Place:Southminster, Essex, England

Watchers
NameSouthminster
Alt namesSudmunstrasource: Domesday Book (1985) p 105
TypeParish
Coordinates51.667°N 0.833°E
Located inEssex, England
See alsoDengie Hundred, Essex, Englandancient hundred in which it was located
Maldon Rural, Essex, Englandrural district in which it was located 1894-1974
Maldon District, Essex, Englanddistrict municipality of which it has been part since 1974
source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
source: Family History Library Catalog


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

Southminster is a civil parish on the Dengie peninsula in the Maldon District of Essex, England. It lies about three miles north of Burnham on Crouch and ten miles southeast of the town of Maldon. To the north is the River Blackwater, which is tidal and since Roman times has been the gateway to trading in the area. The population of the parish in the UK census of 2011 was 4,272.

Southminster is in the centre of the Dengie peninsula, which once formed a hundred of the same name.

A major horse market used to be held annually in the town.

Southminster marshes were a favourite centre for hare coursing in Victorian times.

The medieval St Leonard's Church dates mainly from the 15th century, although there are traces of much earlier work.

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Southminster.

Research tips

Unfortunately there is no Victoria County History volume (see below) for Dengie Hundred.
  • Essex Family History is a website which concentrates on the Dengie Hundred with lists of people found in various parishes.
  • A map illustrating Southminster's relationship to its surrounding parishes may be found on the page describing Maldon Rural District of which it was part between 1894 and 1974. It is marked as #21 on the map.
  • Essex Record Office handles Essex archives within the county. The address is Wharf Road, Chelmsford, Essex CM2 6YT.
  • The Essex Society for Family History covers topics of genealogical interest throughout the present County of Essex (i.e. excluding the western area now in Greater London). Subscription necessary.
  • GENUKI provides a list of towns and parishes leading to pages for individual parishes with useful local information for genealogists and family historians.
  • Wikimedia Commons has a set of maps of the old hundreds of Essex. These do not show the individual parishes within the hundreds.
  • For very detailed investigation Wikimedia Commons also has a series of 176 part maps of the Ordnance Survey 1st series 1:10560, Map of Essex
  • FamilySearch lists its collections of church records and vital records along with those provided by other organizations, both commercial and voluntary.
  • The commercial website FindMyPast also has a collection of wills and newspaper transcriptions, as well as the "1939 Register" (an equivalent to the census gathered at the beginning of World War 2).
  • A Vision of Britain through Time is a website produced by the Department of Geography of the University of Portsmouth. It outlines all parishes as they were in the 19th century.
  • British History Online has transcribed eight volumes of the Victoria County History project for Essex. Seven of these cover the history of parts of the county in great detail, although the project is incomplete for Essex as a whole. Ownership of land through the centuries can often be traced here. The volumes of note are as follows:
Volume 4, Ongar Hundred, including Chipping and High Ongar, Chigwell, Stondon Massey and Theydon Bois (26 parishes in all).
Volume 5, Becontree Hundred outside Greater London. A thematic account of the growth of metropolitan Essex since 1850. Also contains topographical accounts of Barking, Ilford, Dagenham and other areas of Essex now within Greater London.
Volume 6, parishes of Becontree Hundred now within the London boroughs of Newham, Waltham Forest and Redbridge. These include West and East Ham, Walthamstow and Wanstead.
Volume 7, Covers the ancient parishes, formerly within the Liberty of Havering-atte-Bower and now within the London borough of Havering, and those in Chafford hundred in western Essex now bordering London. It includes accounts of Hornchurch, Romford, Havering.
Volume 8, accounts of the parishes of Chafford and Harlow Hundreds, including Brentwood, Harlow and Thurrock.
Volume 9, the Borough of Colchester, describes the life of the oldest and for long the largest town in Essex from the Iron Age to 1990.
Volume 10, Lexden Hundred (part), includes Dedham, Earls Colne and Wivenhoe and other parishes to the north and west of Colchester.
  • As of June 2019 Ancestry (Worldwide subscription required) includes Essex, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812, these early records are from parish registers of baptisms and burials during the years 1538–1812, and marriages during the years 1538-1754. These are in addition to their previous holdings:
  • Essex, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1918: 3,937,941 records
  • Essex, England, Church of England Marriages, 1754-1935: 1,968,439 records
  • Essex, England, Church of England Deaths and Burials, 1813-1994: 730,118 records
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Southminster. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.