Heritage

Genealogy
Queen Elizabeth I ordered the keeping of accurate registers in every parish in 1559. The registers of St Giles-in-the-Fields are complete from 1561 with the exception of the Baptism and Burial registers for 1610-1638, which have been missing for many years. The Burial register for 1660-1667 contains the record of those who died in the Great Plague of 1665 which had its origin in the parish of St Giles and in July 1665, 1,391 persons were buried in a single week.

The registers are still kept at the church and are available for personal research for a fee of £15 for the first hour, and £12 for any subsequent hour, as set out in the Table of Parochial Fees prepared by the Archbishops' Council.

Should you wish a member of the St Giles staff to undertake a search of your behalf - there is an additional fee of £7.00 per hour. Generally, the more precise information that can be given the more chance of a successful search. To arrange a search, contact us.

The London Metropolitan Archives, 40 Northampton Road, London EC1R OHB (Tel: 020 7332 3820) holds copies of the registers on micro-film, which can be inspected free of charge.

Some of the distinguished people who lived in the parish who were:

Baptised here:
	John Okey 1606		(regicide - signatory to Charles I's death warrant)
	Mary Milton 1647		(daughter of John Milton, poet)
	Katherine Sedley 1657		(Countess of Dorchester, mistress of James II)
	Anne Jefferys 1686		(daughter of Judge Jefferys)
	John Vanderbank 1694		(painter)
	Henry Pelham 1694		(Prime Minister)
	Admiral Lord Rodney 1718/1719
	William Shelley Clara Everina Shelley 1818		(children of Percy Bysshe Shelley, poet)
	Clara Allegra Clairmont 1818		(daughter of Lord Byron, poet)
	John Coleridge Patteson 1827		(the murdered Bishop of Melanesia)
Married here:
	Adrian Scroope 1624		(regicide 37th signatory to Charles I's death warrant)
	Sir Thomas Richardson 1626		(speaker to the House of Commons)
	Lord John Lovelace and Lady Anne Wentworth 1638
	Ferdinando, Lord Fairfax, and Rhoda Hussie 1646		(general)
	Sir Charles Sedley, and Lady Savage 1657		(dramatist)
	Wenceslas Hollar 1653		(engraver)
	Sir William Temple, and Mrs Dorothy Osborne 1654/5		(statesman and author)
	William Wake 1681		(Archbishop of Canterbury)
	Sir George Treby 1685		(negotiator of Bill of Rights)
	David Garrick, and Eva Maria Violetti 1749		(actor)
	Michael Arne 1773		( conductor, son of Dr Arne)
	Frances Kemble 1786		(actress, Mrs Siddons signed as a witness)
	John Philip Kemble, and Priscilla Brereton 1787		(actor)
Buried here:
	George Chapman 1634		(poet, translater of Homer)
	Lord Herbert of Cherbury 1648		(philosopher)
	Philip Stanhope 1656		(1st Earl of Chesterfield, royalist)
	Lady Mary Gifford 1664		(the "Lady of Boscobel")
	Sir Thomas Widdrington 1664		(speaker to the House of Commons)
	James Shirley 1666		(dramatist)
	Claude Duval 1669/70		(highwayman - executed)
	Richard Pendrell 1671		(preserver of the life of Charles II at Boscobel)
	Isaac Fuller 1672		(painter)
	Cecil, second Lord Baltimore 1675		(1st Proprietory of Maryland, USA)
	Andrew Marvell 1678		(politician and poet)
	Thomas Whitbread William Harcourt John Gavan Anthony Turner John Fenwick 1678		Jesuits executed, after the Titus Oates' plot
	Edward Coleman 1678		(conspirator, secretary to Mary of Modena. Executed)
	Oliver Plunkett 1681		(RC Archbishop of Armagh, Executed, Exhumed.)
	Sir Heneage Finch 1682		(Lord Chancellor)
	Sir John Finch 1682		(Ambassador and Physician)
	Dr John Pell 1685		(mathematician, inventor of the ÷ sign)
	Lord Belasyse 1689		(royalist)
	Lord Arundell of Wardour 1694		(conspirator, accused by Titus Oates)
	Henry Tilson 1695		(painter)
	Edward du Bois 1696		(painter)
	Dr Bernard Connor 1698		(King of Poland's physician)
	Sir Charles Sedley 1702		(dramatist)
	Anna Maria, Countess of Shrewsbury		(mistress of Buckingham)
	Robert White 1703		(engraver)
	Sir Roger L'Estrange 1704		(last public censor)
	Ralph, Duke of Montagu 1709		(statesman)
	Philip, 2nd Earl of Chesterfield 1713		(royalist, patron of Dryden)
	Sir Godfrey Kneller 1723		(painter)
	Thomas Harley 1730		(Sheriff of Middlesex, opponent of John Wilkes)
	Charles Radcliffe 1746		(titular, Earl of Derwentwater, rebel of 1715, Jacobite)
	Paul Rimbault 1785		(clockmaker)
	Dr William Balmain 1803		(physician, co-founder of New South Wales)
	Sir Souldon Lawrence 1814		(judge)
	Athur William Devis 1822		(historical painter)
	John Flaxman 1826		(sculptor)
	Luke Hansard 1828		(printer to the House of Commons)
	Thomas Earnshaw 1829		(watch and chronometer maker)
	Sir John Soane 1837		(architect)