Eling Parish Records
Parish and Bishop Transcripts for the parish of Eling in Hampshire, including the parishes split out of the Ancient Parish of Eling.
The process I used starts with creating a dataset of the records, preferably by reference to images of the original parish record book.
The dataset is then used to create the information listed below.
Ancient Eling
Ancient Parish of Eling, called Eling.
ELING (St. Mary), a parish, in the union of New Forest, hundred of Redbridge, Romsey and S. divisions of the county of Southampton, 5 miles (W. by N.) from Southampton with the tythings of Bartley-Regis, Bauldoxfee, Bistern with Bartley, Colebury, Durley, Langley, Lopperwood, Marchwood, Rumbridge, Tatchbury, Testwood, Wade with Over, and Wigley.
For our purposes, Ancient Eling runs up until the Parish of Eling started to be split up.
First with North Eling / Copythorne, and latterly with Marchwood, becoming separate Parishes carved out of Eling.
North Eling / Copythorne
Originally, Copythorne and neighbouring villages were part of the parish of St Mary, Eling, at a time when the population was around 2,000. As the population grew to around 5,000 it began to put pressure on the Church's ministry. The people of Cadnam, Windsor, Bartley, Newbridge. Ower, and Copythorne petitioning for changes, and against this background the Rev. W.G. Phillips and his wardens arranged for their parishioners to have their own church.
Separate Parish records for North Eling commence in 1834.
Under the Local Government Act of 1888, North Ealing was constituted a civil parish by order of the Hampshire County Council and was named Copythorne.
The walk from one of those villages, in this case Cadnam, was over 5 miles, and would take about two hours, each way. Most people would have to walk with only a few having horses and even less, carriages. That is four hours walking, plus the service, out of probably the only day off in the week. After the opening of the new church at Copythorne, the distance was cut to 1 mile, and the time to just 21 minutes, each way. I can understand why the parishioners petitioned for a local chapel.
Marchwood
The parish of Marchwood became a separate ecclesiastical parish in 1843 and a civil parish in 1894.
The Ancient Parish of Eling therefore ceased to be the whole parish in 1834 in respect of Register Records.
Information regarding the transition period and the subsequent reduced size Parish of Eling are both under Eling.
The Parish of Eling before the re-sizing.
English Jurisdictions Map and data showing the three parishes, of North Eling, Eling, and Marchwood.
England Jurisdictions 1851 - North Eling
Extract from FamilySearch England Jurisdictions 1851. This link may not work if you don't have a subscription to FamilySearch
Then search for North Eling. Use the Key to select which boundaries you wish to see.
England Jurisdictions 1851 - Eling
Extract from FamilySearch England Jurisdictions 1851. This link may not work if you don't have a subscription to FamilySearch
Then search for Eling. Use the Key to select which boundaries you wish to see.
England Jurisdictions 1851 - Marchwood
Extract from FamilySearch England Jurisdictions 1851. This link may not work if you don't have a subscription to FamilySearch
Then search for Marchwood. Use the Key to select which boundaries you wish to see.
Parish Records Front Pages - Baptisms - Eling 1537-1674 -- Book 1
The Rectors of Eling during the currency of this Book
Page 2
I suspect that this register started originally on page 2. The book appears to have been re-covered.
Below is page 2, with the contents of the Register Book No 1 -
Although, it all seems to be in the same hand, and with end dates, it was probably written at the end of the Book's period, not at the start.
| Book No 1 - | ||||
| This Book contains the Baptismal Registers of this | ||||
| 262 | ||||
| Parish from the Parish | year | 1537 | to | 1554 |
| From | 1563 | to | 1674 | |
| Also the Marriage Registers | ||||
| From the year | 1538 | to | 1554 | |
| From | 1563 | to | 1673 | |
| Also the Burial Registers | From the year | 1537 | to | 15551 |
| From | 1561 | to | 1581 | |
| From | 1585 | to | 1670 | |
Above the contents on page two there appears be some family notes, all relating to Edward Kernot. Was he the Lord of the Manor or the Rector perhaps.
It appears to be an after note, both it the positioning of the note on the page and that the apparent dates are outside the scope of this register. I have looked at the next register, in the year 1704 for Sarah, but without result.
Mary the Daughter of Edward Kernot was Born October ye 14th day in ye year of our Lord god 169?
Mosses Son of Edward Kernot was born september the 8th day 170?
Sarah daugtor of Edward Kosnot was born ye 18th of April 1704
Page 1
Preceding Page 2 in the register is this page.
Even zoomed in, as in the image below it is still difficult to read.
The record on this page appears to be;-
John Bernard & Alice Baldwinne ?? ?? the ??? 1638. Is it a baptism or some other sort of record or note. Either way 1638 is not at the beginning of the period of this book.
However, none of the page has been transcribed in Ancestry.
The note at the top of the page appears to be something like;-
Apristt 24th ?? ??? 1654 John Bernard
??? Register for the Parish of Eling according to
made in that Case ? fore Henry Brumfield Esq one of ??? justices
for the County of Southampton
However, this is not a reliable, accurate, nor complete transcription.
A John Bernard was Rector at the Parish of Eling in 1638. Another record has him at Eling from 2 Sep 1638 to 25 Mar 1667, with his death on the latter stated date.
Alumni cantabrigienses; a biographical list of all known students, graduates and holders of office at the University of Cambridge has an entry for John Bernard.
On page 3 of the book there is a clear start to the register of Baptisms. Entitled Anno Dni 1538,an abbreviation for Anno Domini perhaps, Latin for In the year of our Lord.
Only 13 baptisms in the whole year, but the register only started in November, and the year ended in March, on Ladies day, in 1538, so, not a full half year.
Found a good site for Latin phrases which might be found whilst researching, under Manuscripts and Special Collections.
Eling
North Eling / Copythorne
...
North Eling / Copythorne - Baptism
Baptisms at St Mary's Church, Copythorne in the Parish of North Eling / Copythorne from the Parish Register Book 1834 to 1847.
Currently only about half way through entering the data from this book into the dataset in Nov 2024.
The first output from the Baptism part of the dataset is;-
Family Groups
Baptisms in North Eling / Copythorne sorted by Father's Surname and grouped by family, with child's name, date of Baptism, date of birth, and place of residence.
This pivot table did have the functionality to select a smaller group, or filter, by the Father's surname initial. Unfortunately this function is not supported in the embedded form, so it is just scroll down to find the family you are looking for.
Family Groups by Year
The total number of baptisms in the Parish Book totaled for each year.
Baptisms in North Eling / Copythorne sorted by Father's Surname and grouped by family, with child's name, date of Baptism, date of birth, and place of residence, shown in year of Baptism
Number of children
Baptisms in North Eling / Copythorne sorted by Father's Surname and grouped by family, with a count of the children baptised.
Private Baptisms
About half way through the first Baptism Book and Private Baptisms equate to about 12.6%.
Baseborn
About half way through the first Baptism Book and Baseborn / illegitimate equate to about 3.5%.
Officient
Location
The entry for Abode collated into locations and geolocated where possible.
The first table below is for the family abode, or Father's if different from Mother's abode, which is shown in the following table.
Table for Mother's abode.
The main conurbation, by reference to the number of Baptisms is Bartley, followed by Winsor, a close second, and then in third place, Cadnam. Copped Thorn, later known as Copythorne, which became the Parish name, and the location of the Church, has a surprisingly low number of Baptisms recorded at the church.
North Eling / Copythorne - Mariage
Pending population
North Eling / Copythorne - Death
Pending population
Marchwood
...
