Brereton, Staffordshire Genealogy

England Staffordshire



Parish History
Brereton St Michael is an Ecclesiastical Parish in the county of Staffordshire, created in 1838 from Rugeley, Staffordshire Ancient Parish.

BRERETON, a chapelry district, in the parish of Rugeley, union of Lichfield, E. division of the hundred of Cuttlestone, S. division of the county of Stafford, 1¼ mile (S. E.) from Rugeley; containing about 1160 inhabitants. This district is the south-eastern portion of the parish. The river Trent forms its boundary on the north-east, and the Grand Trunk canal passes through it, communicating by two railroads with collieries of considerable extent belonging to Earl Talbot and the Marquess of Anglesey. The scenery is extremely beautiful, presenting the varieties of woodland, moorland, well-cultivated fields, and hill and dale: a large portion of Cannock Chase is included in the district; the remainder is partly pasture, and partly arable land. The village lies on the road from Lichfield to Stafford, and is distant seven miles from the former, and nine from the latter place; it contains several well-built houses. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Vicar of Rugeley, endowed partly by private benefaction, and partly by grants from Queen Anne's Bounty and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners; net income, £120, with a parsonage-house, and nine acres of glebe. The church, named St. Michael's, stands on the brow of a hill by the side of the road; it was built in 1837, at the cost of nearly £1800, and is a cruciform structure with lancet windows, containing 422 sittings, of which 222 are free. Its situation has been happily chosen to set it off to advantage, and it is much admired. A national school for boys was established in 1843, and is supported by subscription; there is also a national school for girls, founded by Miss Sneyd. A boys' day school, established by Miss Birch, was endowed by her with £70 per annum; and the same lady founded almshouses for six poor people, to each of whom she left a perpetual allowance of 4s. per week. This last school and the almshouses are in connexion with the Wesleyan Methodists, who have here a place of worship.

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 357-362. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50827 Date accessed: 13 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.

Staffordshire BMD have indexes for births marriages and deaths. Due to March 2011 reorganisation of the registration service for South Staffordshire districts the historical registration indexes for this district have been located at the Newcastle under Lyme registration district (formerly held at Lichfield) and applications for certificates need to be directed there. Please refer to the "Updates" page of Staffordshire BMD for further information.

Church records
Brereton St Michael was formed in 1838 from Rugeley, Staffordshire

Deposited parish registers at Staffordshire Record Office Bap 1843-1996 Mar 1846-1978 Bur 1843-1964 Lichfield Record Office holdings of Bishop's Transcripts Bap 1843-1871 Mar none Bur 1843-1871

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

Poor Law Unions
Lichfield Poor Law Union, Staffordshire

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Staffordshire 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
Add any relevant sites that aren’t mentioned above.