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From Wikipedia
- "A hundred is a geographic division formerly used in England, Wales, South Australia and some parts of the United States, to divide a larger region into smaller administrative divisions; similar divisions were made in Denmark, Southern Schleswig, Sweden, Finland, Estonia and Norway."
Hundreds were replaced by Registration Districts or Poor Law Unions between 1837 and 1850, and then by Rural and Urban Districts and Municipal Boroughs in 1894.
A map of the hundreds of Essex is available on Wikipedia.
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- the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia
Becontree Hundred was located in the southwest of the county of Essex, England. Its area has been entirely absorbed into London as the capital expanded into western Essex during the 20th century. Its name was reused in 1921 for the large Becontree housing estate built by the London County Council which covered approximately 4 square miles of the then Essex parishes of Barking and Dagenham. The hundred's area now corresponds to the London Borough of Newham, the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham and parts of the London Borough of Waltham Forest and the London Borough of Redbridge. Its early extent also included parts of what is now the London Borough of Havering.
The name is first recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book as Beuentreu, meaning "tree of a man called Beohha". The original tree, at Becontree Heath, was at a fairly central location within the area of the hundred. Before 1465 the hundred included the area of Havering liberty, which comprised the parishes of Hornchurch, Romford and Havering-atte-Bower. After the area of the liberty was removed, the hundred meeting place appeared to be more on the fringe of the area. After 1465 the hundred contained the parishes of Barking, Dagenham, East Ham, Ilford (also known as Great Ilford), Leyton, Little Ilford, Walthamstow, Wanstead and West Ham.
The southern boundary with the Blackheath Hundred of Kent was the River Thames, however there was also a land boundary: the Woolwich, Kent parish included two small detached parts north of the river, totalling 402 acres (1.63 km2). In the east it bordered the Havering liberty and to the north Waltham and Ongar Hundreds. The River Lea formed the western boundary with the Tower division of the Ossulstone Hundred of Middlesex. The River Roding runs roughly north to south through the area.
In 1831, the hundred occupied 35,950 acres (145.5 km2). In 1840 the hundred was included in the Metropolitan Police District by the Metropolitan Police Act 1839. The population of the hundred in 1851 was 46,777 and in 1861, 73,023. In 1887 the area is recorded as 37,705 acres (152.59 km2) and the population as 221,217.
Research tips
- Essex Record Office handles Essex archives within the county. The address is Wharf Road, Chelmsford, Essex CM2 6YT.
- The Essex Society for Family History covers topics of genealogical interest throughout the present County of Essex (i.e. excluding the western area now in Greater London). Subscription necessary.
- GENUKI provides a list of towns and parishes leading to pages for individual parishes with useful local information for genealogists and family historians.
- Wikimedia Commons has a set of maps of the old hundreds of Essex. These do not show the individual parishes within the hundreds.
- For very detailed investigation Wikimedia Commons also has a series of 176 part maps of the Ordnance Survey 1st series 1:10560, Map of Essex
- FamilySearch lists its collections of church records and vital records along with those provided by other organizations, both commercial and voluntary.
- The commercial website FindMyPast also has a collection of wills and newspaper transcriptions, as well as the "1939 Register" (an equivalent to the census gathered at the beginning of World War 2).
- A Vision of Britain through Time is a website produced by the Department of Geography of the University of Portsmouth. It outlines all parishes as they were in the 19th century.
- British History Online has transcribed eight volumes of the Victoria County History project for Essex. Seven of these cover the history of parts of the county in great detail, although the project is incomplete for Essex as a whole. Ownership of land through the centuries can often be traced here. The volumes of note are as follows:
- Volume 4, Ongar Hundred, including Chipping and High Ongar, Chigwell, Stondon Massey and Theydon Bois (26 parishes in all).
- Volume 5, Becontree Hundred outside Greater London. A thematic account of the growth of metropolitan Essex since 1850. Also contains topographical accounts of Barking, Ilford, Dagenham and other areas of Essex now within Greater London.
- Volume 6, parishes of Becontree Hundred now within the London boroughs of Newham, Waltham Forest and Redbridge. These include West and East Ham, Walthamstow and Wanstead.
- Volume 7, Covers the ancient parishes, formerly within the Liberty of Havering-atte-Bower and now within the London borough of Havering, and those in Chafford hundred in western Essex now bordering London. It includes accounts of Hornchurch, Romford, Havering.
- Volume 8, accounts of the parishes of Chafford and Harlow Hundreds, including Brentwood, Harlow and Thurrock.
- Volume 9, the Borough of Colchester, describes the life of the oldest and for long the largest town in Essex from the Iron Age to 1990.
- Volume 10, Lexden Hundred (part), includes Dedham, Earls Colne and Wivenhoe and other parishes to the north and west of Colchester.
- As of June 2019 Ancestry (Worldwide subscription required) includes Essex, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812, these early records are from parish registers of baptisms and burials during the years 1538–1812, and marriages during the years 1538-1754. These are in addition to their previous holdings:
- Essex, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1918: 3,937,941 records
- Essex, England, Church of England Marriages, 1754-1935: 1,968,439 records
- Essex, England, Church of England Deaths and Burials, 1813-1994: 730,118 records
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