Place:Huntington (near Kington), Herefordshire, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

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the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Huntington is a village in Herefordshire, England on the border with Wales. The modern parish of Huntington and Brilley had an estimated population of 376 in 2015.

Huntington was a Medieval borough founded as a replacement to nearby Kington which had been destroyed in 1216.

Huntington was built as a new borough first mentioned in 1228. In 1230 Huntington passed to the Bohuns and in 1267 there was a survey carried out of Huntington (Huntiton) castle and borough with rents in Kington (Kinton) borough, Barton (Bauerton) and New Kington. New Kington was obviously the new town founded after the destruction of Kington and Kington Castle by King John in August 1216.

In 1298 it was recorded that Earl Humphrey of Hereford and Essex had 47 free tenants living in Huntington borough, some of them owing military service at Huntington Castle. However it is noticeable that there were already 59 free tenants recorded in Kington. The old borough, despite its destruction in 1216, was still surpassing the new borough created at Huntington. The account books of the 1370s show that Huntington was a thriving manorial centre. The account of the reeve, Roger Barton, states that the local tenants were liable to the lord of the manor of Huntington for ploughing, hoeing, mowing, muck spreading, tossing hay, reaping corn and oats and performing haulage. The revolt of Owain Glyndŵr some thirty years later seems to have destroyed what prosperity there was at Huntington, leaving what is now a decayed borough.

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Huntington (near Kington) from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"HUNTINGTON, a parish and a hundred in Herefordshire. The parish lies on the river Arrow, adjacent to Radnorshire, 4 miles SW of Kington [railway] station; is in Presteigne [registration] district; and has fairs on 18 July and 13 Nov. Post town: Kington. Acres: 1,937. Real property: £2,227. Population: 260. Houses: 50. The property is divided among three. Ruins exist of an ancient castle, built for the defence of the marches. The living is a rectory, annexed to the vicarage of Kington, in the diocese of Hereford. The church is modern, and has a wooden bell turret. There are an Independent chapel and a free school, the latter with £118 a year from endowment."

Research Tips

• Herefordshire Archive and Records Centre, Fir Tree Lane, Rotherwas, Hereford HR2 6LA is where paper and microfilm copies of all records for Herefordshire are stored. The Archives Centre has a website where the index to the archives (and also the wills catalog) can be searched. One item in the catalog is List of all Herefordshire parish register and bishops transcripts holdings which is a PDF file with information provided in an old version of Excel.

Online sources which may also be helpful:

• GENUKI gives pointers to other archive sources as well as providing some details on each parish in the county. The emphasis here is on ecclesiastical parishes (useful before 1837)
• A listing of all the Registration Districts in England and Wales since their introduction in 1837 and tables of the parishes that were part of each district and the time period covered with detailed notes on changes of parish name, mergers, etc. Do respect the copyright on this material.
• The FamilySearch Wiki for Herefordshire provides a similar but not identical series of webpages to that provided by GENUKI
• A Vision of Britain through Time has a group of pages of statistical facts for almost every parish in the county
• Unfortunately, only one volume on Herefordshire has been published in the Victoria County History series. British History Online have produced a series of Ordnance Survey first edition maps for the county which may be helpful for mid-nineteenth century inquiries
• Ancestry.co.uk lists its collections of Herefordshire genealogical material.
• FindMyPast collections of historical records can be searched for Herefordshire. They have collections of parish records for the pre-1837 period.