Catalogue description Saint John, Saint John's Wood: Westminster

Registers of burials

Burial fee books

Register of monuments and graves

Registers of baptisms

Registers of marriages

Register of confirmations

Registers of banns of marriage

Marriage licences

Church service registers

Curate's licences

Transfer of St John's Wood Chapel from St Marylebone to Christ Church

Licence for solemnisation of marriages

Parochial reorganisation

Benefice

Church fabric

Parochial property

Financial records

Parochial Church Council

Christ Church School

Christ Church charities

History of St John's Wood Church

Papers of Henry Mills

The parish records of St Stephen's dating from before the defacto union of 1948 have been listed separately with the reference P81/STE1 and the records of St John's Wood Chapel have been listed as a continuous series with the records of St John's Wood Parish.

Church of England, St John's Parish, St John's Wood

Original references (P..) or xerox copy references (R..) have to be ordered

Microfilms (X..) are available in the Reference Room

Additional parish records of St John's Wood Church, formerly St John's Wood Chapel deposited by the Vicar in the Greater London Record Office, 17 November 1978 (Ac. 78.63)

Parish records deposited by the Rector of St Marylebone 12 June 1959.

• Church of England, St Marylebone Parish, Middlesex
• Church of England, Christ Church Parish, St Marylebone
• Church of England, St Stephen the Martyr Parish, Portland Town
• Church of England, St Barnabas Parish, St Marylebone

St John's Wood Chapel was built in 1814 as a chapel of ease to St Marylebone parish church and to serve the new burial ground adjoining it. In 1898 it became a chapel of ease to Christ Church, Cosway Street. In March 1952 St John's Wood Chapel was transferred to the parish of St Stephen the Martyr, Avenue Road, Portland Town and replaced St Stephen's Church as parish church. The name of the parish was changed to St John's Wood in September 1952.

For registers of burials in St John's Wood burial ground, see St Marylebone parish church.

St John's Wood Chapel was built in 1814 as a chapel of ease to St Marylebone parish church and to serve the new burial ground adjoining it. In 1898 it became a chapel of ease to Christ Church, Cosway Street, served by its own minister until the 1920s. In 1932 the Rector of Christ Church moved from Christ Church House into St John's House and St John's appears to have become increasingly the centre of parochial administration to which were added in February 1941 the parishes of St Stephen the Martyr, Avenue Road, and St Barnabas, Bell Street. Consequently the records of St John's for these years include many items relating to Christ Church and some to the other two parishes.

The scheme for the parochial reorganisation of St Marylebone published in 1945 proposed that St John's Wood Chapel should be transferred to St Stephen's Parish and should replace St Stephen's Church as the parish church of the new parish. The Bishop of London closed St Stephen's Church from 31 October 1945 and asked St Stephen's Parochial Church Council to recognise St John's Wood Chapel as their parish church without waiting for a formal legal decision. When the Rector of Christ Church resigned at the end of 1947, he was replaced by two incumbents, the Rector of St Stephen with St John and the Rector of Christ Church with St Barnabas. On 1 January 1948 Christ Church balances were transferred out of the St John's ledger. The St Stephen's accounts were closed and the money was transferred to St John's, thus effectively implementing the reorganisation scheme. On 11 March 1952 an Order in Council was published retifying the reorganisation scheme. A further Order in Council on 9 September 1952 changed the name of the parish to St John's Wood.

Although legally St John's was only a chapel of ease until 1952, it had become the administrative centre of three parishes. Rather than St Stephen's parish taking over St John's Wood Church, St John's Wood Church appears to have taken over St Stephen's parish. Most of the series of the records used for St Stephen's were closed and either the St John's records were used for the new parish or a new series was started.

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