Lancashire, England Genealogy

Lancashire is a maritime county and is located in the northern part of 'England'.

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" LANCASHIRE, a maritime and northern county bounded on the N, by Cumberland and Westmoreland, on the E by Yorkshire, on the S by Cheshire, and on the W by the Irish sea. A portion of it in the NW, forming Furness, is detached from the main body by Morecambe bay and a tongue of Westmoreland...

"Lancashire contains 69 entire parishes, divided into about 446 townships; and contains also parts of 4 other parishes, and 9 extra-parochial places. The townships here, in a general view, are more considerable than parishes in most other counties; and they have separate rates for their poor and for highways. The county is divided into the city of Manchester, the boroughs of Ashton-under-Lyne, Blackburn, Bolton, Burnley, Clitheroe, Lancaster, Liverpool, Oldham, Preston, Rochdale, Salford, and Wigan, with parts of the boroughs of Stalybridge, Stockport, and Warrington, and into the hundreds of Amounderness, Blackburn, Leyland, Lonsdale, Salford, and West Derby... comprises 1,319,391 acres... and [the county] is divided into the districts of Liverpool, West Derby, Prescot, Ormskirk, Wigan, Warrington, Leigh, Bolton, Bury, Burton-upon-Irwell, Chorlton, Salford, Manchester, Ashton-under-Lyne, Oldham, Rochdale, Haslingden, Burnley, Clitheroe, Blackburn, Chorley, Preston, Fylde, Garstang, Lancaster, and Ulverston...

"Lancashire is governed by a lord lieutenant, a high sheriff, and about 350 magistrates; and is in the northern judiciary circuit, and in the N military district. The assizes, for the N section, are held at Lancaster; those for the S section are held at Liverpool and Manchester; quarter sessions are held at Lancaster, Preston, Liverpool, and Manchester...

"Marriages in 1863,23,919, of which 6,242 were not according to the rites of the Established church; births, 95,216, of which 6,253 were illegitimate; deaths, 67,202, of which 32,408 were at ages under 5 years, and 602 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 221,212; births, 845,962; deaths, 591,784. The places of worship, in the electoral county, in 1851, were 529 of the Church of England, 5 of the Church of Scotland, 12 of the Presbyterian church in England, 5 of the United Presbyterian church, 1 of Reformed Irish Presbyterians, 170 of Independents, 100 of Baptists, 27 of Quakers, 11 of Lady Huntingdon's Connexion, 8 of Welsh Calvinistic Methodists, 2 of Moravians, 35 of Unitarians, 300 of Wesleyan Methodists, 27 of New Connexion Methodists, 1 of Bible Christians, 1 of Independent Methodists, 81 of the Wesleyan Association, 4 of Wesleyan Reformers, 1 of Sandemanians, 21 of the New Church, 5 of Brethren, 36 of isolated congregations, 114 of Roman Catholics, 1 of the Greek Church, 1of the Catholic and Apostolic church, 15 of Latter Day Saints, and 7 of Jews...

"Population in 1801 was 673,486; in 1821 was 1,052,948; in 1841 was 1,667,054; and in 1861 was 2,429,440."

The above extract is taken from: John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72). For the full account, go to Vision of Britian.

Parishes
See the Lancashire parishes