Bilston, Staffordshire Genealogy

England Staffordshire

Parish History
Bilston is an Ecclesiastical Parish in the county of Staffordshire, created in 1723 from chapelry in Wolverhampton_St_Peter,_Staffordshire Ancient Parish. Other places in the parish include: Bilston with Stow Heath.

BILSTON, a market-town and chapelry, in the parish, borough, and union of Wolverhampton, N. division of the hundred of Seisdon, S. division of the county of Stafford, 3 miles (S. E.) from Wolverhampton, 19 (S. by E.) from Stafford, and 120 (N. W.) from London; containing 20,181 inhabitants. This place, which formerly belonged to the portionists or prebendaries of Wolverhampton, and in their charter is called "Bilsreton," was a royal demesne at the time of the Conquest, and in the reign of Edward III. was, under the appellation of "Billestune," certified to be exempt from toll. It comprises part of the manor of Stowheath, and the whole of the manor of Bradley, separated from each other by a brook which, rising at Sedgley, about two miles distant, forms one of the tributaries of the river Tame, and flows through the township. Previously to the introduction of the ironworks, Bilston merely contained a few private houses; and its population in 1695, according to the census then taken, was only 1004; but from the abundance and rich quality of its coal and ironstone, and the consequent establishment of the iron-trade, it rapidly increased in extent and population, and has become one of the largest manufacturing places in the county. The town is situated on rising ground in the centre of a district abounding with foundries, forges, furnaces, steam-engines, and other works necessary for the various processes of the iron manufacture, of which the smoke by day and the fires by night present a scene singularly impressive. It extends nearly two miles in length, is irregularly built, and lighted with gas; the principal streets contain several substantial and handsome houses, and throughout the neighbourhood are scattered, in every direction, the numerous habitations of persons employed in the different works. The manufacture of tin, japanned and enamelled wares of every kind, iron-wire, nails, screws, iron gates and palisades, machinery, steam-engines, and all the heavier articles in the irontrade, is carried on to a very considerable extent; there are some mills for forming pig-iron into bars, and many iron and brass foundries. Clay, of which the coarser kind of pottery-ware is made, and a particularly fine sand for casting, are found in great abundance; and there are quarries of a very hard stone much valued for grindstones and troughs and for building, lying in horizontal strata of twelve layers gradually increasing in thickness from the surface. The Birmingham and Staffordshire canal, which passes near the town, and several branch canals in the vicinity, together with the Liverpool and Birmingham, and the Birmingham, Wolverhampton, and Dudley, railways, afford the means of conveying the produce of the mines, the massive productions of the foundries, and the various manufactures of the town and neighbourhood, to different parts of the kingdom. The market days, established by act of parliament in 1825, are Monday and Saturday; and the fairs, which are toll-free, are on Whit-Monday and the Monday preceding the Michaelmas fair at Birmingham. The township comprises, exclusively of the town, 1728a. 3r. 26p. which are in cultivation. The Living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the resident Householders; net income, £635. The curacy was originally founded about 1458, by the householders, at that time about fifteen in number, who endowed it with considerable portions of land, which were sequestered in the reign of Edward VI. The chapel, dedicated to St. Leonard, was built in the reign of Richard II., and rebuilt in 1826 by the united exertions of the Rev. William Leigh, then incumbent, and the parishioners.

From: 'Billingham - Bilstone', A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 241-244. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50799 Date accessed: 29 March 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
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Census records
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Poor Law Unions
Wolverhampton 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
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 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Web sites
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