Dauntsey, Wiltshire
Historical Description
Dauntsey or Dantsey, a parish in Wiltshire on the river Avon, with a station on the G.W.R., 89 miles from London, 4½ SSE of Malmesbury, and 5½ W of Wootton-Bassett. It has a post office under Chippenham; money order and telegraph office, Great Somerford. Acreage, 3260; population, 409. The manor belonged at the Conquest to Malmesbury Abbey, and passed to the Dauteseys, the Straddlings, the Danverses, the Crown, and the great Earl of Peterborough. Part of the land is common. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; value, £402 with residence. The church has monuments of the Danverses and is interesting to archaeologists. The parish gave the title of Baron to the son of James II.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
Ancient County | Wiltshire | |
Ecclesiastical parish | Dauntsey St. James | |
Hundred | Malmesbury | |
Poor Law union | Malmesbury |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The register dates from the year 1653.
Findmypast, in association with the Wiltshire Record Office, have the following parish records online for Dauntsey:
Baptisms | Banns | Marriages | Burials |
---|---|---|---|
1605-1917 | 1657-1812 | 1605-1925 | 1605-1917 |
Churches
Church of England
St. James (parish church)
The church of St. James is an ancient fabric, in the Early English style, consisting of chancel, nave of four bays, aisles, north and south porches and an embattled western tower, with pinnacles, containing a clock and 5 bells: there are some ancient brasses and several interesting monuments, including one of black marble to Charles Henry, 5th and last Earl of Peterborough, who died 16 June, 1814: in the north aisle is a white marble table tomb to Henry Danvers K.G. Earl of Danby, who died at Cornbury Park, Oxon, 20 Jan. 1644, and two modern brasses to the Rev. W. F. Elwell M.A. a former rector, and Col. H. P. Law: there are sittings for 300 persons.
Baptist
Particular Baptist Chapel
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Dauntsey from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Dauntsey (St. James))
Maps
Online maps of Dauntsey are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Wiltshire papers online: