Preston St John, Lancashire Genealogy

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Guide to Preston St John, Lancashire ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish register transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

See a "Comprehensive List of Preston Parish's Chapelries"



Parish History
PRESTON St John, a parish, and the head of a union, in the hundred of Amounderness, N. division of the county of Lancaster; comprising the borough of Preston, which has a separate jurisdiction; the six townships of Barton, Elston, Fishwick, Haighton, Ribbleton, and Lea with Ashton, Ingol, and Cottam; and the chapelries of Broughton, and Grimsargh with Brockholes, 21 miles south by east of Lancaster. Preston rose into consequence, and became the principal port of Lancashire; and it is supposed that, having been the abode of ecclesiastics as capital of the district of Amounderness, it obtained the appellation of Priest's town, of which the present name may be a contraction. The original church was built in the first century after the general establishment of the Christian religion in this country. At Ashton upon Ribble, Barton, Broughton, and Grimsargh, are other additional churches.

St. George district church, was built in 1723. The church of the Holy Trinity was erected in 1814. St. Paul was erected in 1825, by the Parliamentary Commissioners. St. Peter was built in 1826. Christ Church was consecrated October 11th, 1836. St. James was also built in 1836. The church of St. Mary was built in 1837. St Thomas, consecrated 27th June, 1839. To view for research purposes, a complete list of Preston's churches and chapels of the Church of England, see Comprehensive List of Preston Parish's Chapelries. There are places of worship in the town for Independents, Baptists, the Society of Friends, Wesleyans, Primitive Methodists, Swedenborgians, and Unitarians and also five Roman Catholic chapels. Of these chapels, St. Mary, in Friargate, was erected about 1760; closed in 1793, on St. Wilfrid being built (in 1794); St Mary's reopened in 1807, St. Wilfrid's being then too small for the congregation, was enlarged in 1839; and in 1847 a small but highly-decorated chapel in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary was completed, opening into it. The chapel of St Ignatius, opened in 1836. St. Augustine's was opened in 1839. There are likewise several Roman Catholic chapels in the vicinity; and an hospital, dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) had its beginnings in England here in Preston. Almost immediately, upon arrival of its missionaries in July, 1837, the church was emplanted deep into Preston's rich and religiously diverse soil. Preston was the church's first foothold in England. It created a considerable stir among the township's religious population to which very nearly two thousand inhabitants were converted and baptised between July 1837 and the following April, 1838, most of whom later emigrated. Still more conversions followed in the 1840's out of this region, and likewise departed for America. By the 1870's, The Great Salt Lake Valley, the seat of the church in the mountain-west USA (then known as the Territory of Utah), by this point, was filled with tens of thousands of English immigrant converts, comprising a considerable portion of the local English-speaking population--many of whom were of Preston, England origin.

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

Preston St. John parish registers and those registers of all of its smaller chapelries lying within its boundaries have been mostly transcribed and are displayed online at the following websites and ranges of years:

Original Records
The Lancashire Record Office at Bow Lane, Preston PR2 1RE, holds the original parish registers in its vast collections. Contact their website for contact information.

The Family History Library has microfilmed the parish registers and Bishop's transcripts of Preston St. John parish, including the years 1767-1906. These films are available for ordering/circulating and researching at any one of its satellite FamilySearch Centers worldwide.

Genealogy
Dracos, Elizabeth. A Lancashire Family: Bond of Preston and Lancaster. History and family tree of Edward Bond and Ellen Willasey, dating from 1696-1986, with the following surnames: Dickinson, Sumner, Hetherington, Pickering, Newsam, Ward, Webber, Goldie, Percy, Taylor, Ryder, Dracos, Proctor, Pickard, Godsiff, Jordan, and Paris, with a branch emigrating to New Zealand, and Cape Town, South Africa. Article in The Lancashire Family History and Heraldry Soc. vol.8, no.2. pages 18-25, Family History Library Ref. 942.72 B2r

Gardner, Joan M. Clayton of Preston. History of Richard Clayton and Dorothy Parker from 1737-1924, with the following surnames: Bamber, Sharples, Towers, Singleton, Jamieson, Stone, Brookes, Alherton, Ball, Heaney, Norris, Marin, Banks, Wilcock, Popping, Bostock, to be found in The Lancashire Family History and Heraldry Soc. Magazine, vol.9.no.4.page22-29. FHL Ref 942.72 B2r

Poor Law Unions
Preston Poor Law Union, Lancashire

Preston Guild
The right to hold a Guild Merchant was conferred upon the Burgesses of Preston by a charter of 1179; the associated Preston Guild is a civic celebration held every 20 years, with the next one due in 2012.

Before 1328 a celebration had been held on an irregular basis, but at the Guild of that year it was decreed that subsequent Guilds should be held every twenty years. After this there were breaks in the pattern for various reasons, but an unbroken series were held from 1542 to 1922. A full 400 year sequence was frustrated by the cancellation of the 1942 Guild due to World War II, but the cycle resumed in 1952. The expression '(Once) every Preston Guild', meaning 'very infrequently', has passed into fairly common use, especially in Lancashire.

Guild week is always started by the opening of the Guild Court, which since the Sixteenth century has traditionally been on the first Monday after the feast of the decollation (the beheading) of St John the Baptist celebrated on 29 August. As well as concerts and other exhibitions, the main events are a series of processions through the city. Numerous street parties are typically also held in the locality.

In 1952, the emphasis was on the bright new world emerging after World War II. The major event held in the city's Avenham Park had every school participating, and hundreds of children, from toddlers to teenagers, demonstrated different aspects of physical education in the natural amphitheatre of the park.

In 1972, participants at the Avenham Park celebrations were treated to a low level, low speed, flyby by Concorde.

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