Lancaster St Thomas, Lancashire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes

Chapel History
Lancaster St Thomas was created a district church or chapel in 1844 from, and lying within the boundaries of Lancaster St Mary, Lancashire ancient parish.

St Thomas' was built between 1840 and 1841 to a design by the local architect Edmund Sharpe. In 1852–53 Sharpe's successor, E. G. Paley added the northeast steeple and the chancel in a similar architectural style.

The modern parish is in the deanery of Lancaster, the archdeaconry of Lancaster and the diocese of Blackburn. The church is a Grade II listed building.

The Diocese of Blackburn is a Church of England diocese, covering much of Lancashire, created in 1926 from part of the Diocese of Manchester. The Diocese includes the towns of Blackburn, Blackpool, Burnley, and the cities of Lancaster, and Preston, as well as a large part of the Ribble Valley.

St. Thomas's district church was consecrated on the 14th June, 1841. Its style is early English, and it forms a good specimen of Mr. Edmund Sharpe's acknowledged skill, for, though devoid of ornament, its proportions are symmetrical, and its appearance both within and without strikingly elegant; the edifice is of beautiful white freestone obtained in the neighbourhood, and the cost of its erection was about £3000.

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis (1848), pp. 6-17. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51089 Date accessed: 01 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.

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/

Church records
Include here information for parish registers, Bishop’s Transcripts 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

Census records
Include an overview if there is any unique information, such as the census for X year was destroyed. Add a link to online sites for indexes and/or images. Also add a link to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection.

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

Poor Law Unions
Lancaster 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.

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

Web sites
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