Place:Thrapston, Northamptonshire, England

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

Thrapston is a small town in Northamptonshire, England. The parish is now in the unitary authority of North Northamptonshire. From 1974 until April 2021 it was part of the East Northamptonshire District of Northamptonshire, England and was the headquarters of the district. At the time of the 2011 census Thrapston had a population of 6,239.

Thrapston is situated close to the River Nene and is at the junction of the major roads, A14 and the A45. Until the 1960s, Thrapston had two railway stations. Thrapston (Midland) was on the Kettering to Cambridge route, and the former station and viaduct can be seen from the adjacent A14 road. Thrapston (Bridge Street) was on the former LNWR Northampton to Peterborough line.

A market charter was granted to the town in 1205, in exchange for two palfrey horses. This is celebrated every year with the town's Charter fair, when the high street is closed and the townspeople congregate in commemoration. A relative of George Washington, Sir John Washington, lived in Chancery Lane in the town, and his wife is buried in the Church of St James. Sir John was brother to George Washington's great-grandfather. Naturalist and writer Horace William Wheelwright practised as an attorney in Thrapston in the 1840s.

The following description from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72 is provided by the website A Vision of Britain Through Time (University of Portsmouth Department of Geography).

"THRAPSTON, a small town, a parish, a [registration] sub-district, and a [registration] district, in Northamptonshire. The town stands on the river Nen, and on the Northampton and Peterborough railway, at the intersection of the line from Kettering to Huntingdon, 20 miles NE by N of Northampton; had a ruined hermitage in the time of Henry VIII.; comprises four streets, in the form of a cross; is a seat of petty sessions and county courts; and has a head post-office, a [railway] station with telegraph, three banking offices, a hotel, a court-house, a corn exchange, a bridge, an ancient church partly rebuilt in 1841, a Baptist chapel, national schools, a girls' educational endowment of £21 a year, a workhouse, a weekly market on Saturday, and three annual fairs.

"The parish comprises 990 acres. Real property: £5,013. Population: 1,257. Houses: 247. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Peterborough. Value: £430. Patron: the Lord Chancellor.

"The [registration] sub-district contains 14 parishes. Acres: 27,387. Population: 7,459. Houses: 1,624.

"The district includes Raunds [registration] sub-district, and comprises 51,188 acres. Poor rates in 1863: £7,011. Population in 1851: 12,841; in 1861: 14,065. Houses: 3,064. Marriages in 1863: 116; births: 517, of which 40 were illegitimate; deaths: 368, of which 170 were at ages under 5 years, and 7 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 1,071; births, 4,721; deaths: 2,658. The places of worship, in 1851, were 25 of the Church of England, with 6,069 sittings; 1 of Independents, with 450 [sittings]; 10 of Baptists, with 2,353 [sittings]; 8 of Wesleyans, with 1,376 [sittings]; 1 of Primitive Methodists, with 168 [sittings]; 1 undefined, with 12 [sittings]; and 1 of Latter Day Saints, with 60 [sittings]. The schools were 21 public day-schools, with 1,220 scholars; 20 private day-schools, with 385 [scholars]; 34 Sunday schools, with 2,479 [scholars]; and 1 evening school for adults, with 12 [scholars]"

Normally these Gazetteer excerpts are copied omitting the statistics for the sub-registration and registration districts, but these show the activities of what is still a very small town within its neighbourhood.

The Victoria County History for Northamptonshire has an article for Thrapston in Volume 3, pp 139-142.

Research Tips

A Vision of Britain through Time

A Vision of Britain through Time describes parishes and former parishes from a gazetteer of 1871; provides an outline of the historic administration links for parishes. The OS map of 1900, the OS map of 1935, and the OS map of 1965 all show parish boundaries and settlements within parishes. These maps are all expandable to show individual parishes and are useful for inspecting changes occuring over the 20th century.

Archive Centres

• Northamptonshire Archives is located at Wootton Hall Park, Northampton, NN4 8BQ, Telephone from the UK: 01604 767562 (from overseas replace the "01" with "44"). The website gives opening times and facilities available.
• Northampton Central Library, Abington Street, Northampton, NN1 2BA (Telephone from the UK: 01604 26771 (from overseas replace the "01" with "44").

Northamptonshire Family History Society

The NFHS website describes the activities of the society. The Society is presently transcribing the deposited Marriage Registers for the period 1754 through 1837. These transcriptions may provide more details than can be found on other databases where subscriptions are charged.

GENUKI

The main GENUKI page for Northamptonshire lists a number of topics for research.

Victoria County History

• the Victoria County History of Northamptonshire produced online by British History Online (founded by the Institute of Historical Research and the History of Parliament Trust in 2003) contains only some of the Hundreds of Northamptonshire in its collection. Articles that do exist will be referenced under the relevant hundred and parish.

Online Databases

FindMyPast includes (list checked July 2018)

• Northamptonshire Parish Records (Baptisms, Marriages, Burials, and Probate Index)
• Northamptonshire Freeholders 1795-1797
• Northamptonshire Hearth Tax, 1674
• Northamptonshire Military Tribunals 1916-1918
• Northamptonshire Militia Lists 1771
• Northamptonshire, Northampton General Hospital Admissions 1774-1846

While Ancestry offers (list checked July 2018)

• Census & Voter Lists 1841-1911.
• Northamptonshire Birth, Marriage & Death
• Northamptonshire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1532-1812
• Northamptonshire, England, Church of England Baptisms, 1813-1912
• Northamptonshire, England, Church of England Marriages, 1754-1912
• Northamptonshire, England, Church of England Burials, 1813-1912
• Other Birth, Marriage & Death collections related to Northamptonshire. (32)
• Northamptonshire, England, Church of England Confirmations, 1870-1911
• Other Schools, Directories & Church Histories collections related to Northamptonshire. (34)
• A calendar of wills relating to the counties of Northampton and Rutland : proved in the court of the archdeacon of Northampton
• Other Wills, Probates, Land, Tax & Criminal collections related to Northamptonshire. (23)
• Reference, Dictionaries & Almanacs collections related to Northamptonshire. (21)
• Maps, Atlases & Gazetteers collections related to Northamptonshire. (7)
• Northamptonshire Stories, Memories & Histories

Genealogy of the descendants of Thomas French: who came to America from Nether Heyford, Northamptonshire, England and settled

Works of Reverend James Hervey, 1713-1758

The Orlebar Chronicles in Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire, 1553-1733, or the Children of the Manorhouse

Descendents of Thomas Chichele of Higham-Ferrers, Northampton, England

Rockingham Castle and the Watsons

Other Northamptonshire Stories, Memories & Histories (14)

FamilySearch also has an extensive database online. It is free, but may not always provide the original images provided by the services one pays for.