Westminster Burials

Each record provides a transcript of the vital information found in the original register held by the City of Westminster Archives Centre. The details in each vary for a number of reasons: the age of the register, how much was known about the deceased person and the physical condition of the register. Most transcripts will include a combination of the following details.

• Name

• Age – this is the individual’s age at the time of death. In some cases, the person’s age would have been estimated. An incorrect estimation would result in an incorrect birth year.

• Birth year

• Death date

• Burial date

• Parish

• County

• Archive

This collection has been created from records held by the Westminster City Archives. They are a mixture of parish burial registers, municipal burial books, interments, burial plot books and cremation records. Westminster is located within central London; it encompasses much of the West End and is bordered to the south by the River Thames.

In the Westminster burials you can find the burial record for Margaret Ponteous, the first victim of the bubonic plague in England. Margaret, the daughter of Dr Thomas Ponteous, was buried on 15 April 1665 at St Paul’s in Covent Garden. The burial register notes ‘Pla’ next to Margaret’s burial entry to show that she did die from the plague.

The next death from the bubonic plague occurred in St Giles in the Fields the following week. By June, the disease had spread rapidly and thousands were dying from the brutal disease. The symptoms of the bubonic plague included infected blotches, black or scarlet on the body and swelling of the groin and armpits. The total number of deaths from the plague is unknown especially since some families kept deaths a secret because they feared they would be quarantined with other victims. It is estimated that almost 110,000 people died from the disease, which was almost 1 in 3 people in London at the time.