Hesketh with Becconsall, Lancashire Genealogy

Guide to Hesketh with Becconsall, Lancashire ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish register transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
HESKETH, with Becconsall, a parish, in the union of Ormskirk, hundred of Leyland, N. division of the county of Lancaster, 11 miles north by east of Ormskirk. The church, erected in 1745, and generally called Becconsall chapel, stands one mile below Hesketh Bank; it became the parish church in 1821, when an act was passed separating Hesketh and Becconsall from Croston, and forming them into a distinct parish. The Primitive Methodists have a place of worship.

Hesketh Bank is a small agricultural village in Lancashire. It lies to the north-east of the town of Southport on the Irish Sea estuary of the River Ribble. The area falls under West Lancashire Borough Council for administrative purposes, and Hesketh-with-Becconsall Parish Council for parochial matters. Becconsall Old Church was hit by bomb shrapnel during World War II, All Saints Church on Station Road replaced the old church.



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

Lancashire Online Parish Clerks
An extremely useful resource for research in Lancashire Parishes http://www.lan-opc.org.uk/

Online Records
Other important considerations:

Prior to the year 1821 Hesketh with Becconsall served as a chapelry only (a small subdivision of the parish of Croston). It became a full-fledged parish by act of Parliament in 1821. Searches for ancestry prior to this year, must include searches in the Hesketh with Becconsall Chapelry registers which began in 1745, and Croston parish registers and those of its attached chapelries. The baptisms, marriages and burials for Croston Parish and its smaller chapelries are online for the following range of years:

Original records

While FamilySearch has microfilmed the original Hesketh with Becconsall parish registers of baptisms, marriages and burials from 1821, these have not been completely transcribed and published online with the exception of the baptisms (see above). However, the Parish of Croston which formerly was, prior to 1821 the mother or ancient parish, has been transcribed, indexed and published online on the web site per the above chart.

[Add the contact information for the office holding the original records. Add links to the FamilySearch Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection]

Non Conformist Records

 * 1717 England & Wales, Roman Catholics, 1717 at FindMyPast ($), index and images (coverage may vary)
 * 1647-1996 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index (dates may vary by parish)

Catholic

 * 1628 - 1628 List of Recusants in Hesketh and Beckonsall (p. 174)

Poor Law Unions
Ormskirk Poor Law Union, Lancashire

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.

Taxation

 * 1628 - 1628 Subsidy of Hesketh and Beconsall (p. 165)


 * 1665 - Lancashire Hearth Tax: Leyland Hundred, Hesketh with Beconsall. E 179/132/351, The National Archives. Microfilm:.

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