Chester Cathedral Church Precinct, Cheshire Genealogy

England Cheshire Cheshire Parishes  Chester Cathedral Church Precinct See "A Comprehensive List of Chester Chapels and District Chapelries.

Parish History
CHESTER CATHEDRAL (St Werbugh) church is an ecclesiastical parish, in Great Boughton district, Cheshire; and a diocese in Cheshire and part of Lancashire. The city stands on the river Dee and on the Via Devana, 5 miles SE of the head of the Dee's estuary, and 16, through Birkenhead, SSE of Liverpool.

Ecclesiastical parishes originated in the Medieval period, when the tithe or teind (a proportion of the annual produce or income) was paid by the parish inhabitants to support the Church.

The city comprises the parishes ofSt. Bridget (see also St Martin); St. John the Baptist (see also Bought St Paul's), Little St. John, extra-parochial;St. Martin; St. Michael; St. Olave; and St. Peter; part of the parishes of St. Mary on the Hill, St. Oswald, and the Holy Trinity; and the precinct of the Cathedral Close (St Werburgh). The parish of St. Bridget's is a rectory united with that of St Martin's. '''St. Oswald's is a discharged vicarage, joined with the chapelry of Churton-Heath (annexed and which see).  An additional church, dedicated to St. Paul, has been erected at Boughton'''. In New Town, likewise, is a church, dedicated to Christ [Church], built in 1835. There are places of worship forBaptists, the Society of Friends, the Connexion of the Countess of Huntingdon, Independents, Welsh and Wesleyan Methodists, New Connexion of Methodists, Sandemanians, Unitarians, and Roman Catholics.

For fuller list of all pre-1875 Chester City parishes serving within the parish boundary, see A Comprehensive List of Chester Chapels and District Chapelries (above).

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 a nd death indexes available:


 * FreeBMD
 * Cheshire BMD

Church records
Chester Cathedral Church Precinct registers of christenings, marriages and burials have been indexed by the following groups:

To find the names of the neighbouring parishes, use England Jurisdictions 1851. In this site, search for the name of the parish, click on the location "pin", click Options and click List contiguous parishes.

Contributor: Include here information for parish registers, Bishop’s Transcripts, non conformist and other types of church records, such as parish chest records. Add the contact information for the office holding the original records. Add links to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection

Poor Law Unions
Chester Poor Law Union

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.

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