Lower Darwen, Lancashire Genealogy

England   Lancashire   Lancashire Parishes

Chapelry History
DARWEN, LOWER, a township, in the parish and union of Blackburn, Lower division of the hundred of Blackburn, N. division of Lancashire, 2¼ miles (S. S. E.) from Blackburn; containing 3077 inhabitants. In the reign of Henry II. this place was granted to Robert Banastre, and passed by marriage with his heiress to John Langton, the first baron of Walton. The manor was held in Henry VIII.'s reign by William Bradshawe, and subsequently became a possession of Sir Thomas Walmesley, from whom it passed to the family of Lord Petre. The township is large and populous, and stretches along the east bank of the Darwen; the Blackburn, Darwen, and Bolton railway passes through the village. Coal-mines are wrought, and the population is also engaged in manufactures. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Vicar of Blackburn, with a net income of £150. The chapel, now a district church, was commenced in 1827, and completed in 1829, and is a stone fabric with a hexagonal tower, dedicated to St. James; the expense of its erection, £5491, was defrayed partly by a grant from the Parliamentary Commissioners. The Wesleyan Methodists and Methodists of the New Connexion have places of worship here.

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis (1848), pp. 8-15. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50914 Date accessed: 29 June 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.

Church records
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

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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