Etruria, Staffordshire Genealogy

Parish History
Etruria is an Ecclesiastical Parish in the county of Staffordshire, created in 1844 from Shelton,_Staffordshire Ecclesiastical Parish.

ETRURIA, a village, in the parish of Shelton, borough and union of Stoke-upon-Trent, N. division of the hundred of Pirehill and of the county of Stafford, 1½ mile (N. E.) from Newcastle. The classical name of this place was given to it by its late celebrated founder, Josiah Wedgwood, who established here the well-known Wedgwood-ware potteries, in 1769, and called the village after the seat of the ancient fictile art in Italy, Etruria, where a colony of Phœnician potters settled about 1000 years before the birth of Christ. On the formation of the Trent and Mersey canal, this spot was chosen by Mr. Wedgwood, who erected an entire village for his workmen and dependants, and a mansion on a neighbouring eminence for his own residence, which is now occupied by his grandson, Mr. F. Wedgwood, by whom, and his partner, Mr. Boyle, the manufacture is carried on. Mr. Wedgwood died here in 1795. Coal and ironstone abound; and there are extensive wharfs and warehouses for canal traffic. The road from Leek to Newcastle passes through. In 1844, a church district was formed and endowed by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners; and a church has since been erected, of brick and stone, in the Mæso-Gothic style: the living is in the gift of the Crown and the Bishop of Lichfield, alternately; income, £150. A small episcopal chapel, also, for the use of the boatmen, has been lately built by local subscription, aided by a grant from a society, and a handsome contribution from the Canal Company. There are places of worship for Wesleyans, and Methodists of the New Connexion; and the North Staffordshire Infirmary, affording accommodation for 100 patients, besides dispensing vast out-door relief, is situated near Etruria.

From: 'Essington - Evercreech', A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 186-191. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50951 Date accessed: 01 April 2011.

In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Etruria like this:

ETRURIA-popularly Trury, a village and a chapelry in Shelton township, Stoke -upon - Trent parish, Stafford. The village stands on the North Stafford railway, and on the Grand Trunk canal, 1 mile SSE of Burslem; and has a station on the railway, a post office under Stoke-upon-Trent, and a chief inn. It was founded and named by Josiah Wedgewood; was the scene of many of those inventions and improvements by which he carried the manufacture of pottery to a state of high excellence; and was the place of his death, at Etruria Hall, in 1795. Gas-works here, established in 1820, at a cost of £35, 000, supply great part of the pottery district. The chapelry includes the village, and was constituted in 1844. Pop., 2, 922. Houses, 603. The property is subdivided. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Lichfield. Value, £150.* Patron, alternately the Crown and the Bishop. The church is a good edifice in the Saxon style; and there are chapels for Wesleyans, New Connexion Methodists, and Unitarians.

Civil Registration
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. There are several Internet sites with name lists or indexes. A popular site is FreeBMD.

Church records
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Census records
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Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Staffordshire Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

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 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Web sites
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