Scotland, : Historical writing

Descriptive gazetteer entries

These other entries in our collection of descriptive gazetteers are also about Westminster. You may be able to find further references to Westminster in the descriptive gazetteers by doing a full-text search here.

Place Type of entry Source
JOHN-THE-EVANGELIST (ST.) a parish and a subdistrict Imperial
MARGARET (ST.) WESTMINSTER a parish and a subdistrict Imperial
St Margaret and St John Westminster parish Bartholomew
Westminster parliamentary borough Bartholomew
WESTMINSTER a city Imperial
Westminster Bridge Station railway station Bartholomew
Westminster Division division Bartholomew

This additional information from our descriptive gazetteers is for locations within the parish or parishes associated with Westminster.

Place Type of entry Source
Tothill Fields ecclesiastical district Bartholomew

Travel writing

This website includes the complete texts of books describing journeys around Britain, written between the twelfth and nineteenth centuries. Selecting one of the links below will take you to the first reference to Westminster within the selected text. This will not always be a description of a visit: travellers often mention places other than where they are, for example as a basis for comparison.

Traveller Section No. of Refs.
Daniel Defoe Letter 5 (London), Part 3: The Court and Westminster 14
Daniel Defoe Letter 5 (London), Part 1: Overview and Suburbs 7
William Camden The Division of Britaine 6
Karl Moritz Chapter 2: Entering London 6
William Camden Middlesex and London 5
Paul Hentzner Westminster and Whitehall 5
Daniel Defoe Letter 5 (London), Part 2: The City 4
Karl Moritz Chapter 7: St. Paul's Cathedral 4
William Camden Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincoln 3
Karl Moritz Chapter 5: Parliament 3
William Camden Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire 2
William Camden Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire 2
Charles Wesley 1738: Around London, and Oxfordshire 2
Daniel Defoe Letter 13, Part 1: Fife and Perth 2
John Wesley 1769-70: Opens a New Church; Comments on Rousseau; Geology; Swedenborg 2
Karl Moritz Chapter 4: Preaching and Pleasure Gardens 2
Thomas Pennant Tyringham to Woburn 2
Thomas Pennant Ampthill to Luton 2
Thomas Pennant Luton to Hatfield 2
Henry Broadhurst In Journeyings Often 1
John Byng A Tour into Kent, 1790 1
Gerald of Wales Introduction 1
William Camden Cornwall and Devon 1
William Camden Berkshire, Surrey and Sussex 1
William Camden Essex and Suffolk 1
William Camden Worcestershire and Staffordshire 1
William Camden Cumberland 1
William Camden Scotland: North of the Antonine Wall 1
Charles Wesley Sept. 9 - Dec. 31, 1737: Oxfordshire, and down to Devon 1
Charles Wesley 1750: Bristol and London 1
Daniel Defoe Letter 2, Part 1: Kent Coast and Maidstone 1
Daniel Defoe Letter 2, Part 3: Hampshire and Surrey 1
Daniel Defoe Letter 3, Part 2: Salisbury and Dorset 1
Daniel Defoe Letter 6, Part 1: Middlesex, Hertford and Buckinghamshire 1
Daniel Defoe Letter 7, Part 1: Cheshire and North-West Midlands 1
Daniel Defoe Letter 7, Part 2: East Midlands 1
Daniel Defoe Letter 9: Eastern Yorkshire, Durham and Northumberland 1
Daniel Defoe Letter 11: South-Eastern Scotland 1
Celia Fiennes London, part 2 1
George Head Visiting Mull 1
George Head Property and education on Guernsey 1
Paul Hentzner Arrival and London 1
John Wesley 1740-2: Preaching Incidents; Wesley's Labor Colony; Dispute with Whitefield 1
John Wesley 1763-4: In Scotland Again; Methodist's Wealth; "No Law for Methodists"; Exhausting Days 1
John Wesley 1771-3: Windsor Park; Wesley as Art Critic; Glasgow and Perth; Preaches to 30,000 People 1
John Wesley 1785-90: Collects Money for the Poor; Visits House of Lords; Reasons for his Long Life 1
Karl Moritz Chapter 6: Around London 1
Thomas Pennant Northampton to Gothurst 1
Thomas Pennant July 24-31: Fife and Perthshire 1
Thomas Pennant August 14-18: Inverness and the Black Isle 1
Arthur Young Title and Preface 1
Arthur Young 19th to 30th June 1776: Dublin, Kildare, Meath and Westmeath 1

This website includes two large libraries, of historical travel writing and of entries from nineteenth century gazetteers describing places. We have text from these sources available for these places near your location:

Place Mentioned in Travel Writing Mentioned in Historical Gazetteer
Charing Cross 1 4
St James 0 2
Tothill Fields 0 2
Waterloo 0 5
Strand 2 5
Duchy of Lancaster 0 1
Covent Garden 3 1
Victoria 0 1
Soho 0 2
Middle Temple 1 2
Lambeth 9 2
Vauxhall 15 2
Pimlico 0 2
Inner Temple 1 1
St Giles 1 3
Mayfair 0 4
Lincolns Inn 1 2
Belgravia 0 3
Holborn 12 5
Southwark 44 6

Names from historical writing

The following appear as names for Westminster. Follow the links for what the author actually said:

Name Author Source
JOHN THE EVANGELIST ST John Marius Wilson Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (Edinburgh: A Fullarton & Co., 1870-72).
MARGARET ST WESTMINSTER John Marius Wilson Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (Edinburgh: A Fullarton & Co., 1870-72).
ST JOHN THE EVANGELIST John Marius Wilson Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (Edinburgh: A Fullarton & Co., 1870-72).
ST MARGARET AND ST JOHN WESTMINSTER John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
THORNEY Paul Hentzner Travels in England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth (London: Cassell, 1892).
UPPER ST JAMES PARK John Marius Wilson Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (Edinburgh: A Fullarton & Co., 1870-72).
WESTMINISTER William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
WESTMINSTER John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
John Marius Wilson Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (Edinburgh: A Fullarton & Co., 1870-72).
WESTMINSTER BRIDGE STATION John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
WESTMINSTER DIVISION John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
WEST<SUP>R</SUP> John Byng The Torrington Diaries: Containing the tours through England And Wales of the Hon. John Byng (Later Fifth Viscount Torrington) between the years 1781 and 1794 (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1938).

NB: These variant names come from our collections of historical travel writing and descriptive gazetteers:

  • The above links take you to the first reference to this particular version of the name within a book of travel writing, or to the relevant gazetteer entry.
  • Some names may derive from research by antiquarian writers such as William Camden and Thomas Pennant into the Roman, Saxon and medieval names of places. Their claims are not always supported by modern place-name researchers.
  • References by travel writers to the place using its "normal" name are not included. Descriptive gazetteer entries are included only if the name does not appear anywhere else.