Leicester St Mary de Castro, Leicestershire Genealogy

England   Leicestershire

Parish History
St Mary de Castro (meaning St Mary of the Castle) is an ancient church in Leicester; Other places in the parish include: The Newark, Leicester The Newarke, South Fields, and The Newarks.

It dates its founding to 1107 when Henry I of England took the lands and castle from a rebellious owner and granted them instead to Robert de Beaumont, although some legends say that a Saxon church of St Mary had existed before the Norman Conquest before then and Robert merely refurbished it. Whichever, he established it within the castle bailey as a college served by a Dean and 12 Canons (that is, a collegiate church) in honour of the Virgin Mary and All Souls and as a chantry chapel for the souls of him, his family and the first three Norman kings. He endowed this and 4 other churches with £6 of his income and land in or near the city. However, these endowments were all transferred soon after by his heir to his own new foundation of Leicester Abbey, although this was made up for by an annual grant from the Earl of 20 shillings for lamps and by restoring a Dean, six Clerks and a Chaplain to the church, which was by now a parish church too and so supported by tithes and offerings. It was rebuilt in the 1180s, and has undergone alterations since, including the addition of a spire (1400). The collegiate nature of the church lasted until the college was disbanded in 1548 by Henry VIII.

The living of St. Mary's is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £8, and in the patronage of the Crown;net income, £221. The church is an ancient structure,combining almost every variety of style, from, perhaps,the Saxon to the latest English: the tower, which is surmounted by a lofty spire, is at the west end of the south aisle, and detached from it; the spire was erected in1783, at the expense of £300, in the place of one destroyed by lightning. On the south side of the old chancel are three fine Norman stalls, with double shafts and enriched mouldings; and on the south side of the Hungerford chantry, or present chancel, are three early English stalls, highly ornamented. The font is of curious and beautiful design; and the oak roofs, which are exquisitely carved, are in good preservation. This church was restored in 1846.

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 55-62. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51101 Date accessed: 21 May 2011.

A number of parishes arose from this one

Leicester_Holy_Trinity,_Leicestershire Leicester St Andrew, Leicester St Paul, the church of the Holy Apostles Fosse Road Bromkinsthorpe and in 1914 St Anne.

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
Contributor: Include here information for parish registers, Bishop’s Transcripts, non conformist 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.

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