Congleton St James, Cheshire Genealogy

Guide to Congleton St James, Cheshire ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
CONGLETON, is an incorporated market-town, a chapelry, and the head of a union, in the parish of Astbury, it is locally in the hundred of Northwich, S. division of the county of Chester. The chapel is dedicated to St. Peter. At Congleton Moss, a church was dedicated to the Holy Trinity it was erected in 1845. Two districts or ecclesiastical parishes have been formed under Sir Robert Peel's act: in the one, St. Stephen's district, a chapel has been purchased from the dissenters, in the other, St. James', a church. There are places of worship for Independents, Primitive Methodists, Wesleyans, Unitarians, and Roman Catholics.

Congleton St James was formed in 1847 from Congleton St Peter,Cheshire and the earlier Ancient parish of Astbury, Cheshire.

In 1847 the district of Astbury contained a population of three thousand four hundred. Under an act known as ‘Sir Robert Peel’s Church Extension Act’, which was designed to make better provision for the spiritual care of populous parishes, the church of St. James was born.

The Church consists of Nave, Side Aisles and Chancel with a porch at the northern end and a bell-cot surmounting the western end of the Nave roof.

Other closely associated chapelries also lying within Astbury ancient parish included the chapelries of Congleton St Peter and St Stephen's, Mossley Holy Trinity, Buglawton, Rode, Smallwood, and Somerford; together with several places of worship for dissenters in the parish.

Find Neighboring Parishes
Use England Jurisdictions 1851 Map
 * Type the name of the parish in the search bar
 * Click on the location pin on the map
 * Choose Options from the pop up box
 * Click "List Contiguous Parishes" to find the neighboring parishes

Church Records
The Church of England (Anglican) became the official state religion in 1534, with the reigning monarch as its Supreme Governor. Non-Conformist refers to all other religious denominations that are not the official state religion.

Church of England
Due to the increasing access of online records: Hover over the collection's title for more information Other Websites These databases have incomplete parish coverage.
 * Individual parish coverage for databases in this table are inconsistent and should be verified
 * Dates in the following table are approximate
 * Joiner Marriage Index - Cheshire ($)
 * The Genealogist Parish Registers - Cheshire ($)
 * UK Websites for Parish Records - Links to online genealogical records
 * Online Genealogical Index - Links to online genealogical records

Non-Conformists (All other Religions)
Non-Conformist Records:
 * 1717 England & Wales, Roman Catholics, 1717 at Findmypast ($), index and images (coverage may vary)
 * 1671-1900 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index (dates may vary by parish)

Civil Registration
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from 1 July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. Here are two excellent Internet sites with birth, marriage and death indexes available:


 * FreeBMD
 * Cheshire BMD

Registration Districts

 * Congleton

Poor Law Unions

 * Congleton Poor Law Union, Cheshire

Probate Records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Cheshire Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

see also England Cheshire Probate Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

Websites
Congleton on Genuki

Congleton St James on Genuki