Belstead St Mary

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A photograph of the old church of St Mary's in Belstead, in the snow. Some stone headstones are in the foreground.

Transcribed by Helen Barrell from microfiche. These transcriptions can also be searched at FreeREG.

A list of surnames found in the churchyard was published in The East Anglian in 1899. Read online.

Memorial inscriptions inside the church were published in The East Anglian in 1897-8. Part one, part two

Notes

  • Sometimes the early register refers to the parish as Belstead Parva. A will I’ve seen from 1529 refers to the nearby parish of Washbrook as “Much Belstead, otherwise Washbrook.”
  • Entries are rather sparse in the early 1670s, with no entries at all for 1674 and only one entry for 1676 (a baptism – no burials or marriages recorded for that year). Tobias Blosse, the rector, died in Feb 1693/4, which might explain why there’s only one entry (a baptism) in 1694.
  • No burials 1623-1653, 1655, 1674, 1676, 1677, 1694, 1700-3, 1791
  • No baptisms 1623-1654, 1660, 1671, 1674, 1700-3
  • No marriages 1641-1655, 1670, 1674-7, 1679, 1694-98, 1700-4, 1709, 1711-2, 1714-23, 1731-2, 1756, 1762, 1767, 1771, 1779, 1787-8.
  • Marriages 1746-1751 and two for 1753 are right at the back of the register FB 189/D1/2. The 1752 marriage and one for 1753 are with baptisms and burials for that year
  • Baptisms, burials and marriages 1704-1753 and baptisms and burials 1754-90 are in repeated in two registers (FB 189/D1/2 and /4). But as parts of each register are hard to read, entries for those years will come from both registers. Please look at both when you’re looking at the transcriptions against the registers.
  • From 1754, couples and the witnesses to their marriages were supposed to sign or mark. However, it looks as if in the early years of the 1754-1812 register that people who didn’t sign didn’t mark either – their name appears where the signature or mark should be, and instead their name has been written in the same handwriting as the rest of the record. This is indicated in the transcription where it appears to have happened.

Baptisms 1538-1812

Burials 1540-1812

Marriages 1539-1857