GenUKI Contents

Bedfordshire

SUTTON

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"SUTTON, a parish in the hundred of Biggleswade, county Bedford, 1½ mile south of Potton, its post town. It was a seat of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and is said to have been given by him to Sir Roger Burgoyne by a curious deed in doggerel verse, preserved among the records in Doctors' Commons. There is a chalybeate spring. The living is a rectory (with parsonage and glebe) in the diocese of Ely, value £362, in the patronage of St. John's College, Oxford. The church, dedicated to All Saints, contains a brass of T. Burgoyne, bearing date 1516. The parochial charities are Burgoyne's annuity of £30 for repairs of the church, &c. There are charity and Sunday schools. It was in this parish that Bishop Stillingfleet, while rector, wrote his "Origins Sacræ." In Sutton Park is the site of an old seat, called John of Gaunt's Mount. Sir J. M. Burgoyne is lord of the manor."

[The above was transcribed (and edited) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland 1868]
by Colin Hinson ©2023

Census

• The 1851 Census Index for Sutton can be found in the 1851 Index to Census of Bedfordshire, Volume 3, Book 2 available from the Bedfordshire Family History Society.
• A transcription of the 1891 Census for Sutton.

Churches

• Here are photographs of Churches etc. in the parish:
  • All Saints Church, Sutton.

Church History

• Church of England
  • The church of All Saints is a building of stone, in the Early English and Decorated styles, consisting of chancel, nave of four bays, aisles, south porch and an embattled western tower, containing 4 bells and a clock : the north aisle or Burgoyne chapel contains some magnificent monuments of the Burgoyne family, together with hatchments, flags and other funereal; the most important of these, erected to John Burgoyne, 1604, consists of a marble monument, 24 feet in height and 16 feet long, with a life-sized recumbent effigy and an inscribed tablet: the chancel retains its piscina and sedilia, and is separated from the nave by an oak screen: the font is Norman : the east window and several others are stained, and include one in the north chancel to Barbara, wife of the Rev Charles Dethick Blyth B.D. rector from 1830: there are 400 sittings. The register dates from the year 1690. [Kelly's Directory - Bedfordshire - 1898]

Church Records

• Church of England
  • The parish record transcripts for All Saints are available on microfiche for the period 1690-1812 from the Bedfordshire Family History Society.
• There are entries in the Biggleswade district Marriage Certificates for this parish

Description and Travel

• The Marston charity of £21 yearly (origin unknown), is derived from land, and is distributed as follows:- one-third to the schools, one-third as head money to the married poor and the remainder to the maintenance of the church and the packhorse bridge, which, spinning a small stream, gives entrance to the village. Sutton Park the property of Sir J. M. Burgoyne, bart. and now the residence of Lady Barbara Smith & Gerald Dudley Smith esq. ; the mansion is a beautiful edifice in the Palladian style, in a well-wooded park of 134 acres ; in the park is an eminence called John o' Gaunt's Hill. [Kelly's Directory - Bedfordshire - 1898]

Gazetteers

• A transcript of the Sutton parish entries from Samuel Lewis's 1831 Topographical Dictionary of England,
• A transcript of the Sutton parish entries from Samuel Lewis's 1835 Topographical Dictionary of England,
• A transcript of the Sutton parish entries from The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales, 1866-9

Military History

• The BFHS Project in conjunction with Roll of Honour contains the Sutton War Memorial transcription with details of the men found on it.