Colton, Lancashire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes

See a List of Chapelries in Colton Parish.

Parish History
Colton was an Ecclesiastical Parish in the county of Lancashire, created in 1676 from chapelry in Hawkshead,_Lancashire Ancient Parish.See also List_of_Chapelries_in_Hawkshead_Parish

Other places in the parish include: Bethecar Moor, Nibthwaite, Colton West, and Colton East.

Colton is a village in Cumbria since 1974 (historically part of Lancashire), England. Its name has been recorded as Coleton (which is Old English for 'village') and Coulton, and its existence has been recorded as early as 1202. The settlement is situated on an incline, at the top of which is Colton Church, which was built in 1575 and rebuilt 25 years later. Colton Beck, which runs beside the village, was once known as Cole, meaning 'hazel stream'.[The local parish council is also named Colton, and includes Finsthwaite, Lakeside, Oxen Park, Nibthwaite, Bouth, and Rusland in its boundary.

The modern parish is in the diocese of Carlisle.

COULTON [or Colton] (Holy Trinity), a parish, in the union of Ulverston, hundred of Lonsdale north of the Sands, N. division of the county of Lancaster; containing, with the chapelries of Haverthwaite and Rusland and the parochial chapelry of Finsthwaite, 1983 inhabitants. East Coulton is 5½ miles (N. N. E.), and West Coulton 5 (N. by E.), from Ulverston. This is one of the most modern parishes in Lancashire. Dr. Whitaker, by whom its origin was investigated, does not carry the parochial claim higher than to the year 1676, when it was probably severed from the parish of Hawkshead, in which it was previously a parochial chapelry. The parish is bounded on the east and south by the lake Windermere, and the river Leven, which issues from it; and on the west by the lake Coniston, and the river Crake, which, with the Leven, falls into Morecambe bay. The scenery is diversified by cheerful valleys, and rocky but moderate acclivities with hanging woods every where clothing their sides almost to their summits. The road from Ulverston to Kendal runs through the southern part of the parish, within the limits of which, at Backbarrow, extensive cotton-works are carried on; there are also iron-works, and works for the preparation of acid, and of gunpowder. The living is a perpetual curacy; net income, £84; patrons and appropriators, the Landowners, who pay their quotas for the minister's stipend. The church is a small plain building on the summit of a bleak hill; it consists of an embattled tower, a body with aisles, and a chancel. The chapels of Haverthwaite, Rusland, and Finsthwaite, form separate incumbencies. There is a meeting-house for the Society of Friends; and a parochial school is endowed with 50 acres of land given by Adam Sandys, Esq., besides a small bequest from Bartholomew Pennington.

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis (1848), pp. 700-702. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50899 Date accessed: 29 June 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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