Mongewell St John the Baptist

England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Mongewell St John the Baptist

The Parish

The parish of Mongewell lies in southern Oxfordshire forming a short stretch of the border with neighbouring Berkshire, here formed by the River Thames. Mongewell is located roughly a mile and a half south of the Berkshire market town of Wallingford and sits immediately west of the A4074 road which parallels the course of the Thames along its eastern banks from Oxford to Caversham and Reading. Mongewell is a tiny place within a strangely shaped parish, little more than a hamlet sitting on the Thames' banks, the wider parish is a narrow strip of land stretching eastwards from the Thames along the line of the ancient Grim's Ditch; whilst only a few hundred yards thick from north to south it stretches from west to east for almost 2 1/2 miles towards Nuffield. The few houses and farms that form the notional centre of Mongewell gather around the grounds of Carmel College, a Catholic school and former Jewish boarding school which closed its doors in 1997. Like most parishes in this area Mongewell would have been chiefly engaged in farming, its irregular shape giving it access to both riverside meadows and also the lower slopes of the Chiltern range to its east. Most visitors today are following the Ridgeway National Trail which passes through the former school's grounds before turning to spend extensive time in Mongewell parish by climbing Grim's Ditch. The Thames drains the parish south and then east flowing through the capital on its way to the North Sea. Mongewell is sited at between 45 & 80 metres above the sea on rising slopes east of the river, land rises still higher eastwards to reach 212 metres at Nuffield, the eastern end of Grim's Ditch. Despite its unusual shape Mongewell parish covered a fairly typical acreage of just over 1,600 acres within which it would have supported a population of close to 200 parishioners. In Domesday times Mongewell was slightly more important, a holding of Osbern's son Earl William it could muster 9 ploughs, some meadows & woodland and the Thames was the setting for its 2 mills.

The Church

The former church of St John the Baptist is, as Pevsner states, "a romantic ruin" set on the banks of the Thames and accessed only on foot. Originally a small 12th century Norman Romanesque styled church it received major changes before being left to ruin. The core of nave & chancel is of the 12th century whilst the brick apse added in 1791 carries a battlemented polygonal turret. The chancel was as Pevsner states "Normanised" further in 1880 during typical Victorian restoration. The church was declared redundant in 1981 and is now in the care of Churches Conservation Trust. Both Mongewell and its historic ruined church a signed westwards from the A4074 along Constitution Hill which ends outside the former school's grounds at a broad parking area. From here a shady path leads towards the Thames for perhaps 400 metres to reach the churchyard. The church ruin is a photography challenge being deeply enclosed within a veritable forest of trees with few sight-lines adequate to fully capture it in extended views.

The Records

Register No	Covering Dates	Deposited With	Register Style	Quality Standard	Comments
1	21st June 1756 - 7th April 1806	Oxfordshire History Centre - Reference - PAR177/1/R1/1	Plain, ruled book, a continuation of the extant composite register in contravention of Hardwicke's segregation & wording requirements	Grade 2 Register - not a perfect read but with a low likelihood of misreads	None
2	28th August 1817- 5th November 1827	Oxfordshire History Centre - Reference - PAR177/1/R3/1	Standard Rose style preprinted and prenumbered Marriage register	Grade 2 Register - not a perfect read but with a low likelihood of misreads	None

Cholsey St Mary, Berkshire	Newnham Murren St Mary	Rotherfield Greys St Nicholas
Cholsey St Mary, Berkshire		Rotherfield Greys St Nicholas
Cholsey St Mary, Berkshire	North Stoke St Mary Ipsden St Mary	Rotherfield Peppard All Saints

Register Reference	Date	Groom Forename	Groom Surname	Groom Status	Groom Abode	Bride Forename	Bride Surname	Bride Status	Bride Abode
	21/06/1756	William	BLACKALL			Mary	SIMONS
	26/01/1757	Joseph	TUCKER		Ipsden	Elizabeth	POOL
	14/06/1762	James	HALES	Single	St Nicholas, Deptford, Kent	Elizabeth	COX	Single
	07/07/1762	Robert	JEMMET	Single	Whitchurch	Mary	ROSE	Single
	06/08/1769	Stephen	PAULING	Single	Henley	Ann	GILL	Single
	08/08/1773	Thomas	GILL			Maria	COOPER
	29/04/1778	Thomas	HIGGS	Single	North Stoke	Sarah	NEAT	Single
	06/12/1780	James	MOUNTFORD	Single	St Mary, Wallingford, Berkshire	Hannah	GREEN	Single
	10/01/1781	Abraham	GRAY	Single	Hurley, Berkshire	Sarah	TAYLOR	Single
	19/07/1781	Jonathan	BAGONS	Single		Jane	WAKEFIELD	Single
	04/07/1785	William	SADLER	Single	Warborough	Mary	WELLS	Single
	07/08/1786	John	OXTON	Single	Egham, Surrey	Catherine	BATCHELER	Single
	06/11/1786	William	MUNNS	Single		Mary	COOPER	Single
	27/10/1788	William	BLACKALL	Single		Anne	WILDER	Single
	17/11/1788	William	WILLIS	Single	Ewelme	Maria	GILL	Widow
	14/05/1792	John	WILDER			Mary	BLACKALL
	06/01/1793	John	HARGRAVE	Single		Elizabeth	GUILDING	Single
	15/01/1793	James	PRICE	Single		Hannah	AKERMAN	Single
	17/06/1793	John	LYDALL	Single		Mary	DODD	Single
	24/03/1795	George	OXLADE	Single	St George Hanover Sq, Westminster, Middlesex	Martha	SMITH	Single
	21/08/1797	John	PEERS	Single	Christ Church, Southwark, Surrey	Martha	DODD	Single
	15/03/1798	William	GREGORY			Mary	TUCKER		St Leonard, Wallingford, Berkshire
	21/11/1799	James	WEBB	Single	Stadhampton	Elizabeth	HULCUP	Single
	19/05/1800	John	HERVEY			Elizabeth	BINN
	04/09/1800	Edward	GUILDING			Elizabeth	WALTERS
	30/06/1801	Richard	DULEY			Mary	PLUMMER
	15/08/1801	John	TUBB			Elizabeth	JACKSON
	19/11/1803	Joseph	HULCUP			Sarah	BENNETT
	30/01/1805	James	BROWNJOHN	Single		Mary	HULCUP	Widow
	21/10/1805	Richard	LEWINGTON	Single	Cholsey, Berkshire	Mary	SMITH	Single
	07/04/1806	Thomas	CHANEY	Single		Ann	MUNNS	Single
1	28/08/1817	John	DRAKE	Single	Buscot, Berkshire	Elizabeth	WISE	Single
2	08/09/1818	William	ALLAM	Single	Crowmarsh Gifford	Rachel	LAWRENCE	Single
3	04/06/1821	John	BREWER		North Stoke	Mary Ann	SELF
4	07/11/1822	James	GOODCHILD	Single	Swallowcliffe, Wiltshire	Mary	MUNNS	Single
5	20/03/1823	John	FIDLER	Single		Mary	GILL	Single
6	24/11/1823	James	GREEN		Rotherfield Greys	Sarah	BLACKALL
7	02/12/1823	Thomas	HARVEY			Ann	JOHNSON
8	18/10/1824	Luke William	FREEMAN			Mary	TUBB
9	28/10/1824	Charles	BEW			Sarah	ALDER		Ipsden
10	04/11/1826	William	REEVES		Nuffield	Mary	RUSH
11	23/12/1826	Edward	HEATH		Nettlebed	Esther	BLACKALL
12	05/11/1827	William	LOVELOCK		St Mary, Wallingford, Berkshire	Hannah	GIBBS

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