The Clewer & Windsor Berkshire Fish Family history.

The furthest back we can trace the Fish family is 1720. This was achieved using the documented records in the Berkshire Records Office. The church registers come from the following churches, St Andrew's Church in Clewer and St John's church in New Windsor.

St Andrew's Church is the oldest Building in Windsor, over 1000 yrs old. This church is in Clewer and parts of the church like the east corner is older than Windsor castle itself.  The Church was established by King Edward in 985 AD. This church holds the original baptism records of our earliest traceable Fish family members. John Fish #928, his wife Elizabeth Fish #929 and 3 of their 4 children, John Fish #946 his wife Ann Scott, Richard Fish, James Fish his wife Sarah Oslan were all buried in the grounds of this church. No grave-stones survive to this day and they are in unmarked plots in the church grounds. Their burials were from 1744 to 1824.

Windsor parish church (above) of St Johns - around 1620

Aerial Photo of the Queens Castle in Windsor - St John’s Church is at the bottom right 100m from the palace in the high street.
St John the Baptist Church, Hannah Fish #947, Sarah Fish #934, John Fish #937, Martha Fish  #940 and  Stephan Fish #941 were buried here in the church grounds. No tombstones remain to mark their graves any longer (their burials were from 1765 to 1788). Elisabeth Fish #949 grand daughter of John Fish #928 lived in George street 50 m from the castle (see photo above).
St George’s Chapel  (inside Windsor Castle Palace grounds) – was used by the congregation of St John while the church was being extended between 1660 and 1710. The parishioners took full advantage of this and for this period a record no of marriages took place here, some 900 in total, as much as 3 marriages a day. Many of the marriages were local artisans and tradesmen. Some prominent well known families from outside the county took advantage of this opportunity as well. Three Fish marriages (from outside the county) took place here during this period. They may have links to the Fish living in Windsor, no formal links established yet.
                                                     (research for the future!) Please help if you can, thanks.

Peter Fish married 21-Aug-1664, in St Georges Chapel Windsor,  to Sarae Jenings of Colebrooke Parish Langley countyBucks.  Peter Fish of Iver County Bucks.

Tho Fish of Parish Harborough "Licester" married 7-Nov-1695, in St Georges Chapel Windsor, to Anne Shipley of Parish Stamford in "Lincolne". 

James Fish  of Marlow Bucks, married 10-Jun-1700, in St Georges Chapel Windsor,  to Hannah Law of Marlow Bucks. 

St Johns Church Windsor as it is today.

 The Fish Family is known to have lived at no 4 Bier Lane Windsor (ref. 1841 Census and 1881 Census) This etching / drawing (below) was completed in 1725 about the time when the first Fish families came to Windsor. They lived in one of the houses shown on the left going up the hill in Bier Lane running perpendicular to the Thames river. The road is now called River Street. Some Fish were also boatmen as depicted in the picture transporting people from Windsor to London.

The Fish Family is known to have lived at no 4 Bier Lane Windsor (ref. 1841 Census and 1881 Census) This etching / drawing was completed in 1725 about the time when the first Fish Families came to Windsor. They lived in one of the houses shown on the left going up the hill in Bier Lane running perpendicular to the Thames river. The road is now called River Street. Some Fish were also boatmen as depicted in the picture transporting people from Windsor to London.

Early etching of Bier Lane & Castle in Windsor

Nordon's Map of Windsor  1607

If you would like high resolution images of these pictures - email me at veldsmw@aol.com and I will send you higher image quality pictures.