Wooler, Northumberland Genealogy

Parish History
Wooler St Mary is an Ancient Parish and a market town in the county of Northumberland. Fenton is a chapelry of Wooler.

WOOLER (St. Mary), a market-town and parish, in the union, and E. division of the ward, of Glendale, N. division of Northumberland, 16½ miles (S.) from Berwick-upon-Tweed, 18 (N. W.) from Alnwick, 45 (N. N. W.) from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and 318 (N. N. W.) from London; containing, with the township of Fenton, 1874 inhabitants. This place occupies the eastern declivity of the Cheviot hills; and near it is the village of Humbleton, celebrated for the victory gained by Percy, Earl of Northumberland, in the reign of Henry IV., over a Scottish army of 10,000 men, under the command of Earl Douglas: the engagement occurred on a plain within a mile north-west of the town, where a stone pillar has been erected, commemorative of the event. A great part of the town was destroyed by fire in 1722, since which period it has not made any considerable advances towards improvement. It consists of several streets diverging from a market-place in the centre, is indifferently paved, and supplied with water from a fountain erected at the public expense; a good troutstream flows through the lower part of it, and falls into the river Till. The houses are mostly old, and the general appearance of the place is unfavourable; but the situation, though mountainous, is extremely salubrious, and the town was formerly much resorted to by invalids, for whose use many goats were kept. Here is a branch of the North of England bank; a public subscription library is supported, and a mechanics' institute was established in 1827. The market is on Thursday. Fairs are held on May 4th and October 17th, for horses, cattle, and sheep; and on the third Tuesday in May a general fair takes place on Weetwood Bank, a mile and a half distant from the town. The powers of the county debt-court of Wooler, established in 1847, extend over the registration-district of Glendale. The lord of the manor holds a court leet and baron within three weeks after Easter. The living is a vicarage, endowed with a portion of the rectorial tithes, valued in the king's books at £5. 8. 1½., and in the patronage of the Bishop of Durham; impropriator of the remainder of the rectorial tithes, the Earl of Tankerville. The vicarial tithes have been commuted for £404. 16., and the impropriate for £54; there are 56 acres of glebe. The church, built in 1765, on the site of an ancient structure destroyed by fire, is a neat edifice, occupying an eminence commanding an extensive and richly-varied prospect. There are places of worship for Burghers and Presbyterians; also a Scottish Relief church, and a Roman Catholic chapel. The Glendale union, of which Wooler is the head, comprises 45 parishes and places, and contains a population of 14,000 persons. On a circular mount near the town are the remains of a tower, apparently of Norman origin. There are also many intrenchments in the vicinity, of which the most remarkable is Humbleton Hugh, circular in form, with a large cairn on the summit; the sides of the hill are formed into terraces, about twenty feet broad, in three successive tiers, which, when they were filled with soldiers, presented a formidable resistance to any assailing force.From: 'Wookey - Woolos, St.', A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 661-663. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51427&amp;amp;strquery=wooler Date accessed: 06 March 2011.

Parish Records
Durham University Library Archives and Special Collections Reference number: DDR/EA/PBT/2/282 Date: 1766-1868 Parish Register transcripts are available to search free online at FamilySearch Historical Records, initial image pages may appear blank in the collection and the images await reloading to overcome this known issue.

The dates of the post-1760 transcripts have been noted in detail and sometimes only cover years. For most parishes in the collection there are gaps in the sequence of transcripts. It is advisable to consult the original parish registers for these years and events.

Wooler, St Mary: Records of baptisms 1692-1923, marriages 1693-1919 and burials 1692-1968 are available at Northumberland Collections Service. The International Genealogical Index (I.G.I.) includes baptisms 1692-1812 for this parish, and Boyd's Marriage Index includes marriages 1693-1812 and banns 1754-1812. Transcripts of baptisms 1692-1812, marriages 1693-1812, burials 1692-1812 and baptisms of dissenters 1723, 1745-1799 are available at Newcastle Central Library, Local Studies Dept.

Nonconformist Records

 * Wooler Mission (Ellingham) (Roman Catholic): Records of baptisms 1819-1839 and deaths 1884 are available at Northumberland Collections Service.
 * Wooler St Ninian (Roman Catholic): Records of baptisms 1819-1839 and 1856-1887, marriages 1856-1870 and burials 1851-1884 are available at Northumberland Collections Service and at Berwick upon Tweed Record Office.
 * Northumberland Collections Service has the following records for nonconformist churches located in this parish:
 * Wooler, Cheviot Steet (Methodist) - Marriages 1926-1978
 * Beaumont (Presbyterian) - Births/baptisms 1919-1975.
 * Wooler, Cheviot Street (United Presbyterian) - Births/baptisms 1749-1851. (Births/baptisms 1749-1833 are included on the IGI.)
 * Wooler, Tower Hill (Presbyterian) - Births/baptisms 1786-1836. (Included on the IGI for the same period.)
 * Wooler, West (Presbyterian) - Births/baptisms 1752-1857, 1885-1950, marriages 1895-1921 and deaths 1906-1921. (Births/baptisms 1752-1857 are included on the IGI.)
 * Wooler, Cheviot Street Presbyterian Church, baptisms 1752-1837 have been published on microfiche by Berwick Record Office (Indexed).