William Wells and the church of St Dunstan, Stepney, Middlesex

Question

On 19 Dec 2023 John Davis wrote on Wells-640:

Hi Jo, I'm not an historian; want to make that clear. I would be most interested to know however if a historian would comment on the use of St Dunston Stepney as the goto place for registration of Birth, Death and Marriages at sea up until 1950 (at least with the British Navy). This says Births but I am sure I read somewhere that it was also Deaths and Marriages. https://alondoninheritance.com/london-churches/st-dunstan-and-all-saints/ This one says born or died at sea, https://spitalfieldslife.com/2022/04/16/easter-procession-in-stepney-x/ This one says at the time that St Dunstan was called the "Church of the High Sea" births, deaths and marriages at sea were recorded there: https://snr.org.uk/snr-forum/topic/the-royal-navy-and-the-parish-of-stepney/ But it appears to only be a forum and the link in the text did not work. This says births, deaths and marriages of British Sailors: https://www.flickr.com/photos/albedo/3634321672 To look through the marriage records is to reallise that there do seem to be very many references to people from Knockfergus having been married at St Dunstan, Stepney. For me, (a layman not any kind of historian but a family history buff with a son interested in history) it begs the question is there any kind of link between the use of Knock fergus (away from its Irish Connections) and perhaps British sailors (including I believe merchant sailors (aka Mariners)). I know having attended a Museum of London seminar day on 'Londons Sailor Towns' that the clergy at the churches in the Docklands were often not from London but more often Somerset/Wiltshire and also Norfolk (it was explained that this was because at that time people raised in the Docklands did not receive a particuarly high level of education; except in Greenwhich which was a world leading scientific institute at the time). If they were not the actual senior church vicar etc then they were often young and were brought into the area due to their literacy in particular their ability to write and keep records. Maybe Knock fergus became a generic term amongst such young clergy for not only Irish People from a part of Shadwell(as Stephen pointed out) but maybe also people who were married at sea. (Possibly, if both were listed as being from Knock Fergus)

Edit: This comment came from the discussion on the profile of William Wells, the Vicar of St Peter Mancroft, Norwich. Go to that profile to see the rest of that discussion.

The person who married at St Dunstan, Stepney, Middlesex and was "of Knockfergus" was a different William Welles and his profile ID is below.

Answer 1

In 1964, A.D. Ridge in "Archive" (The Journal of the British Records Association) asked the same question about St Dunstan's Stepney and baptisms at sea in his paper "ALL AT SEA: OBSERVATIONS ON THE STEPNEY BAPTISM REGISTERS"  The first page of the article can be read for free here. Thanks to Nic Donnelly for discovering the paper and to Andrew Millard for providing me with the full version. 

The author looked through every volume of the baptism registers from their start in 1558 up to 1936 (that's dedication!). The first mention of a child being baptised at sea was 1893. There were a sprinkling of baptisms from then on each year, generally one or two up to 1936. The exceptions were in 1921 when a family of 6 were all baptised on the SS Bernina, and in 1922 9 boys were baptised together by the ship's chaplain while they were in training on the HMS Colossus.

Ridge then examined the ecclesiastical regulations. He concluded: "There is, however, no evidence among the extant parish records to show that St Dunstan's parish was ever given special rights and interests in the matter. The Legal Secretary and Registrar of the Bishop of London has in fact expressed the view that to the best of his knowledge neither the Bishop of London nor the Rector of Stepney has any special jurisdiction over the high seas: nor is the Bishop now concerned in licensing the chaplains of naval ships. It is significant that although there are references to two baptisms by the Bishop of London himself, there is also known to be at least one instance where he officiated and yet no record was kept. Surely if he had had a special jurisdiction he would have been punctilious about notifying his 'special registrar' at Stepney?" 

If anyone wishes to know more about the methodology involved in compiling this paper, please contact me directly through the WikiTree messaging system, as the paper is still under copyright and I can't upload it for general viewing.

ALL AT SEA: OBSERVATIONS ON THE STEPNEY BAPTISM REGISTERS Ridge, Alan D, Archives (British Records Association); Oct 1, 1964; vol 6, number 32; page 229

Answer 2

Knock Fergus Street was in Stepney.

From Wikipedia

Until Victorian times, the current Cable Street had different names for each of its sections. From west to east these ran: Cable Street, Knock Fergus, New Road, Back Lane, Blue Gate Fields, Sun Tavern Fields, and Brook Street. Knock Fergus may have been a reference to the large numbers of Irishresidents there then, but the name is old – it is found in the St Dunstan Stepney registers in the early 1600s

Ann

Comments

Map here 

---

Thanks Helen, for posting the link here for those who haven't seen it on the profile. The map timeline takes a little while to load. The street known as Knockfergus was absorbed into Cable Street sometime between 1810 and 1820 from the map sequence. Unfortunately the map time line doesn't extend back to 1600 when William Welles "of Knockfergus" was married at St Dunstan, Stepney to see whether the street had that name then.

---

Knock Fergus was there in 1693 https://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/london-4s-pound/1693-4/middlesex-knock-fergus

---

and the Place-Names of Middlesex takes it back to 1597

• Knockfergus 1597 ParReg 1613 Sess
• Knockvergus 1613,1661 ParReg
• Knockverges 1624 ib
• Cable Street heretofor called Knockfergus 1695 Sess
• Knock Fergus 1793 Cary

---

Thanks Andrew - that is pretty conclusive and it looks as though William Welles was ''of the street called Knock Fergus in Stepney" rather than Knockfergus in Ireland.

Answer 3

I've never heard of this for births deaths and marriages, but there was certainly a legal fiction that mariners dying overseas were residents of Stepney, and therefore that their wills should be proved at the Archdeaconry Court of London or the Prerogative Court of Canterbury. https://www.findmypast.co.uk/articles/england-and-wales-published-wills-and-probate-indexes-1300-1858-volumes-available/london/archdeaconry-court-of-london-probate-records-vol-i-1393-1649-introduction-to-original-volume

Answer 4

In answer to the last part of the question, most clergy came from outside the parish which they ministered in, where-ever that was in England. They were middle class boys and had to have a university education with a degree (BA or MA) to become a Church of England minister. They had to take whatever opening was available unless they were fortunate enough that their family had a patron who had the right to present the Clergymen to a given parish (this was known as the Advowson).