Title:
Photocopy of registers of births and baptisms, marriages and burials
Level: Category
Registers
Level: Fonds
FORDHAM, Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion
Scope and Content:
Comprises photocopies of:

(i) note on 'the origin of the cause' at Fordham [reproduced by Lewis, p. 18]; register of births and baptisms, 1784-1898 (from 1868 to 1884 said to be 'an exact copy'); roll of church members, c.1885-c.1894; notes of two burials, 1898, 1934, and of 15 burials, 1891-1896;

(ii) register of burials, 1793-1889 (from 1868 to 1884 said to be 'an exact copy' of an original register), including two burials in Fordham churchyard, 1885, 1887 [under the Burial Laws Amendment Act 1880], and also including in 1862 three baptisms;

(iii) register of baptisms 1917-1963, marriages 1932-1963 [unofficial copy], and deaths and burials, 1926-1962, including some burials in Fordham churchyard.

Until 1837, the entries of births and baptisms and burials are copies made by the minister, John Harris, from an original register surrendered by him to the Registrar General (National Archives RG 4/799) and available on microfilm in the Essex Record Office searchroom. That register includes a covering letter from Harris: '... The original burial register, containing those names, which (most of them) are without dates are inserted in this, was lost and the names supplied from the recollection of the sexton ... I have extracted the names and dates and entered them in another book which may answer most ordinary purposes ...' This copy was then continued as an original register.
Dates of Creation:
1982
Extent:
1 volume
Admin History:
For the history of the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion at Fordham see Pat Lewis, This Barren Land. The Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion. Fordham, Essex 1763-1989 (privately published 1997), which is available in the Essex Record Office Library. According to this work, the chapel was built in 1790. It was abandoned in 1978 and in 1983 was sold, being converted into a private house. The last minister moved away in 1989.

For some time from c.1868 the Connexion also maintained a mission room at Ford Street, Aldham (Lewis, pp. 47-48).

After 1791 the Connexion 'gradually became Congregational' (Lewis, p. 8), and from 1957 the burial register copied here used the term 'Congregational Church'.
Originals Location:
Made by the depositor from original registers in the custody of the Trustees of the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion.
Related Unit of Description:
For a transcript of monumental inscriptions in the chapel's burial ground, 1989, see T/Z 151/23.

Key terms

TypeKey termsDescription
Personal Names John
Harris 		nonconformist minister, Fordham, 1837
Place Names Fordham Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion chapel: photocopy of registers, 1784-1963
Document Types Baptism register Fordham, Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion, 1784-1898, 1917-1963 (photocopy only)
Document Types Birth register Fordham, Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion, 1784-1898 (photocopy only)
Document Types Burial register Fordham, Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion, 1793-1898, 1926-1962 (photocopy only)
Document Types Marriage register Fordham, Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion, 1932-1963 (photocopy of unoffical copy only)
Document Types Marriage register Fordham, Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion, 1932-1963 (photocopy of unoffical copy only)
Document Types Membership register Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion, Fordham, c.1885-1894 (photocopy only)
Document Types Nonconformist register Fordham, Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion: births and baptisms, 1784-1963; marriages, 1932-1963; burials, 1793-1962 (photocopy only)
Institutions Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion Photocopy of registers of chapel at Fordham, 1784-1963