Staveley, Derbyshire Genealogy

England Derbyshire



Parish History
Staveley St John the Baptist is an Ancient Parish.

STAVELEY (St. John the Baptist), a parish, in the union of Chesterfield, hundred of Scarsdale, N. division of the county of Derby, 4¾ miles (N. E. by E.) from Chesterfield; containing, with the chapelry of Barlow, 3315 inhabitants, of whom 2688 are in Staveley township. This place was for many generations the seat of the Frecheville family, of whom Sir John, an active royalist in the reign of Charles I., strongly fortified his mansion, and, having raised a battery of twelve pieces of cannon, held it against the parliamentarian forces for a considerable time, but in August 1644 was obliged to surrender by capitulation. The parish comprises 6827 acres. The soil is chiefly a loamy clay, with some earth of lighter quality in the higher land; the substratum abounds with ironstone and coal, of the former of which much is smelted. The village is pleasantly situated on the east bank of the river Rother; the Chesterfield canal runs through the village, and several tramroads have been formed in connexion with the various collieries in the parish. The Staveley station of the Midland railway is 3½ miles from the Chesterfield station, and 2¾ from that of Eckington. The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £12. 7. 6., and in the patronage of the Duke of Devonshire; the tithes have been commuted for two rent-charges each of £605. 9. 7., payable respectively to the rector and the Duke of Devonshire; the glebe consists of about 90 acres, and there is a good glebe-house. The church is an ancient structure, containing monuments of the Frecheville family; the east window exhibits some stained glass, presented by Lord Frecheville in 1676. The Wesleyans have a place of worship. A free grammar school was founded at Netherthorp, in 1537, by Judge Rodes; in support of which, and of two scholarships in St. John's College, Cambridge, he bequeathed £20 per annum, since augmented to £30. Excellent schools have been lately built at a considerable expense by the duke; and a chapel of ease and school house have been erected at Handley, in the parish, about three miles distant from the village. An hospital for four aged persons of each sex was erected at Woodthorpe, in 1632, by Sir Peter Frecheville, who assigned £4 per annum to each inmate; and Richard Robinson, in 1777, augmented the endowment with £18 per annum.

A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 195-198. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51300 Date accessed: 02 April 2011.

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
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Census records
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Poor Law Unions
Chesterfield Poor Law Union, Derbyshire

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Derbyshire 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
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 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Web sites
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