Place:Great Amwell, Hertfordshire, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

NOTE: A hamlet called Amwell also exists a mile southwest of Wheathampstead, further west in Hertfordshire. This hamlet has been redirected to Wheathamptstead. Caution should be taken because since the formation of East Hertfordshire District, Great Amwell and Little Amwell have been merged and the new parish named "Amwell" (particularly in Wikipedia).

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Amwell (Great and Little) is a village in the county of Hertfordshire, England. It is located southeast of Ware and about north of London. Great Amwell is also the name of the civil parish within East Hertfordshire district.

The Anglican church is dedicated to St John the Baptist. The East India College was founded here in 1806, for the education of young men intended for the civil service of the East India Company in India. It is now a public school, Haileybury College.

The New River runs through the village.

On a hill above the church is an ancient mound, the remains of a fortification; and to the west, on the road to Hertford, is a large tumulus.

Great Amwell has been the residence of some celebrated literary characters, among whom are:

• Izaak Walton, (1593–1683) the noted angler.
• John Scott of Amwell, (1730–83), author of several poems and tracts, who built a grotto containing several apartments, which still exists.
• John Hoole, (1727–1803), the distinguished translator of Tasso, and biographer of John Scott of Amwell.
• Rev Robert Scott Mylne FRSE FSSA FSA (1854-1920) antiquarian, vicar of Amwell (buried in the Mylne vault there)

Others buried in Amwell include:

• William Warner, (1558?-1609), the poet and historian;
• Alexander Small(1710-1794) Scottish surgeon and frequent correspondent of Benjamin Franklin;
• Harold Abrahams in 1978, the Olympian who was depicted in Chariots of Fire.

Richard Warren (d. 1628), a passenger on the Mayflower in 1620, who settled in Plymouth Colony and co-signed the Mayflower Compact, was married on 14 April 1610 at Great Amwell to Elizabeth Walker, daughter of Augustine Walker. Richard and Elizabeth are the ancestors of two U.S. Presidents, Ulysses S. Grant and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

A hamlet called Amwell also exists a mile south west of Wheathampstead, also in Hertfordshire.

In 1935 a substantial area of the parish was transferred to Hoddesdon Urban District and to Ware Urban District.

Research Tips

• Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies, Register Office Block CHR002, County Hall, Hertford SG13 8EJ. Indexes and Catalog
• GENUKI on Hertfordshire (individual parishes covered separately)
• Hertfordshire Family History Society
• The hundred of Hertford: Introduction and map as provided by British History Online in the Victoria County History of Hertfordshire, volume 3, pp 407-408
• The parish of Great Amwell ibid, volume 3, pp 414-419
• Ordnance Survey map of Hertfordshire 1900 provided by A Vision of Britain through Time
• Ordnance Survey map of Hertfordshire 1944 provided by A Vision of Britain through Time