Parish Registers

Rob Forsyth & Jon Malings

The Ecclesiastical Parish of Deddington St. Peter and St. Paul also includes the chapelry of Clifton St. James and Hempton St. John the Evangelist.

Deddington Parish Registers from 1631

There is no separate Register for Clifton, and only a solitary one for Hempton, covering baptisms 1852 - 1920.

The registers listed below are all available at the Oxford Parish Archives at: St Lukes Church, Temple Road, Cowley, Oxford OX42EN, Telephone 01865 815 203 

     Marriages 1631-1969
     Banns 1754-1803, 1823-1929
     Burials 1631-1883, 1884+
     Bishops Transcripts 1669-71; 1680; 1682; 1721-27; 1729-30; 1737-87;
1789-1821; 1823-25; 1828-47; 1851; 1864-65
     IGI 1669-1851
     Marriage Indexes 1631-1837
     Boyd's Marriage Index 1631-1837

Deddington Burial Register (pdf 4.2 Mb) 1813-1845.  This is particularly interesting as, for the first time, it was mandatory to include a specific cause of death in the Register entry.

Index of Surnames  (pdf 3.4Mb.) from the Burial Registers 1631-1845.

1813-45 Registers - Notes on work carried out on the building and the organ.

Bodleian Library in Oxford & Oxford History Centre

In August 1973 the library held 77 volumes of parish records between 1631 & 1959 - Registers, Vestry Minutes, Accounts, Poor Law papers, Rate Books, Church Fabric, Schools, 1808 Enclosure Award and miscellaneous other papers. The detailed list (pdf) can be found HERE and in the Parish Archive in Box 5 Item 3. However the items have subseqently been transferred to The Oxford History Centre at St Luke's and given new shelf marks.

The Oxfordshire Family History Society

has transcribed the following:
Registers

Baptisms1631 to 1902
Marriages   1631 to 1902
Burials       1631 to 1883

A CD-ROM containing them is available to buy from the  OFHS online shop Reference OXF-WOD02  under the title 'Woodstock.Reg.Dist.02'. Included on the CD are a series of interesting extracts from the Parish records of 19th Century Enhancements to the Parish Church. 

Graveyards. The OFHS carried out a complete survey of the 'old' and 'new' graveyards as of August 2013. The locations, images and transcriptions of every grave, memorial or monument in the parish Church and Churchyard are also contained on a CD-ROM available to buy from the OFHS online shop Reference OXF-MI-DED under the title 'Deddington St Peter & St Paul'.  See also Graves & Other Memorials to see links to an index to grave locations on plans around the church and in the Hempton Road Cemetery. 

The Story of Deddington Mary Vane Turner

In her book published in 1933, Mary  wrote, in some detail, about the Parish Registers and gave examples of things to be found in them.  One of the most curious group of items was the following:

December 1668 "Colected for the Redeming of the Slaves in Turkie - 5s. 2d." 
May 15th 1670 "Colected for a Breife for to Redeem Slaves - 8s. 4d."
November 21st 1670 "Colected towards the Redeeming of our English from Slavery - £4 1s. 7d."


Piracy was rife on the seas around Europe in the 16th and 17th Centuries. Barbary Corsairs, from what are now Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, sailed as far as Ireland in their search for booty, living or dead ! Follow this link for a detailed description of the little-known fate of around 10,000 Britons who were captured and made slaves.