Place:Westminster, London, England

NameWestminster
Alt namesMetropolitan Borough of Westminstersource: from 1900 to 1965
City of Westminstersource: ecclesiastical definition
Westminstersource: common parlance
Aecclesia Sancti Petri Westmonasteriisource: Domesday Book (1985) p 181
Knightsbridgesource: Family History Library Catalog
Sohosource: Family History Library Catalog
TypeParish, City, Borough (metropolitan)
Coordinates51.499°N 0.127°W
Located inLondon, England     (1889 - 1965)
Also located inMiddlesex, England     ( - 1889)
See alsoWestminster (London Borough), Greater London, EnglandLondon borough of which it became a part in 1965
source: Family History Library Catalog
NOTE: This article is about the ancient borough and parish of Westminster. A sketchmap of the borough in 1870 is provided toward the bottom of this page.

Westminster is also the name of a modern borough of Greater London that that was created in 1965. See Westminster (London Borough) and the the Wikipedia article.

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

In the time before the Reformation (around 1535-1540), Westminster described an area stretching no more than 1 mile (1.6 km) from Westminster Abbey and the Palace of Westminster on the north bank of the River Thames. The abbey (or monastery), though large, could not accommodate the layity who provided its goods and services. The settlement grew up around the palace and the abbey and acted as a "service area" to them. The church of St Margaret's Westminster, built adjacent to the abbey, was their parish church.

As a result of Henry VIII's Reformation of 1539 the Abbey was abolished and established as a "cathedral". This position is the source of the origin of the parish being described as 'City', although it was only a fraction of the size of the City of London or of the Borough of Southwark on the other side of the river. The Cathedral and diocesan status of the church only lasted from 1539 to 1556, but the 'city' status of Westminster was retained for what had become a mere parish within Middlesex.

As time passed Westminster became larger. In the Georgian period (18th century), it became connected through urban ribbon development with the City along the Strand. Prior to that time most travel between London and Westminster was done by a type of rowing boat propelled by "lightermen". Westminster was created as a civil parish in 1545 when it was first awarded its first Member of Parliament.

The "ancient borough" of Westminster was transferred from Middlesex to the newly-created County of London in 1889 and became the Westminster Metropolitan Borough (#28 on the map) in 1900.

Prior to 1900, the area occupied by what would become the Metropolitan Borough of Westminster had been administered by five separate local bodies which each had its own registration district for the recording of births, marriages and deaths and also for administering the decennial censuses:

The Westminster Metropolitan Borough was itself the result of the amalgamation of these individual bodies.

Westminster Metropolitan Borough was abolished in 1965, becoming part of the London Borough of the City of Westminster, which also covered the former boroughs and parishes of Marylebone (#19) and Paddington (#23).

History

Royal seat

The historic core of Westminster is the former Thorney Island on which Westminster Abbey was built. The abbey became the traditional venue of the coronation of the monarchs of England from that of Harold Godwinson in January 1066.

From about 1200 the Palace of Westminster, located near the abbey, became the principal royal residence, marked by the transfer of royal treasury and financial records to Westminster from Winchester. Later the palace housed the developing Parliament and England's law courts. Thus London developed two focal points: the City of London for financial and economic affairs and Westminster for political and cultural ones.

The monarchy later moved from the Palace of Westminster "up the road" to the Palace of Whitehall (1530-1698) on Whitehall immediately south of the Abbey and then to St James' Palace (1531-1837) on the Mall. In 1837, at the beginning of Queen Victoria's reign, it moved again to Buckingham Palace and other palaces. The main law courts have since moved to the Royal Courts of Justice on the Strand.

Victorian divide

Charles Booth's poverty map showing Westminster in 1889 (illustration in Wikipedia) showed the full range of income and capital brackets for people living in adjacent streets. The streets are coloured to represent the economic class of the residents: Yellow ("Upper-middle and Upper classes, Wealthy"), red ("Lower middle class – Well-to-do middle class"), pink ("Fairly comfortable good ordinary earnings"), blue ("Intermittent or casual earnings"), and black ("lowest class ... occasional labourers, street sellers, loafers, criminals and semi-criminals"). Westminster's central western area, (the) Devil's Acre located in the southern flood channel ravine of the Tyburn (stream) was marked in black, yet Victoria Street and other small streets and squares were pictured in yellow/gold, the highest colouring of social class in London. The abject poverty with the clearance of this slum and drainage improvement has been shed from Westminster but there remains an acute property distinction within the area.

Local parishes and liberties

The Westminster area formed part of the City and Liberty of Westminster in Middlesex. The ancient parish was St. Margaret; after 1727 this became the civil parish of 'St Margaret and St John'--the latter being a new church required for the increasing population. The area around Westminster Abbey formed the extra-parochial Close of the Collegiate Church of St Peter which was surrounded by the two parishes but not a part of either. Until 1900 the local council was the combined vestry of St Margaret and St John, based at Westminster City Hall on Caxton Street from 1883.

The Liberty of Westminster, governed by the Westminster Court of Burgesses, also included St Martin in the Fields and several other parishes and places. Westminster had its own quarter sessions, but the Middlesex sessions also had jurisdiction. The area was transferred from Middlesex to the County of London in 1889 and the local government of Westminster was reformed in 1900 when the court of burgesses and the parish vestries were abolished, to be replaced with a metropolitan borough council. The borough was given city status, allowing it to be known as the City of Westminster and its council as Westminster City Council.

Administratively, Westminster was a borough and city and also a liberty. The borough and city covered the original parishes of

whilst the liberty included (as well as the three places in the borough) the parishes and extra parochial places of

Note that in WeRelate the word "Westminster" precedes the name of each of these parishes and liberties. This is to assist users to recognize quickly the various communities as part of a geographical group.

A map showing the civil parishes of Westminster as they appeared in 1870. Based on the Ordnance Survey Town Plan of London (1871-76) at 1:1056 scale.

The small liberties on the east are, in order from the top:

  • the Liberty of the Rolls (shown in grey)
  • St. Clement Danes (marked in pink with two detached portions:one above the others, the second the westermost of the small liberties)
  • St. Mary le Strand (marked in pink)
  • the Precinct of the Savoy (marked in pink)

The square between Westminster St. Margaret and Westminster St. John the Evangelist is the precinct of Westminster Abbey (the Close of the Collegiate Church of St Peter)

Credits: Doc77can - Own work CC BY-SA 3.0 "Westminster Civil Parish Map 1870" by Doc77can - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Research Tips

Greater London Research Tips

A reminder that Greater London was not formed until 1965 and covers a much greater territory than its predecessor, the County of London formed in 1900. The City of London was only a part of the County of London. A map of the boroughs of Greater London is reproduced on all Greater London borough pages. A map of the boroughs of the smaller County of London is reproduced on all County of London borough pages.


Researching ancestors in London will probably be more successful than researching ancestors in the rest of England, particularly for the period before 1837 and the advent of civil registration. Baptisms, marriages and burials are available online for County of London parishes, and possibly for parishes throughout Greater London as well.

  • Anglican Parishes in London is a wiki here on WeRelate listing the places of worship of the established church throughout London. The churches are grouped within the post-1965 boroughs and for each is the street address, a link to the Booth Map (inner boroughs only), the time span for which the database AIM25 holds records, the FamilySearch Wiki link (see below), the Wikipedia link, and further notes. This is a work-in-progress and not all churches are listed as yet, but it is a guide to a great deal more information on those for which information has been gathered.
  • The London Metropolitan Archives (40 Northampton Road, Clerkenwell, London EC1R 0HB) holds records relating to the whole of Greater London. Ancestry (subscription necessary) has produced transcriptions and provides images of lists of baptisms, marriages, and burials in churches across Greater London. Many of these lists start in 1813 and stretch into the 20th century; some start even earlier.

Maps

  • A street-by-street map of London (both sides of the Thames, and stretching from Limehouse, Stepney and Greenwich in the east to Hyde Park and Kensington in the west) drawn by Edward Mogg in 1806. Blows up to a very readable level. Highly recommended viewing. Shows named areas on the edge of the County of London (1900-1965) as the small villages they were in 1800. Streets in the City are named, but churches are missing.
  • The Phillimore Atlas and Index of Parish Registers edited by Cecil Humphery-Smith and published by Phillimore & Co Ltd (edition of 1995) provides a map of the City of London indicating all the parishes and includes dates of commencement of registers for parishes formed before 1832.
  • Wikipedia has an expandable map of the area of devastation of the 1666 fire. The map includes the location of Pudding Lane where the fire started.
  • A map of London in the 1890s provided by the National Library of Scotland. There are a few steps between the home page index and the individual maps which may be difficult to follow for those who don't know London, but the maps themselves are produced at the scale of 5 feet to the mile on the original and are very clear. Houses on streets are marked, but not numbered.
  • Ordnance Survey map of London 1900 (provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time) showing London parishes just after the reorganization of 1899. The map was originally drawn over a street map at a scale of 1 inch to the mile and can be blown up to inspect a single borough. Only the major streets are marked and are only visible at maximum magnification. The City of London is an inset in the top right hand corner.
  • Ordnance Survey map of Middlesex 1900 (provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time) showing the parishes remaining in Middlesex after the reorganization of 1899 when much of the former area of Middlesex had been transferred into London.
  • Ordnance Survey map of Surrey 1900 (provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time) showing Surrey parishes (chiefly Southwark) just after the reorganization of 1899 when the most urban parts of Surrey were transferred into London.
  • Ordnance Survey map of Kent 1900 (provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time) showing Kent parishes just after the reorganization of 1899 when the western part of Kent had been transferred into London.
  • Ordnance Survey map of Essex 1900 (provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time) showing Essex parishes (West Ham, East Ham, Ilford) which were absorbed into Greater London in 1965.

Registration Districts

  • Registration Districts in London, Registration Districts in Middlesex, Registration Districts in Surrey, Registration Districts in Kent, and Registration Districts in Essex are lists of the registration districts used for civil registration (births, marriages and deaths, as well as the censuses). There are linked supporting lists of the parishes which made up each registration district, the dates of formation and abolition of the districts, the General Register Office numbers, and the local archive-holding place. This work has been carried out by Brett Langston under the agency of GENUKI (Genealogy United Kingdom and Ireland) and UKBMD - Births, Marriages, Deaths & Censuses on the Internet, and has been updated into the 21st century. If the only information about an individual has been obtained from UKBMD, the name of the registration district is considered a "placename" within WeRelate and can be used to provide a broad estimate of the location.

Cemeteries

  • Deceased Online includes four of the "Magnificent Seven" cemeteries (Brompton, Highgate, Kensal Green, and Nunhead) in its inventory of 65 London cemeteries. Transcripts for Abney Park are free with registration online at www.devsys.co.uk/ap/. Ancestry (international subscription necessary) has "London, England, City of London and Tower Hamlets Cemetery Registers, 1841-1966". That leaves West Norwood without comprehensive online access to burial records. (Deceased Online and Ancestry may have increased their provision since this was written in 2016.)
  • As of October 2019 Ancestry has a file titled "England & Scotland, Select Cemetery Registers 1800-2016" which includes Abney Park Cemetery, Greenford Park Cemetery, Acton Cemetery, Ealing & Old Brentford Cemetery, Havelock Norwood Cemetery, Hortus Cemetery, South Ealing Cemetery, Queens Road Cemetery, and Chingford Mount Cemetery.
  • The City of London Cemetery, at Manor Park, near Wanstead in the London Borough of Redbridge also contains remains transferred from former parishes in the City of London whose graveyards have been replaced by streets and commercial buildings.
  • Brookwood Cemetery, beyond the Greater London borders in Surrey, was opened in 1854 for burials for Londoners. See the Wikpedia article.

Other online sources

  • See the FamilySearch Wiki under "London" and also under "Middlesex", "Surrey", "Essex" and "Kent" for key information about Greater London's jurisdictions and records, plus links to indexes, reference aids and Family History Library holdings.
  • GENUKI has a long list of websites and archive holders in addition to London Metropolitan Archives above. (The list from GENUKI is not maintained so well that there is never a dead link in it. However, it is often worth googling the title given on the page just in case the contributor has reorganized their website and GENUKI has not picked it up.)
  • GENUKI also has a list of the Archives and Local Studies Libraries for each of the boroughs of Greater London.
  • The London Encyclopaedia by Ben Weinreb and Christopher Hibbert. An e-book available online through Google, originally published by Pan Macmillan. There is a search box in the left-hand pane.
  • London Lives. A very useful free website for anyone researching their London ancestors between the years 1690-1800. This is a fully searchable edition of 240,000 manuscripts from eight archives and fifteen datasets, giving access to 3.35 million names.
  • London Ancestor, a website belonging to one of the London family history societies, has a list of transcriptions of directories from the 18th century, listing in one case "all the squares, streets, lanes, courts, yards, alleys, &C. in and about Five Miles of the Metropolis..." In other parts of the same website are maps of various parts of 19th century London and Middlesex.
  • The proceedings of the Old Bailey, London's central criminal court, 1674-1913. A fully searchable edition of the largest body of texts detailing the lives of non-elite people ever published, containing 197,745 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court. This website is free to use.
  • The Victoria County History Series only has as yet one volume dealing with London. This outlines the history of the religious houses of the borough of Southwark and the cities of London and Westminster. Most of the material will predate of most genealogical searches.

Middlesex Research Tips

Parts of Middlesex were absorbed into London in 1889 (Inner London), and some in 1965 (Outer London). Depending on the specific location and the year being investigated it may be necessary to check London records as well as those of Middlesex.

  • See wiki.familysearch.org under "Middlesex" for key information about the jurisdictions and records of Middlesex, plus links to indexes, reference aids and Family History Library holdings. As at October 2019 FamilySearch has updated its listings of Parish Registers, 1538-1912 for Westminster.
  • The London Metropolitan Archives (40 Northampton Road, Clerkenwell, London EC1R 0HB) holds records relating to the whole of Greater London. Ancestry (subscription necessary) has produced transcriptions and provides images of lists of baptisms, marriages, and burials in churches across Greater London. These lists start in 1813 and stretch into the 20th century.
  • The Victoria History of the County of Middlesex is a series of volumes available online through British History Online. The volumes were written over the past hundred or so years by a number of authors and cover various sections of Middlesex. A list of the volumes and what each contains can be found under the source Victoria History of the County of Middlesex
  • GENUKI has a long list of websites and archive holders in addition to London Metropolitan Archives above. (The list from GENUKI is not maintained so well that there is never a dead link in it. However, it is often worth googling the title given on the page just in case the contributor has reorganized their website.)
  • GENUKI has a separate page for Middlesex references.
  • GENUKI also has a list of the Archives and Local Studies Libraries for each of the boroughs of Greater London.
  • Registration Districts in Middlesex and Registration Districts in London, are lists of the registration districts used for civil registration (births, marriages and deaths, as well as the censuses). There are linked supporting lists of the parishes which made up each registration district, the dates of formation and abolition of the districts, the General Register Office numbers, and the local archive-holding place. This work has been carried out by Brett Langston under the agency of GENUKI (Genealogy United Kingdom and Ireland) and UKBMD - Births, Marriages, Deaths & Censuses on the Internet.
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Westminster. 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.
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at City of Westminster. 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.