Ellenbrook St Mary the Virgin, Lancashire Genealogy

Parish History
The chapelry of Ellenbrook St Mary the Virgin was founded in 1758 within Eccles, Lancashire Ancient Parish.

Historically within the Diocese of Chester, the modern parish is part of the diocese of Manchester.

The chapel was founded under the patronage of the Earl of Ellesmere.

Ellenbrook is part of the City of Salford.

Though its origins are uncertain, Ellenbrook chapel possibly existed in the early 13th century. It is not known whether a contemporary reference to a chapel at Worsley referred to Ellenbrook chapel, or to another chapel in the hall of the lords of Worsley. It was an outlying chapel within the parish of Eccles, the nearest churches being at Eccles, Lancashire, Leigh, Lancashire and Deane, Lancashire in Bolton. It was probably established through a grant from the Benedictine Abbot of Stanlawe Abbey (on the Mersey estuary) to Richard de Worsley, with the Benedictines staffing the chapel and paying sixpence a year to Eccles church to acknowledge the chapel's subsidiary status. The monks later moved from Stanlow to Whalley Abbey. In 1581, the chapel was endowed by Dorothy Brereton. Dorothy, daughter of Sir Richard Egerton of Ridley, Cheshire had married Richard Brereton of Worsley and Tatton, Lord of the Manor of Worsley, in 1572. Richard died in 1598, and was buried in Eccles Parish Church, and Dorothy married Sir Peter Legh of Lyme Hall, Cheshire in 1604. She was widowed again in 1636.

Dame Dorothy Legh died in 1639, and was buried in Eccles church. She bequeathed £400 to Ellenbrook chapel to buy Common Head Farm at Mosley Common, the income from which established Dame Dorothy Legh's Charity, which continues today. Following a legal dispute in the 1650s, it was determined that the charity would support the minister of Ellenbrook chapel and the local poor.

The first known minister at Ellenbrook was a Mr. Hunt, in around 1608. The chapel was not continously served by a resident minister, and during the 17th century numerous ministers were associated with Ellenbrook, many for only a few months. Of these, the longest-serving was Thomas Johnson whose service of some 30 years ended around 1646. Johnson was a renowned puritan, who left Ellenbrook to become Rector of Stockport until his death in 1656.

Perhaps the most notorious of the 17th century ministers was William Coulburn, who was at Ellenbrook from 1657 to around 1663. In 1663 he was arrested, possibly for trying to steal money through confidence tricks, an act which he perpetrated in various other parts of England in subsequent years. Despite numerous question marks over his character, Coulburn returned to Lancashire as minister at Mottram in Longendale, Cheshire, where he was buried following his death in around 1697.

ELLENBROOK, a chapelry, with a r. station, in Eccles parish, Lancashire; on the Manchester and Wigan railway, 2½ miles E of Tyldesley. The living is a p. curacy. Value, £137. Patron, the Earl of Ellesmere. The church is in the Norman style. John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72)

Civil Registration
Post 1837 events may be search online at Free BMD

Ellenbrook is part of Salford registration district.

Online index of Lancashire Births, Marriages and Deaths Lancashire BMD

Church Records
Ellenbrook- St Mary the Virgin Baptisms-1818-1902- MFPR 1678 Burials-1828-1828- MFPR 1678 Burials-1833-1833- MFPR 1678 See also Ellenbrook Chapel for baptisms recorded in the Leigh, St Mary the Virgin registers and  St Mary Eccles, Lancashire registers

The Manchester Room and Greater Manchester County Record Office Email: archiveslocalstudies@manchester.gov.uk

The Manchester Room@City Library (Local Studies)

Parish registers for Ellenbrook, 1818-1902 Microfilm of original records at the Manchester Archives Central Library in Manchester, England. Ellenbrook is a chapelry in Eccles parish and later in Worsley parish. The chapel is known as St. Mary's. Manchester Archives Central Library call nos.: L119/1/1/1-4.

Bishop's transcripts for Eccles, 1613-1864 Microreproduction of original manuscripts housed at the Lancashire Record Office, Preston. Bishop's transcripts from the parish of Eccles and the chapelries of St. Thomas' (Pendleton), St. Peter's (Swinton), Ellenbrook, St. Paul's (Walkden Moor), St. John's (Pendlebury), St. Catherine's (Barton-upon-Irwell) and St. Mark's (Worsley). Lancashire Record Office: DRM/2/82-108

Census Records
http://www.1881pubs.com/ for details of public houses in the 1881 census

Poor Law Unions
Salford, Lancashire Poor Law Union

Probate Records
Lancashire Probate Jurisdictions, Parishes E through G

Maps
England Jurisdictions 1851

Web Sites
http://www.achurchnearyou.com/st-mary-the-virgin-ellenbrook/ for information about the parish