Fenton, Staffordshire Genealogy

Parish History
Fenton is an Ecclesiastical Parish in the county of Staffordshire, created in 1841 from Stoke_upon_Trent,_Staffordshire Ancient Parish. Other places in the parish include: Delph, Fenton Culvert, Little Fenton, Great Fenton, and Fenton Vivian.

FENTON-CULVERT, or Great Fenton, an ecclesiastical district, in the borough and parish of Stokeupon-Trent, N. division of the hundred of Pirehill and of the county of Stafford, 3 miles (E. S. E.) from Newcastle-under-Lyme. The township of Fenton-Culvert contains 3744 inhabitants; and the greater portion of it, and the adjoining township of Fenton-Vivian, form the ecclesiastical district. The soil generally is a stiff clay, producing good wheat; coal and ironstone are wrought, and the manufacture of pottery and china is extensively carried on. The Trent and Mersey canal passes through. Fenton Manor-house is an elegant mansion on the summit of a spacious lawn, with beautiful gardens and pleasure-grounds, and commanding a fine prospect to the south and west. The church was built in 1838, principally by the bounty of the late Ralph Bourne, Esq., who gave £2500 towards its erection, and £1000 for its endowment. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Bishop of Lichfield. There are places of worship for Wesleyans, and Methodists of the New Connexion; and attached to the church is a national school.

From: 'Fenton - Fersfield', A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 230-232. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50961 Date accessed: 01 April 2011.

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

FENTON, a chapelry and a sub-district in Stoke-upon-Trent parish and district, Stafford. The chapelry lies on the Hanley branch of the North Staffordshire railway, near the Grand Trunk canal. 1 mile SE of Stoke-upon-Trent; and has a station on the railway, and a post office‡ under Stoke-upon-Trent. It was constituted in 1841. Pop., 5, 348. Houses, 1, 062. The property in it is not much divided. Fenton Hall is a principal residence. Many of the inhabitants are employed in the potteries, and many in mines. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Lichfield. Value, £240.* Patron, the Rev. R. B. Baker. The church is very good.—The sub-district is conterminate with the conjoint township of Fenton-Culvert and Fenton-Vivian. Real property, £31, 772; of which £12, 042 are in mines. Pop. in 1851, 5, 767; in 1861, 7, 882. Houses, 1, 573. The increase of pop. arose from the establishment of railway engineering works, the erection of two large iron furnaces, and the operations of a building society.

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 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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