Warton (near Lancaster), Lancashire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes

Parish History
WARTON (Holy Trinity), a parish, in the hundred of Lonsdale south of the Sands, union, and N. division of the county, of Lancaster; containing 2209 inhabitants, of whom 633 are in the township of Warton with Lindeth, 7 miles (N. by E.) from Lancaster. At the time of the Domesday survey, this was one of the twelve manors belonging to the Saxon chieftain Torfin. It is probable that it soon after became a member of the great barony of Kendal, and descended, through the de Lancasters, to Gilbert Fitz-Reinfrid, to whom King John, in the 1st year of his reign, granted a weekly market, on Wednesday, in his manor of Warton. The manor, it would seem, became royal property long before the reign of Henry VIII., and was held immediately under the crown until 1811, when it was purchased by Thomas Inman, Esq., who sold it shortly afterwards to John Bolden, Esq., of Hyning Hall. The parish is bouuded on the west by Morecambe bay, and comprises by computation 25,000 acres, whereof 2684 are in the township of Warton with Lindeth. It includes the chapelry of Silverdale, and the townships of Borwick, Carnworth, Priest-Hutton, Yealand-Conyers, and Yealand Redmayne. The surface is hilly, with the exception of that portion contiguous to the sea, and is of pleasing and diversified appearance; the soil is in general a thin earth, resting occasionally on layers of gravel, but chiefly upon limestone. The mountainous ridge of Warton Crag, taken in the extended sense of the term, stretches through Warton, the Yealands, and Lindeth, whence the chain is continued by Silverdale Nab to Arnside Knot or Fell. The parish is watered by the river Keer or Keir, and the rivulets Leighton-Beck, Whitbeck, HerringSike, and Meerbeck; and the road from Lancaster to Kendal, the Lancaster and Kendal canal, and Lancaster and Carlisle railway pass through. The living is a vicarage, valued in the king's books at £74. 10. 2½.; net income, £187, with a house; patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Worcester. The great tithes have been commuted for £1190. The church, situated on the declining ground at the foot of Warton Crag, is a good ordinary building of the 16th century, and consists of a nave, aisles, chancel, and a noble tower: the interior is very light, and large; and contains some ancient monuments. At Silverdale and Yealand-Conyers are separate incumbencies. A free grammar school and an hospital were founded and endowed in 1594 by Matthew Hutton, Archbishop of York; their income was subsequently increased by bequests from Robert Lucas and others. An estate in Borwick, left in 1700 by Thomas Mansergh, now producing £125 per annum, is appropriated to apprenticing poor boys. There is said to have been a British fortress on Warton Crag; and adjacent are three rocking-stones, probably Druidical. Adjoining the shore is a chalybeate spring.

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis (1848), pp. 475-482. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51379 Date accessed: 03 August 2010.

Civil Registration
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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 Lancashire 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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