In life Olaudah Equiano (c. 1745 – 31 March 1797) was known as Gustavus Vassa. Equiano has an unexplained link with the village of Soham in Cambridgeshire, England where he married an English lady, Susannah Cullen in 1792. It was from Soham in 1782 that the Baptist, Andrew Fuller originated before becoming the pastor of Kettering Baptist Church. […]
Philip Doddridge never enjoyed the best of health. In life he had the appearance of a “bag of bones” and was always running from this place to that in the Lord’s work. When it became clear that his life was close to its end friends and supporters contributed to pay for the cost of him travelling to […]
The August 2015 edition of Footprints includes an update on Nonconformists in Northamptonshire. Sources for researching Nonconformists in Northamptonshire by Graham Ward The Northamptonshire Family History Society have published a booklet written by myself as a guide to the multitude of resources available when researching nonconformist history and family connections. Details are available here, together […]
Thomas Vorley of Market Harborough (1803-1847) was the son of Samuel Vorley (1766-1821). Samuel was born in Great Addington, Northamptonshire, and was a clockmaker. Samuel Vorley’s burial in 1821 at Great Addington records him as a weaver and clockmaker. I have not found any information to indicate when Samuel became a clockmaker or if he […]
If you are looking for transcriptions of non-conformist records in Northamptonshire the Eureka Partnership have started a series of booklets containing many records they have located and transcribed. Details of their Northamptonshire collection is here. Also remember that nonconformists often travelled some distance to attend the chapel of their choice, so it is often wise […]
The orginal returns are now available for free, by download from the National Archives DocumentsOnline service. Some knowledge of the geographical and administrative boundaries in1851 is helpful to locate these records. There are 623 bundles of records organised by Registration districts within Counties. The process of accessing them is a little convoluted the first time, but stick with […]
Dr Williams’s Centre for Dissenting Studies in conjunction with Queen Mary College has launched the Dissenting Academies Project. It provides databases of academies in the 17th-19th centuries, principals, tutors, students and a “virtual” composite academies library from this period. http://www.english.qmul.ac.uk/drwilliams/portal.html It is a huge resource of information on this topic and period but also provides a starting […]
I wrote an article for the Northamptonshire FHS called Serendipity some time ago – those pleasant chance discoveries we make in family history from time to time. Does your family tree go back to the 14th century? You might find www.medievalgenealogy.org.uk a surprise as it contains transcripts of tax assessments for Northamptonshire http://www.medievalgenealogy.org.uk/subsidies/index.shtml from 1301 […]
Charles Surman’s biographical card index of Congregational ministers includes the names of about 32,000 individuals, and, where known, their dates, details of their education, ministries or other employment, together with the sources used. It covers the period from the mid-seventeenth century to 1972, and though it focuses on England and Wales, it includes Congregational ministers […]
By the late REV. J. RYLAND “What singing! what shouting! what heavenly greeting! Shall there be, at that general, triumphant church-meeting. Nor illness, nor business, nor length of the way, Shall keep from that meeting one brother away. Temptations, and trials, no more shall be known; Nor Satan, nor sin, shall e’er cause us to […]