Clitheroe, Lancashire Genealogy

Guide to Clitheroe, Lancashire ancestry, family history, and genealogy: chapelry register transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Chapelry History
Clitheroe (St Mary Magdalene), Church Street, was created a chapel of ease by 1570, taken from and lying within the boundary of Whalley Ancient Parish. There has been a church on this site since at least 1122, when the building was granted to the Priory of St John in Pontefract. The chancel arch of this Norman building was taken down as recently as 1828, but nothing now remains of it. The oldest of what we see today dates from the early C15 rebuilding. In 1828-9 and later there was further and substantial rebuilding. There are places of worship for Independents, Methodists, and Roman Catholics.

The name Clitheroe is thought to come from the Anglo-Saxon for "Rocky Hill", and was also spelled Clyderhow and Cletherwoode. The town was the administrative centre for the Honour of Clitheroe (previously spelled Honor). This land was held by Roger de Poitou, who passed it to the De Lacy family from whom it passed in 1311 to Thomas, Earl of Lancaster. Up until 1835, the Lord of the Honour was also by right Lord of Bowland.

The town's earliest existing charter is from 1283, granted by Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln and confirming rights granted by one of his forebears between 1147 and 1177.

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.

Online index of Lancashire Births, Marriages and Deaths Lancashire BMD

Online Records

 * 1538 - 1910 at FamilySearch — index
 * 1603 - 1910 at FamilySearch — index and images

 Church of England 

Clitheroe St. Mary Magdalene chapelry's registers of christenings, marriages and burials, along with those of the ancient parish of Whalley to which it is attached, have been mostly transcribed and are displayed online at the following important websites and ranges of years:

For a full list of all those chapels surrounding Clitheroe St. Mary Magdalene and comprising the whole ancient parish of Whalley to which it was attached, be certain to see "Church Records" on the WHALLEY PARISH page.

Non-Conformist Records

 * 1647-1996 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index (dates may vary by parish)

Poor Law Unions
Clitheroe Poor Law Union, Lancashire

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
Maps are a visual look at the locations in England. Gazetteers contain brief summaries about a place.


 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Websites
Clitheroe on GENUKI