Place:East Bilney, Norfolk, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

East Bilney was an ecclesiastical or ancient parish in the Launditch Hundred of Norfolk, England and was a civil parish in the Mitford and Launditch Rural District from 1894 until 1935. In 1935 it was absorbed into the parish of Beetley, its neighbour to the south.

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of East Bilney from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1871-72:

"BILNEY (East), a parish in Mitford [registration] district, Norfolk; 3 miles WSW of Elmham [railway] station, and 5 NNW of East Dereham. It has a post office under Swaffham. Acres: 544. Real property: £1,004. Population: 198. Houses: 43. The property is divided among a few. The living is a rectory, united with the rectory of Beetley, in the diocese of Norwich. Value: £642. Patron: W. Collison, Esq. The church is good. Bilney, the martyr, burned at Norwich in 1531, was a native."

Wikipedia does not have an article on East Bilney, but it does have one on the martyr, Thomas Bilney (c. 1495 – 19 August 1531), and another on Andrew Perne (c. 1519 – 26 April 1589), Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University and dean of Ely, who was the son of John Perne of East Bilney, Norfolk.

Research Tips

• GENUKI provides a list of references for East Bilney. Some entries lead to free online transcriptions of registers and censuses.
• A map illustrating the individual parishes of Launditch Hundred may be useful.
• GENUKI also advises that the following lists for Norfolk are to be found in FamilySearch:

• England, Norfolk, Parish Registers (County Record Office), 1510-1997
• England, Norfolk Archdeacon's Transcripts, 1600-1812
• England, Norfolk Bishop's Transcripts, 1685-1941
• England, Norfolk Marriage Bonds, 1557-1915
• England, Norfolk Non-conformist Records, 1613-1901

• Ancestry.co.uk has the following lists as of 2018 (UK or worldwide Ancestry membership or library access required). With the exception of the index to wills these files are browsible images of the original documents. The files are separated by type and broken down into time periods (i.e., "Baptism, Marriages, and Burials, 1535-1812" is more than one file). The general explanatory notes are worth reading for those unfamiliar with English parish records.

• Index to wills proved in the Consistory Court of Norwich : and now preserved in the District Probate Registry at Norwich
• Norfolk, England, Bishop's Transcripts, 1579-1935
• Norfolk, England, Church of England Baptism, Marriages, and Burials, 1535-1812
• Norfolk, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1915
• Norfolk, England, Church of England Deaths and Burials, 1813-1990
• Norfolk, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1940

• FindMyPast is another pay site with large collection of parish records. As of October 2018 they had 20 types of Norfolk records available to browse including Land Tax Records and Electoral Registers.