Drayton Bassett, Staffordshire Genealogy

England Staffordshire



Parish History
Drayton Bassett is an Ancient Parish in the county of Staffordshire, a portion of the extensive parish includes a part of Warickshire.

DRAYTON-BASSETT (St. Peter), a parish, in the union of Tamworth, S. division of the hundred of Offlow and of the county of Stafford, 2¾ miles (S. S. W.) from Tamworth; containing 404 inhabitants. The parish is bounded on the east by the river Tame, and comprises 3189a. 1r. 28p. of land, in about equal portions of arable and pasture. The Birmingham and Fazeley canal passes on the east, and the Birmingham and Derby railway has a station at Wilnecote, about two miles distant. A mill is worked for spinning cottonyarn, and making tapes and laces. The manor formerly belonged to the Weymouth family, but is now held by Sir Robert Peel, Bart., who is proprietor of two-thirds of the parish, the remaining third being the property of Sir Francis Lawley, Bart. A splendid mansion, in the Elizabethan style, has been erected by Sir Robert Peel, who had the honour of entertaining Her present Majesty, the Dowager Queen, Prince Albert, and the court, within its walls, from the 28th of November to the 1st of December 1843: a magnificent portrait gallery, attached to the south-east angle of the mansion, was completed in 1846. The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £7. 8. 4., and in the patronage of the Crown: the tithes have been commuted for £209. 12. 6., and the glebe consists of 25 acres, with a glebe-house. The church is a modern edifice, with an ancient tower.

From: 'Draycot - Drayton, West', A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 88-91. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50927 Date accessed: 31 March 2011.

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

The living is a rectory in the diocese of Lichfield. Value, £257.* Patron, the Lord Chancellor. The church is a plain but very good stone structure, repaired in 1850: has a tower; and contains a neat marble tablet, 19½ feet high, to the memory of the late Sir Robert Peel.

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.

Staffordshire BMD have indexes for births. Due to March 2011 reorganisation of the registration service for South Staffordshire districts the historical registration indexes for this district may have been located at the Newcastle under Lyme registration district or Cannock Registration Offices and applications for certificates need to be directed there. Please refer to the "Updates" page of Staffordshire BMD for further information.

Church records
Drayton Bassett St Peter

Contributor: 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
Contributor: 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
Tamworth Poor Law Union, Staffordshire

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.

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
Contributor: add any relevant sites that aren’t mentioned above.