Place:Glasshouse Yard, Finsbury (metropolitan borough), London, England

:the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia Glasshouse Yard was historically a parish liberty and extra parochial area (outside the control of any parish). It was made a civil parish in 1866 when it was considered part of the Holborn District. In 1889 it was transferred from Middlesex to the newly-created County of London and in 1900 became part of Finsbury Metropolitan Borough. Finsbury Metropolitan Borough was abolished in 1965, and the area became part of the London Borough of Islington. This area was originally part of the parish of St. Botolph without Aldersgate and Anglican (Church of England) inhabitants of Glasshouse Yard would have continued their links to the church of that parish. Most of that parish lay within the medieval, near fixed, boundaries of the City of London, with the main exception being this northermost area in the adjoining county of Middlesex. Over the centuries housing and the population of this portion increased such that by the 18th century it became an overwhelmingly urban extension of London of roughly the same density as that further south. The Yard's own administration was created, taking the form of a board of trustees, when the Act for the Relief of the Poor 1601 (Elizabethan Poor Law) was introduced.

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The Glasshouse

The name and date of establishment of the liberty (1601) attested to the existence of its "glass-house" or glass-making factory, recorded in later decades of the century. This status coincided with the reign of Elizabeth I, whose government pursued a policy of encouraging new industries, exempting them from onerous tithes. High fire risk (and noxious industries such as tanning, dying and slaughterhouses) were banned from the City so such industries occupied the area immediately adjoining it. By 1661 the factory was manufacturing crystal glass. But by 1700 production appears to have ended.

The Liberty of Glasshouse Yard was bounded to the south by the (many parishes of) the City of London, to the west by the parish of St. Sepulchre, to the northeast by the Liberty of Charterhouse and to the north and northwest by the parish of St Luke's, Islington. It had an area of 5.6 acres (2.3 ha), and by the 19th century became partly covered by Goswell Street (now the A1, the main road to the north) and Pickaxe Street.

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Glasshouse Yard. This article explains the former history of Glasshouse Yard and the history of the administration of this area immediately north of the City of London.

Research Tips

Middlesex Research Tips

Parts of Middlesex were absorbed into London in 1889 (Inner London), and some in 1965 (Outer London). Depending on the specific location and the year being investigated it may be necessary to check London records as well as those of Middlesex.

• See wiki.familysearch.org under "Middlesex" for key information about the jurisdictions and records of Middlesex, plus links to indexes, reference aids and Family History Library holdings. As at October 2019 FamilySearch has updated its listings of Parish Registers, 1538-1912 for Westminster.
• The London Metropolitan Archives (40 Northampton Road, Clerkenwell, London EC1R 0HB) holds records relating to the whole of Greater London. Ancestry (subscription necessary) has produced transcriptions and provides images of lists of baptisms, marriages, and burials in churches across Greater London. These lists start in 1813 and stretch into the 20th century.
• The Victoria History of the County of Middlesex is a series of volumes available online through British History Online. The volumes were written over the past hundred or so years by a number of authors and cover various sections of Middlesex. A list of the volumes and what each contains can be found under the source Victoria History of the County of Middlesex
• GENUKI has a long list of websites and archive holders in addition to London Metropolitan Archives above. (The list from GENUKI is not maintained so well that there is never a dead link in it. However, it is often worth googling the title given on the page just in case the contributor has reorganized their website.)
• GENUKI has a separate page for Middlesex references.
• GENUKI also has a list of the Archives and Local Studies Libraries for each of the boroughs of Greater London.
• Registration Districts in Middlesex and Registration Districts in London, are lists of the registration districts used for civil registration (births, marriages and deaths, as well as the censuses). There are linked supporting lists of the parishes which made up each registration district, the dates of formation and abolition of the districts, the General Register Office numbers, and the local archive-holding place. This work has been carried out by Brett Langston under the agency of GENUKI (Genealogy United Kingdom and Ireland) and UKBMD - Births, Marriages, Deaths & Censuses on the Internet.