Willesley, Derbyshire Genealogy

England Derbyshire

Parish History
Willesley St Thomas is an Ancient parish.

WILLESLEY (St. Thomas), a parish, in the union of Ashby, hundred of Repton and Gresley, S. division of the county of Derby, locally in the W. division of the hundred of Goscote, county of Leicester, 2 miles (S. W. by S.) from Ashby; containing 53 inhabitants. The manor was given by Wulfric Spott to Burton Abbey, under which it was held in the 13th and 14th centuries by the family of Ingwardby, from whom it passed by marriage to the Abneys, who resided here for many generations. Thomas Abney (son of Sir Thomas, a justice of the common pleas), the last male of this family, died in 1791, leaving an only daughter, married to Captain, afterwards General, Hastings, who distinguished himself in the American war, and in 1806 was created a baronet; he died in 1823, at the age of 82, and was buried at Willesley. His title, and (among other property) the Wlllesley estate, passed to his son, Sir Charles Abney Hastings, the present baronet. The parish comprises 910 acres, of which about 25 are woodland, and the remainder arable and pasture in nearly equal portions: the soil is various. The southwestern boundary of the parish is skirted by the Ashby and Coventry canal, whence a railway passes to the former town. The manor-house is a handsome structure in the form of the letter H, built about the time of Charles I., and situated in a park of undulated surface, embellished with plantations: the mansion has been enlarged and improved within the last six years. The living is a perpetual curacy, with a net income of £62: the patronage and impropriation belong to Sir C. Abney Hastings. The church, situated a short distance from the manor-house, is a very small plain edifice, with a tower at the west end; the walls are turreted, stuccoed on the outside, and much overgrown with ivy. The period of its erection is not known: the interior has been renovated within the last fifteen years.

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 577-579. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51408 Date accessed: 05 April 2011.

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
The parish transferred to Leicestershire in 1897 and to the diocese of Leicester in 1927

Include here information for parish registers, Bishop’s Transcripts and other types of church records, such as parish chest records. Add the contact information for the office holding the original records. Add links to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection

Census records
Include an overview if there is any unique information, such as the census for X year was destroyed. Add a link to online sites for indexes and/or images. Also add a link to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection.

Poor Law Unions
Ashby de la Zouch Poor Law Union, Leicestershire

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Derbyshire 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

Web sites
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