Archives A to Z

The assize circuits had their own Clerks of Assize who kept all the records. These ultimately found their way to the National Archives (former Public Record Office). This is where many of the assize records for Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire are.

Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely

Cambridgeshire was part of the Norfolk Circuit up to 1876 and the South Eastern thereafter. Practically all assize records for the county are held at the National Archives in Kew. The Isle of Ely had its own separate assizes. These were held at Ely and Wisbech until 1836, when the Bishop of Ely's temporal jurisdiction over the Isle was abolished.

Minute books for the plea side (civil business) 1801-1836 and the Crown side (criminal business) 1801-1836 are among records of the Clerk of the Peace deposited at Cambridgeshire Archives.

There also papers about assize cases c. 1792-1822 among the records of the Chief Bailiff of the Isle of Ely [283/] and calendars of prisoners for trial at the Ely Assizes, 1825-1835 [Ely UDC].

Cambridge University Library holds Plea rolls and gaol delivery rolls for the Isle of Ely Assizes from the 15th - late 18th century.

'The Assizes Held at Cambridge AD 1260', W. M. Palmer (1930) is a condensed translation of the Cambridgeshire assize roll for that year with an informative introduction.

Huntingdonshire

Huntingdonshire was on the Norfolk Circuit until 1876, and on the South Eastern Circuit thereafter. The majority of the surviving records are at the National Archives. Some records of the Huntingdonshire assizes (especially from the reign of Charles II) appear to have remained within the county.

These records eventually made their way via Councillor Tebbutt and the Norris Museum in St Ives to Huntingdonshire Archives in 1955 (accession 251). Here they were catalogued with the records of the Clerk of the Peace. Even though the two Clerks were in principle different officials. Search online catalogue for Huntingdonshire Assizes records.

Huntingdonshire Archives holds the assize rolls for 1653, 1660-1688, and 1694. The rolls include writs, indictments, bonds, and coroners' inquests. C F Tebbut published some extracts from the assize rolls in Extracts from Assize Rolls of Huntingdonshire. A copy is available at the Record Office for reference.

The Baptists are a Protestant denomination, founded in Amsterdam in 1609. They are opposed to traditional infant baptism. And believe in baptism by total immersion for adult believers only.

Cambridgeshire Archives holds records of the following Baptist churches, chapels and organisations:

• Cambridgeshire Baptist Association
• Cambridgeshire Baptist Ministers Fellowship
• Cambridgeshire Sunday School Union
• Barton Baptist Church
• Bottisham Lode Strict Baptist Chapel
• Cambridge, Eden Baptist Church
• Cambridge, St Andrews Street
• Zion Baptist Church Chatteris
• West Park Baptist Church
• Comberton Baptist Church
• Comberton/West Group Of Churches (Barton, Comberton, Coton and Grantchester)
• Cottenham Baptist Old Meeting
• Grantchester Baptist Church
• Harston Baptist Church
• Landbeach Baptist Church
• Milton Baptist Church
• Great Shelford Baptist Church
• Soham Baptist Church
• Stapleford Particular Baptist Church
• Teversham Baptist Chapel
• Thetford Baptist Church and Willingham Tabernacle Baptist Church

Huntingdonshire Archives

The Baptist Church has always had a strong presence in Huntingdonshire. Two chapels (at Fenstanton and Warboys) were established as early as 1644. The Baptists benefitted from the evangelical revival of the 18th century and a number of huge chapels were built. Bluntisham, for example, could seat 700 people.

Huntingdonshire Archives holds original records of the following Baptist churches and chapels:

• Bluntisham Baptist Meeting House
• Broughton Baptist Church
• Ellington Baptist Church
• Great Gidding Particular Baptist Church
• Godmanchester Strict Baptist Church
• Great Gransden Baptist Church
• Hartford Baptist Church
• Huntingdon Trinity Church
• Kimbolton Independent Baptist Church
• Offord Darcy Baptist Church
• Perry Baptist Church
• St Neots Strict Baptist Church
• Somersham Baptist Church
• Spaldwick
• Great Staughton Baptist Chapel
• Little Stukeley Baptist Church
• Hail Weston Baptist Church
• Winwick Union Chapel
• Woodhurst Chapel
• Woodston Oundle Road Baptist Church

The records of Peterborough Park Road Baptist Church were transferred to Peterborough Local Studies and Archives in 2009.

We also hold some records of the Huntingdonshire Association of Baptist and Congregational Churches. And microfilm copies of some church records held elsewhere. Please note that some churches have set closure periods on their records.

• Nonconformist Churches
• Methodist Churches

Most Cambridgeshire parishes fell within the Diocese of Ely. The Bishop's Transcripts, generally dating from 1599, are held with the Ely Diocesan Records at Cambridge University Library. BTs for Isleham in the Peculiar of Isleham and Freckenham are also available there.

Many of the parish register transcripts available in the searchroom have been checked against the Bishop's Transcripts. Most marriages from BTs have been included in Boyd's Marriage index and supplements.

Bishop's Transcripts for the 14 parishes in the Archdeaconry of Sudbury are at the Bury St. Edmunds' branch of the Suffolk Record Office. The following microfilm is available at Cambridgeshire Archives:

• Burwell:1567-1641, 1663-99
• Cheveley: 1567-1641, 1663-99
• Chippenham: 1567-1641, 1663-99
• Wood Ditton: 1569-1641, 1663-99
• Fordham: 1567-1641, 1663-99
• Kirtling: 1570-1640, 1665-99
• Newmarket, All Saints: 1594-1640, 1665-99
• Newmarket, St. Mary: 1563-1641, 1663-99
• Snailwell: 1570-1641, 1663-99
• Soham: 1563-1641, 1663-99
• Wicken: 1599-1700

BTs for those Cambridgeshire parishes in the Archdeaconry of Norfolk are at the Norfolk Record Office. (For example Outwell, Upwell and Welney.)

Most Huntingdonshire BTs survive from 1604 until about 1858 or 1859. Although usually with many large gaps. Before 1825 they were sent to the Diocesan Registry at Lincoln. After this they were sent to the Archdeaconry Office in Huntingdon. Most earlier transcripts were transferred shortly afterwards. (Although some of the very early ones did not transfer until 1938.)

There is a notice of the 1825 change pasted in the Great Catworth baptism register for the period (HP14/1/2/1).

The catalogue of Bishops Transcripts at Huntingdonshire Archives is available on the CALM online catalogue.

Following the Poor Law Amendment Act in 1834 Boards of Guardians were appointed. They administered groups of parishes in poor law unions. And Boards of Guardians were empowered to build workhouses.  Various additional duties were added over time. (Such as vaccination from 1840, rate assessment from 1862.)

In 1930 workhouses were renamed Public Assistance Institutions. They were removed from Guardians' control to be placed under the control of County Councils. Further records can be found in County Council Public Assistance Committee minutes.

There are many books available on how the Guardians operated. Including:

• Andy Reid, 'The Union Workhouse' (BAHL 1994)
• Michael E Rose, 'The English Poor Law '(David and Charles 1971)
• Sidney and Beatrice Webb, 'English Poor Law History Part II volumes 1 and 2' (London 1929)

Local workhouses are discussed in 'In and Out of the Workhouse' (Workers Education Association 1978).

Cambridgeshire Archives

• Cambridge Union: minutes and committee minutes; letter books; financial records; registers of births, deaths and inmates; creed registers; records about lunacy, property, boarding out, vaccination and settlement and removal.
• Caxton and Arrington Union: minutes; papers about property; financial records; records of the relieving officer; registers of births and deaths; records of vaccination.
• Chesterton Union: minutes; correspondence; workhouse plans; records of the relieving officer; financial records; registers of births and deaths; creed registers; vaccination records.
• Ely Union: minutes; creed register; register of mental defectives; letter books; financial records; school attendance registers; contracts for building workhouse; map of district; register of services in chapel.
• Linton Union: minutes; correspondence; plans; financial records; relieving officer's records; registers of admissions and removals of mentally defective patients; creed register; records of vaccination.
• Newmarket Union: collector's accounts; relieving officer's records; records of vaccination.
• Royston Union: District Medical officers' contracts; vaccination records.
• St. Ives Union (Swavesey district): birth returns and vaccination records.
• Whittlesey Union: minutes; admission and discharge books; letter book; financial records; deeds of workhouse site; school fees order book.
• Wisbech Union: minutes; ledgers; relief order books; letter books; creed register; registers of births and deaths; register of inmates; officers' service registers.
• North Witchford: minutes; financial records; register of officers and servants; dietary.

Huntingdonshire Archives

Records of Huntingdon, St Ives and St Neots Boards of Guardians are held at Huntingdonshire Archives. They include:

• minute books
• admission and discharge registers
• creed registers
• occasional workhouse plans
• many financial records

The registers of births and deaths in each of the three workhouses have been transcribed and indexed. They are available in the searchroom. You can browse an index to the admissions at Huntingdon Union Workhouse (1837-1874) under the reference KGH/3/3/1.

Peterborough Board of Guardians included much of northern Huntingdonshire. Records are currently at Northamptonshire Record Office.

• Poor Law records after 1834
• Workhouses after 1835
• Workhouses before 1835

There are patches of brick clay near Peterborough, some fenland villages in Huntingdonshire and the Isle of Ely. Fletton and Yaxley have particularly large deposits. A number of brick companies were formed and floated at the end of the 19th century. They hoped to win markets by their good railway connections with the rest of the country. But by the end of the 1920s most of these companies had been bought by the London Brick Co. Ltd.

Huntingdonshire Archives holds records of:

• Beebys Brick Co. (Yaxley)
• Dogsthorpe Star Brick Co.
• Farcet Brick Co.
• Hicks and Co. Ltd. (Fletton)
• Itters Brick Co. Ltd. (Fletton)
• Manchester estate brickyards (Ellington, Grafham, Kimbolton and Great Staughton)
•  Northam Brick Co. Ltd. (Yaxley and Whittlesey)
• New Peterborough Brick Co. Ltd.
• Saxon Brick Co. Ltd. (Whittlesey)
• Wayboys Brick Works Co. (Whittlesey)

There is an excellent history of the Fletton area brickyards by Richard Hillier: Clay That Burns (London Brick Co. Ltd. 1981).

Cambridgeshire Archives holds records of:

• Whittlesea Central Brick Company 1898-1968 [681/B1-151] (see also History of Whittlesea Central Brick Co. Ltd. by Harry Bark Hartley, c.1949. R83/049)

Sale particulars for various brickworks including:

• Haddenham Brick Company, 1904 [1026/SP245]
• Mount Pleasant Brick Works, Gamlingay, 1917 [296/SP1091]
• Royston Cement and Brick Works, Barrington, 1904 [296/SP1026]
• Belle Vue Brick Works, Gamlingay, 1912 [515/SP474]

See also 'The Brick Industry in West Cambridgeshire in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries' M. A. T. Coles, 2005.

The law relating to burial boards and authorities was complex. There were no fewer than 15 specific Burial Acts passed by Parliament between 1852 and 1906. As well as many other acts concerning local government, churches, coroners and so on which impinged upon burial law.

You can find all the relevant acts and statutes from 1803 to 1939 in A. Fellows 'The Law of Burial' (London 1940). This is a practical guide on the administration of burial grounds. E. Austin's 'Burial Grounds and Cemeteries' (London 1907) is also worth consulting. Copies of both these works are in the Huntingdonshire Archives library, available on request.

Huntingdonshire Archives holds some records of:

• Eynesbury Burial Board
• Huntingdon Burial Board
• Ramsey Burial Board
• St Ives Public Cemetery Co.
• St Neots Burial Board

Burial Board records from Fletton, Woodston and Stanground are now held at Peterborough Crematorium. We have photocopies of the burial registers and indexes. Burial Board records for Brampton, Broughton, Fenstanton, Farcet, Hemingford Grey, Houghton and Wyton, Stilton, and other parishes, have been deposited as part of the records of parish councils, and have been listed as such.

Further records of Huntingdon, Eynesbury, St Neots and Ramsey burial grounds, as well as Godmanchester, Buckden and Eaton Socon grounds, are held by Huntingdonshire District Council. The St. Ives Public Cemetery Co. register of burials 1848-1938 was returned to St Ives Town Council in 1981.

Browse Burial Board records on our online catalogue.

The collection passed into the possession of the Bush family, and was deposited at the Record Office in 1962. The collection is sometimes known as Bush-Cromwell or occasionally Cromwell-Bush.

The collection includes documents about Henry Cromwell, Lord Deputy of Ireland 1657-1659. And some manorial records of various Cromwell estates. Together with additions of later 17th and 18th century documents and printed material.

From the family point of view the most interesting part of the collection is the series of letters written by Richard Cromwell to his daughter Elizabeth after 1660. This was when she was resident in Hursley, and he was having to live under assumed names.

The collection also includes copies of letters written by Oliver Cromwell, and some notes on Cromwell family history. Some items from the collection are on display in the Cromwell Museum, Huntingdon.

The catalogue for the Bush Collection is available online.

The range and breadth of records that do survive can also vary widely from business to business. Many small businesses may only have relatively recent account books. Larger companies may also have minute books, share records, personnel records, technical drawings and publicity material.

If you trying to locate the records of a particular business, try an online search of the National Register of Archives. This is now integrated with the National Archives Discover catalogue.

The Business Archives Council promotes the preservation of business records. They do not store records but their website contains some useful guidance.

Cambridgeshire Archives holds some company records. This includes:

• Chivers of Histon, jam makers
• John Mortlock & Co. of Cambridge, bankers
• Edward Towgood & Sons of Sawston, paper manufacturers