Royston Hertfordshire Family History Guide

Royston is an Ancient Parish partly in Hertfordshire and partly in Cambridgeshire.

Alternative names:

Parish church:

Parish registers begin:

Parish registers: 1662
Bishop’s Transcripts: 1629; 1802

Nonconformists include: Independent/Congregational.

Table of Contents

Adjacent Parishes

Parish History

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

ROYSTON, a town, a parish, a sub-district, and a district, all registrationally in Herts, but part of the parish electorally in Cambridgeshire, and other parts of the district in Cambridgeshire and Essex.

The town stands at the intersection of Icknield-street and Ermine-street, on the mutual boundary of Herts and Cambridgeshire, adjacent to the Hitchin and Cambridge railway, 13 miles ENE of Hitchin. It is supposed to have originated in the time of William the Conqueror; took its name from Roisia de Vere, who put up a cross at it; had an Augustinian priory, founded in the time of Henry II.; had also a royal hunting-seat, built by James I., and occasionally occupied by that king and by Charles I.

It is now a seat of petty-sessions and county courts, and a polling-place; gives the title of Viscount to Earl Hardwicke; is situated, in a bottom, among chalk downs; comprises several streets, chiefly edificed with brick houses; and has a head post-office, a railway station, two banking offices, two chief inns, a market house, a public institute, a church, Independent and Unitarian chapels, national and British schools, and charities £42. The market house is a modern building. A sculptured cave, 17 feet in diameter and 25½ feet high, was discovered under Melbourn-street, adjacent to the market house, in 1742; and is supposed to have been successively a Roman sepulchre and a Christian oratory.

The public institute was built in 1856; and contains reading-rooms, class-rooms, a library, a museum, and a lecture-hall. The church is the old church of the priory, and contains some ancient brasses and monuments.A weekly market is held on Wednesday; fairs are held on Ash-Wednesday, Easter-Wednesday, Whit-Wednesday, the first Wednesday of July, and the Wednesday after 10 Oct.; and malting, brewing, and lime-burning are carried on.

The parish comprises 300 acres in Herts, and 20 in Cambridgeshire. Real property, £6, 824. Pop., 1, 387 and 495. Houses, 286 and 103. The manor belongs to Lord Dacre. Various antiquities are found, from time to time, in the neighbourhood of the town; and many barrows are on the hills to the E and the W. The Royston crow, Corvus cornix, visits the town about the beginning of winter, and migrates to Sweden and Germany in spring. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Rochester. Value, £107. Patron, Lord Dacre.

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

Parish Records

FamilySearch

Cambridgeshire Historical Directories

Hertfordshire Historical Directories

Administration

County: Hertfordshire
Civil Registration District: Royston
Probate Court: Court of the Commissary of the Bishop of London (Essex and Hertfordshire Division)
Diocese: Post-1844 – Rochester, Pre-1845 – London
Rural Deanery: Pre-1845 – Braughing, Post 1844 – Buntingford
Poor Law Union: Royston
Hundred: Odsey
Province: Canterbury