There are a number of useful sources for family historians who find that an ancestor has a connection with Westminster Abbey or St Margaret’s Church.
Registers of Baptism, Marriage and Burial
Baptisms and marriages performed in Westminster Abbey have historically been quite few in number, but burials have been more frequent and there are around 3,000 people buried in the church and cloisters. The exact figure is unknown as registers were not kept until the early seventeenth century. Only a minority of those buried here have any visible monument or gravestone and the precise location of a grave will often be unknown.
The Abbey’s registers were edited by Joseph Lemuel Chester and published as The marriage, baptismal and burial registers of the Collegiate Church or Abbey of St. Peter, Westminster by the Harleian Society in 1876. This edition prints the registers from their beginnings (baptisms in 1608, marriages in 1655 and burials in 1607) until 1876 and provides useful biographical notes. Copies can be found in many reference libraries and record offices, especially those specialising in genealogical studies.
Lists of baptisms, marriages and burials since 1876 are available in the Library, together with a list of people known to have been buried at the Abbey before 1607. A list of early burials is also printed in Barbara Harvey’s Westminster Abbey and its estates in the middle ages (Oxford, 1977), pp.372–86.
Almost all the surviving monuments and floor stones (including memorials commemorating people who are not buried here) are described in the Westminster Abbey Official Guide which can be purchased from the Abbey’s Shop.
More information about some of the better-known individuals buried or commemorated in the Abbey is available in the [link here] Monuments and Gravestones pages.
The registers of St Margaret’s Church cover the large former parish of St Margaret’s, Westminster. The original volumes are not normally available for consultation but the entire series of registers (including indexes to many volumes) may be consulted on microfilm at the City of Westminster Archives Centre, 10 St Ann’s Street, London, SW1.
The graves in St Margaret’s Churchyard were grassed over in the nineteenth century and are no longer visible.
Clergy, Choir Members and Other Personnel
The library holds basic biographical data about most of the Abbey’s former clergy, choristers, singing men and other personnel, though the level of detail varies. Information is subject to Data Protection legislation as appropriate, but historical enquires can be addressed to library staff.
Please note that we do not necessarily have information about everybody who has been connected with the Abbey in the past. In the case of people involved in building and restoration work, for example, we will usually have a record of those who were directly employed by the Dean and Chapter, but are unlikely to information about those who worked as employees of external contractors.
The names of clergy who served Westminster Abbey as deans or canons from the dissolution of the monastery until the mid-nineteenth century are listed in Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1541–1857 vol. 7, compiled by J.M. Horn (London, 1992).
Many former Abbey clergy and lay officers have entries in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
Coroners Inquests
Among the Abbey’s muniments are several thousand records of inquests held by the Westminster Coroner’s Court between 1760 and 1880. A chronological list is available in the Library but there is no index of names at present.