846 – London, Post-1845 – Rochester
- Rural Deanery: Dunmow
- Poor Law Union: Dunmow
- Hundred: Dunmow
- Province: Canterbury