Birmingham St Martin, Warwickshire Genealogy

England   Warwickshire



Parish History
Birmingham St Martin in the Bull Ring is the original parish church of the city of Birmingham.

The present church on the site replaced the 13th century church and was built in 1873 by J.A. Chatwin.

The original church reputedly included the first clock in Birmingham. In 1547, although no record is kept to indicate when the first clock appears in Birmingham, during this year the 'King's Commissioners report that the Guild of the Holy Cross are responsible 'ffor keeping the Clocke and the Chyme," at a cost of four shillings and four pence a year at St Martin's Church. The next recorded mention of a clock is in 1613. The earliest known clock makers in the town arrived in 1667 from London.

In 1690, the church-wardens "dressed the church in brick." All was cased in brick with the exception of the spire.

John Cheshire rebuilt 40 feet of the spire in 1781, which was strengthened by an iron spindle running up its centre for a length of 105 feet. It was secured to the sidewalls at every ten feet by braces. In 1801, several metres from the top of the spire were replaced after they were found to have decayed. The tops of the four pinnacles surrounding the main spire were also rebuilt. By 1808, the spire had been struck by lightning three times.

There are numerous post-1800 churches built within this large township to handle the large burgeoning populations of the 19th century; to see a complete list of these, see the link under "Church Records" below.

Samuel A. Lewis describes it in this way:

Prior to the year 1715, Birmingham comprised only one parish, at present it comprises the five parishes of St. Martin, St. Philip, St. George, St. Thomas, and All Saints. Christ-church, in the parish of St. Philip usually called the "Free church," St. Peter's, St. Luke's church, St. Stephen's church, is in the parish of St. George. There are places of worship for Baptists, the Society of Friends, Independents, Primitive and Wesleyan Methodists, Swedenborgians, and Unitarians; a Scottish church, and two Roman Catholic chapels.

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
Birmingham St Martin

Bishop's Transcripts deposited at the Lichfield Record Office Bap 1632-1881 Marr 1662-1831 Bur 1662-1831

Birmingham St Mary (chapelry formed within the Ancient Parish)

Bishop's Transcripts deposited at the Lichfield Record Office Bap 1774-1847 Marr none Bur 1774-1847

See A Comprehensive List of Birmingham Parishes and Chapels for details of the the churches and chapels formed from this parish and microfilm of the records.

Census records
http://www.1881pubs.com/ for details of public houses in the 1881 census

Poor Law Unions
Birmingham Poor Law Union, Warwickshire

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

Maps and Gazetteers
Maps are a visual look at the locations in England. Gazetteers contain brief summaries about a place.


 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Resources
A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 255-263. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50802