Rawtenstall, Lancashire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes

Chapelry History
Rawtenstall St John is an Ecclesiastical Parish in the county of Lancashire, created in 1842 from Whalley,_Lancashire Ancient Parish. It was in the Whalley Deanery of the Diocese of Manchester from 1847.

RAWTENSTALL, an ecclesiastical district, partly in the parish of Bury, and partly in that of Whalley, union of Haslingden, Higher division of the hundred of Blackburn, N. division of Lancashire; containing about 5000 inhabitants. This district is formed of part of three townships, viz. Lower Booths, Newchurch, and Coupe and Lenches with Newhall-Hey and Hall-Carr. The scenery embraces a picturesque vale, in Rossendale, through which the river Irwell flows; and the population is employed in the extensive cotton and woollen mills in the vicinity. The thriving village of Rawtenstall is situated where the roads to Burnley and Bacup separate, eight miles north from Bury. A portion of the East Lancashire railway, extending from Clifton, near Manchester, to Rawtenstall, a distance of 14 miles, was opened in September, 1846; since which, a branch from Rawtenstall to Bacup, and one to Crawshaw-Booth, have been laid down. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of Henry Hoyle, Esq.; net income, £100. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, was built in 1837, at a cost of £3000, raised entirely by subscription; and is in the early English style, with a square tower. There are places of worship for Wesleyans and Unitarians; and near the church is a national school.

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis (1848), pp. 640-645. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51232 Date accessed: 20 July 2010.

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
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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.

Maps and Gazetteers
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 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Web sites
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http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=53018 British history Online for surrounding area