Henley-on-Thames Oxfordshire Family History Guide
Henley-on-Thames is an Ancient Parish and a market town in the county of Oxfordshire.
Alternative names: Henley upon Thames
Parish church:
Parish registers begin:
- Parish registers: 1558
- Bishop’s Transcripts: 1639; 1684-1737; 1831
Nonconformists include: Independent/Congregational, Particular Baptist, Society of Friends/Quaker, and Wesleyan Methodist.
Table of Contents
Adjacent Parishes
Henley-on-Thames Parish Records
An index of parish records of people from Henley-on-Thames. The index includes information from Hampshire Allegations for Marriage Licences Granted by the Bishop of Winchester 1689 to 1837
Marriage Licences and Allegations
The following have been extracted from Hampshire Allegations for Marriage Licences Granted by the Bishop of Winchester 1689 to 1837 Published 1893 Editor: William John Charles Moens. Parishes without a named county are parishes within the county of Hampshire.
Jefferis, George, of Henley, co. Oxon, 21, b., & Mary Binsted, of Alton, 21, sp., at A., 14 Nov., 1832. Aff.
Parish History
Henley-on-Thames The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870
HENLEY-ON-THAMES, a town and a parish in Henley district, Oxford. The town stands on the Thames, at the boundary with Berks, near the boundary with Bucks, at the terminus of a branch railway with the Great Western, and under the Chiltern hills, 7 miles NE by N of Reading. The railway to it leaves the Great Western at Twyford, is 4½ miles long, and has a station at Shiplake. The environs are. very beautiful; and comprise one of the finest reaches of the Thames, flanked by gentle hills or cliffs, covered with hanging woods.
The town has been thought, by some antiquaries, to occupy the site of the Roman station Calleva; has yielded numerous Roman coins; does not appear on record till after the time of the Norman conquest; was known, for some time, as Hanlegang, or Hanniburg; presents now a modern appearance; and consists chiefly of two streets, crossing at right angles.
A fine stone bridge, of five arches, connects it with Berks; was erected, in 1786, in place of an old wooden one, at a cost of £10,000; and has sculptures, over the central arch, by the Hon. Mrs. Damer. The town hall is a neat building of 1796, with a piazza. The market house is commodious. The quondam theatre was used for some time as a dissenting chapel, afterwards as a temporary church, and is now a lecture room. The Red Lion inn is old but good; has, on a pane of one of its windows, some lines written by Shenstone; and is much frequented by anglers and oarsmen.
The parish church is decorated English; has a later English tower, said to have been built by Wolsey; contains an effigies of Lady Elizabeth Periam, sister of the great Lord Bacon; and was restored, in 1854, at a cost of upwards of £7, 500. Trinity church, on the south side of the town, is a modern edifice; and serves for a chapelry constituted in 1849, and comprising parts of the parishes of Henley-on-Thames, Rotherfield-Greys, and Rotherfield-Peppard.
The town has a head post-office, a banking office, an Independent chapel, a Quakers’ chapel, a public library left by Dean Aldrich, a workhouse, national and industrial schools, built at a cost of about £3,500, a grammar school with £365 from endowment, a lower grammar school with £54, and 26 alms houses and other charities with £786. A weekly market is held on Thursday; fairs are held on 7 March, Holy Thursday, Trinity Thursday, and the Thursday after 21 Dec.; and a considerable trade is done in grain, malt, and agricultural produce.
The town was chartered by Elizabeth; was, for some time, represented in parliament; and is governed by a mayor, ten aldermen, and other officers. Speaker Lenthall and Bishop Longland were natives. Pop. in 1851, 3, 369; in 1861, 3, 419. Houses, 687. The parish comprises 1, 737 acres. Real property, £7, 548; of which £90 are in gas works, and £10 in fisheries. Pop., 3, 676. Houses, 738.
The manor belonged formerly to the Molines, the Hungerfords, and the Hastingses; and belongs now to the Earl of Malmsbury. Henley Park, Badgemore, Greenland House, Fawley Court, Culham Court, Grey’s Court, Hambledon House, Crowsley Park, and Harpesden House are chief residences here or in the neighbourhood.
The head living is a rectory, and Trinity is a p. curacy, in the diocese of Oxford. Value of the former, £427; of the latter, £120. Patron of both, the Bishop of Oxford.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
Historical Maps of Henley-on-Thames
Old maps of Britain and Europe from A Vision of Britain Through Time
English: OS map of The Chilterns at a scale of 1:63,360 or one inch to one mile – Wikimedia Commons
Ordnance Survey One-Inch Sheet 159 The Chilterns, Published 1968 – Wikimedia Commons
Administration
- County: Oxfordshire
- Civil Registration District: Henley
- Probate Court: Courts of the Bishop (Episcopal Consistory) and the Archdeaconry of Oxford
- Diocese: Oxford
- Rural Deanery: Henley
- Poor Law Union: Henley
- Hundred: Binfield
- Province: Canterbury