Rainhill, Lancashire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes

Chapelry History
RAINHILL, a township, in the parish and union of Prescot, hundred of West Derby, S. division of the county of Lancaster, 2 miles (S. E. by E.) from Prescot, on the road to Warrington; containing 1164 inhabitants. Rainhill was early acquired by the family of Norres, who, after some generations, became connected by marriages with the Molyneuxs. Mabel, an heiress of the latter, was married to William le Norres, who held the manor in the reign of Edward II.; and in the following reign, her nephew Roger, son of Sir Richard Molyneux, was seated here. His grand-daughter brought the property to the Lancasters, whose descendant, Richard Lancaster, died in the 30th of Henry VIII. John Lancaster, the last of the family resident at Rainhill, about 1783 sold the estate, which subsequently passed to Mr. Bretherton. The township comprises 1417 acres; the surface is elevated, and from the higher parts is one of the most extensive and beautiful views in the county, embracing Chester, the Cheshire hills, and the Welsh mountains. There are several good redstone quarries, and an iron-foundry is in operation. The Liverpool and Manchester railway has a station here. The impropriate tithes have been commuted for £165, payable to King's College, Cambridge; and the vicarial for £7. A church was built in 1838, at a cost of £1000, and enlarged in 1840, at a cost of £1000 more; it is dedicated to St. Ann, and is a cruciform structure in the Anglo-Norman style, with a tower surmounted by an open spire: the interior is very neat, with an eastern window of stained glass. The living is a perpetual curacy, with a net income of £160; patron, the Rev. James Brierley, M.A., of Mosley-Moss Hall, near Congleton, by whom the living was endowed. The Roman Catholic chapel here, dedicated to St. Bartholomew, is a beautiful structure in the Grecian style, with a gorgeous interior, and was built at a cost of £4000. Excellent schools are attached to the church

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis (1848), pp. 630-633. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51229 Date accessed: 20 July 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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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.

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 * England Jurisdictions 1851
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Web sites
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