Mitton, Yorkshire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes

Parish History
MITTON (St. Michael), a parish, in the union of Clitheroe, comprising the townships of Bashall-Eaves, West Bradford, Grindleton, Mitton or Great Mitton, and Waddington, in the W. division of the wapentake of Staincliffe and Ewcross, W. riding of York; and the township of Aighton with Bailey and Chaigley, in the Lower division of the hundred of Blackburn, county of Lancaster; the whole containing 4201 inhabitants, of whom 212 are in Great Mitton, 3 miles (W. S. W.) from Clitheroe. This place was the scene of a dreadful slaughter committed by the Scots on their irruption into England in 1319. It was for many generations chiefly the property of the Sherburnes, of whom Sir John de Sherburne attended Edward III. at the siege of Calais. Stonyhurst, the seat of the family, now occupied as a Roman Catholic college, was probably commenced by Sir Richard Sherburne, who died in 1594, and completed by his son in 1596; it is situated at Aighton, and is described in the article on that place. The parish, which comprises by computation 18,540 acres, is bounded on the south by the river Calder, and divided by the river Hodder. In the township of Mitton are 1450 acres, occupying, with the village, a narrow tongue of Yorkshire, at the confluence of the Hodder and Ribble. The living is a vicarage, valued in the king's books at £14. 7. 8.; net income, £153, with a glebe-house; patron, J. Aspinall, Esq., who is lord of the manor. The church, erected in the reign of Edward III., is in the decorated English style, with a lofty square embattled tower; on the north side of the chancel is the sepulchral chapel of the Sherburne family. There are churches at Grindleton, Hurst Green, and Waddington, the livings of which are perpetual curacies, that of Grindleton being in the patronage of the Vicar. The Wesleyans have places of worship at Waddington and Bashall-Eaves; and there are numerous schools in the parish, of which those of Aighton, Grindleton, Hurst Green, and Mitton have small endowments. At Longridge, in Aighton, is an almshouse founded by Sir Nicholas Sherburne in 1706, and of which the possessors of the Stonyhurst estate have the patronage and control.

Adapted from: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis (1848), pp. 316-319. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51151 Date accessed: 20 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.

Church records
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Census records
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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
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 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Web sites
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