Place:Mattishall, Norfolk, England

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source: Family History Library Catalog

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Mattishall is a village and civil parish in Norfolk, England. It is situated 13 miles from the centre of Norwich and four miles from Dereham, at the geographical centre of Norfolk.

It covers an area of 11.89 km2 (4.59 sq mi) and had a population of 2,631 in 1,110 households at the 2011 UK census. For the purposes of local government, it falls within the Mattishall ward of Breckland District Council.

The All Saints Church in Mattishall dates from the late fourteenth century, possibly replacing an earlier church on the site. The patron is Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge and it is thought that Dr. Caius (1510-1573) was instrumental in initiating the building of the larger church. Saint Peter's Church, in Mattishall Burgh, is much smaller and is mainly late thirteenth century.

Mattishall has been divided in a religious sense for many years, first with the Reformation (circa 1535), then with the growth of Quakerism. The Quakers established a Meeting House in 1687. Almost 100 years later the Old Moor Congregational Chapel was built. Both had their own burial ground. When it become uneconomical to continue at Old Moor, the Congregationalists transferred to their Lecture Room in Welgate built in 1829. It is now the United Reformed Church. Primitive Methodism gained a following in the nineteenth century but it was not until 1900 that a site was found for a permanent meeting place along the main road. The second half of the twentieth century saw the establishment of the Evangelical Church.

During the reign of Edward VI, cleric Matthew Parker married Margaret Harlestone of Mattishall. He became the first Archbishop of Canterbury to be appointed under Elizabeth I. Local tradition has it that the house behind the butcher's shop in Church Plain was the Harlestone family home.

Some of the very old buildings in Mattishall are hidden behind brick and mortar skins and Georgian facades, but others remain to be admired. Of the three nineteenth century mills, the bases of two remain.

Research Tips

• GENUKI provides a list of references for Mattishall. Some entries lead to free online transcriptions of registers and censuses.
• A map illustrating the individual parishes of Mitford 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.