Place:Boxworth, Cambridgeshire, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

Boxworth is a village and civil parish in the South Cambridgeshire District, situated about eight miles to the northwest of Cambridge. It falls under the Papworth Everard and Caxton ward and lies within the diocese of Ely. The village covers an area of 1,053 hectares (2,602 a.) The village of Boxworth is relatively small with around 100 houses. The population of the parish in the UK census of 2011 was 218.

Boxworth's population, once considerable, shrank severely after the Middle Ages before recovering to reach a peak of about 350 in the mid-19th century.

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).

"BOXWORTH, a parish in the [registration] district of St. Ives and county of Cambridge; 3 miles WSW of Long-Stanton [railway] station, and 5 SSE of St. Ives. Post Town: Long-Stanton, under Cambridge. Acres: 2,521. Real property: £2,946 Population: 347. Houses: 64. The property is divided among a few. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Ely. Value: £459. Patron: G. Thornhill, Esq. The church has a monument of Sanderson, the blind professor of mathematics; and is good."

Church

Recorded from the mid-12th century, when relics of St. 'Inicius' were said to be deposited there, the church of St. Peter is an ancient edifice of flint and stone in the Decorated style, consisting of a chancel, a nave of four bays, a south aisle, north and south porches and a lofty, embattled tower containing a clock and one bell: in the church is a monument to Nicholas Saunderson LLD, FRS (1682-1739), the celebrated blind professor of mathematics at the University of Cambridge, who died on 19 April 1739. The church was thoroughly restored in 1868–9, and provides seating for 150 worshippers.

Research Tips

• Original historical documents relating to Cambridgeshire are now held by Cambridgeshire Archives and Local Studies at Shire Hall, Ely, Cambridgeshire, CB7 4GS
• The Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire Family History Society has transcribed the parish registers for many if not all the ancient parishes of Cambridgeshire and these can be purchased from the Society as separate pdfs.
• A History of the County of Cambridge. Seven volumes from British History Online (Victoria County Histories). This is by far the most complete history of the parishes of the county to be found online. From the numbering it would appear that some parts of the county are yet to be published online, but the first two volumes for any county are of little interest to the genealogist. The chapters are ordered by the divisions of the county called hundreds, but each parish is listed in the volume's content page.

• A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 3, the City (Cambridge) and University of Cambridge (published 1959)
• A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 4, City of Ely; North Ely and South Ely, Witchford and Wisbech Hundreds (the cathedral city and liberty of Ely and the rural areas to the west and northwest, including the port of Wisbech) (published 2002)
• A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 5, the Hundreds of Longstowe and Wetherley, west of Cambridge (published 1973)
• A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 6, the three Hundreds of Chilford, Radfield and Whittlesford (in the south of the county, on the border with Essex) (published 1978)
• A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 8, Armingford and Thriplow Hundreds (south and west of Cambridge) (published 1982)
• A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 9, Chesterton, Northstowe, and Papworth Hundreds (the suburban and rural areas to the north and northwest of Cambridge) (published 1989)
• A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 10, Cheveley, Flendish, Staine and Staploe Hundreds (northeastern Cambridgeshire) (published 2002)

• GENUKI has a page on Cambridgeshire and pages for each of the ecclesiastical or ancient parishes in the county. These give references to other organizations who hold genealogical information for the local area. Each parish page includes a map of the parish provided by Open Street Maps.
• The FamilyTree Wiki has a series of pages similar to those provided by GENUKI which may have been prepared at a later date.
• A Vision of Britain through Time, section "Units and Statistics" for each parish and borough leads to analyses of population and organization of the county from about 1800 through 1974.
• Map of Cambridgeshire divisions in 1888 produced by UK Ordnance Survey and provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time
• Map of Cambridge divisions in 1944 produced by UK Ordnance Survey and provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time