Place:Dunmow Hundred, Essex, England

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NameDunmow Hundred
TypeHundred
Located inEssex, England
From Wikipedia
"A hundred is a geographic division formerly used in England, Wales, South Australia and some parts of the United States, to divide a larger region into smaller administrative divisions; similar divisions were made in Denmark, Southern Schleswig, Sweden, Finland, Estonia and Norway."

Hundreds were replaced by Registration Districts or Poor Law Unions between 1837 and 1850, and then by Rural and Urban Districts and Municipal Boroughs in 1894.

A map of the hundreds of Essex is available on Wikipedia.

Dunmow Hundred is located in the northwest section of Essex, but is surrounded on all sides by other Essex hundreds. Starting from the north these are Freshwell, Hinckford, Chelmsford, Ongar, Harlow and Uttlesford. Its boundaries included most of the parishes that were part of the Dunmow Rural District between 1894 and 1974, but there were some parish mergers and some shifts to other rural districts as the organization of rural districts took place.

The map numbers in the table below refer to the map on the page for Dunmow Rural District.

The following description from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72 is provided by the website A Vision of Britain Through Time (University of Portsmouth Department of Geography).

[Dunmow] hundred is of less extent than the [registration] district [of the same name]; and lies between the hundreds of Chelmsford and Harlow. Acres: 54,670. Population: 13,649. Houses: 2,989.

Wikipedia does not have an article on Dunmow Hundred.

Parishes

Map Number Parish Description Notes
Abbess Roding Ancient parish/Civil parishpart of Ongar Rural District 1894-1974
D1 Aythorpe Roding Ancient parish/Civil parish
D3 Barnston Ancient parish/Civil parish
Berners Roding Ancient parish/Civil parishpart of Ongar Rural District 1894-1974
D4 Broxted Ancient parish/Civil parish
D5Chickney Ancient parish/Civil parish
Good Easter Ancient parish/Civil parishpart of Chelmsford Rural District 1894-1974
D8 Great Canfield Ancient parish/Civil parish
D9Great Dunmow Ancient parish/Civil parish
D10Great Easton Ancient parish/Civil parish
D13High Easter Ancient parish/Civil parish
D14 High Roding Ancient parish/Civil parish
D15 Leaden Roding Ancient parish/Civil parish
D16 Lindsell Ancient parish/Civil parish
D18Little Canfield Ancient parish/Civil parish
D19Little Dunmow Ancient parish/Civil parish
D20 Little Easton Ancient parish/Civil parish
D22 Margaret Roding Ancient parish/Civil parish
Mashbury Ancient parish/Civil parishpart of Chelmsford Rural District 1894-1974
Pleshey Ancient parish/Civil parishChelmsford Rural District]] 1894-1974
Shellow Bowells Ancient parish/Civil parishpart of Ongar Rural District 1894-1974
D25Thaxted Ancient parish/Civil parish
D26 Tilty Ancient parish/Civil parish
D27 White Roding Ancient parish/Civil parish
Willingale Doe Ancient parish/Civil parishpart of Ongar Rural District 1894-1974
Willingale Spain Ancient parish/Civil parishpart of Ongar Rural District 1894-1974

Research tips

  • Essex Record Office handles Essex archives within the county. The address is Wharf Road, Chelmsford, Essex CM2 6YT.
  • The Essex Society for Family History covers topics of genealogical interest throughout the present County of Essex (i.e. excluding the western area now in Greater London). Subscription necessary.
  • GENUKI provides a list of towns and parishes leading to pages for individual parishes with useful local information for genealogists and family historians.
  • Wikimedia Commons has a set of maps of the old hundreds of Essex. These do not show the individual parishes within the hundreds.
  • For very detailed investigation Wikimedia Commons also has a series of 176 part maps of the Ordnance Survey 1st series 1:10560, Map of Essex
  • FamilySearch lists its collections of church records and vital records along with those provided by other organizations, both commercial and voluntary.
  • The commercial website FindMyPast also has a collection of wills and newspaper transcriptions, as well as the "1939 Register" (an equivalent to the census gathered at the beginning of World War 2).
  • A Vision of Britain through Time is a website produced by the Department of Geography of the University of Portsmouth. It outlines all parishes as they were in the 19th century.
  • British History Online has transcribed eight volumes of the Victoria County History project for Essex. Seven of these cover the history of parts of the county in great detail, although the project is incomplete for Essex as a whole. Ownership of land through the centuries can often be traced here. The volumes of note are as follows:
Volume 4, Ongar Hundred, including Chipping and High Ongar, Chigwell, Stondon Massey and Theydon Bois (26 parishes in all).
Volume 5, Becontree Hundred outside Greater London. A thematic account of the growth of metropolitan Essex since 1850. Also contains topographical accounts of Barking, Ilford, Dagenham and other areas of Essex now within Greater London.
Volume 6, parishes of Becontree Hundred now within the London boroughs of Newham, Waltham Forest and Redbridge. These include West and East Ham, Walthamstow and Wanstead.
Volume 7, Covers the ancient parishes, formerly within the Liberty of Havering-atte-Bower and now within the London borough of Havering, and those in Chafford hundred in western Essex now bordering London. It includes accounts of Hornchurch, Romford, Havering.
Volume 8, accounts of the parishes of Chafford and Harlow Hundreds, including Brentwood, Harlow and Thurrock.
Volume 9, the Borough of Colchester, describes the life of the oldest and for long the largest town in Essex from the Iron Age to 1990.
Volume 10, Lexden Hundred (part), includes Dedham, Earls Colne and Wivenhoe and other parishes to the north and west of Colchester.
  • As of June 2019 Ancestry (Worldwide subscription required) includes Essex, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812, these early records are from parish registers of baptisms and burials during the years 1538–1812, and marriages during the years 1538-1754. These are in addition to their previous holdings:
  • Essex, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1918: 3,937,941 records
  • Essex, England, Church of England Marriages, 1754-1935: 1,968,439 records
  • Essex, England, Church of England Deaths and Burials, 1813-1994: 730,118 records