Scarisbrick, Lancashire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes



Chapelry History
Scarisbrick was created a chapelry from, and lying within the boundaries of Ormskirk, Lancashire Ancient Parish. Other places in the parish include: Snape Scarisbrick parish, the largest in Lancashire, was, in early times, an area much avoided by travellers. With its vast tracts of poorly drained peat marshes and the huge lake of Martin Mere, it was difficult terrain to cross. Much of the flat land between Southport and Liverpool is polder reclaimed from marshes and the lake. The original small scattered farmsteads of the parish now form the basis of today's hamlets of Barson Green, Bescar, Carr Cross, Drummerdale, Hurlston, Pinfold, and Snape.

SCARISBRICK, a village, a township-chapelry, in the parish of Ormskirk in the southern division of Lancashire, 2 miles (N. W.) from Ormskirk. It had 1957 inhabitants by 1848. The township includes the hamlets of Bescar and Snape-Green, and parts of Martin Mere; and comprises 7819 acres, whereof 2560 are arable, 5121 pasture, and 138 wood. The Leeds and Liverpool canal passes through. Scarisbrick Hall is said to have been erected in the 11th century: it was inhabited by the family in 1567; and was improved, and re-cased in stone, in 1814. Hurlston Hall, built in the reign of Edward VI., is a lath-andplaster house, originally the abode of the Hurlston family. The tithes have been commuted for £970 payable to an impropriator, and £94 to the rector of Hallsall. In 1814 a Roman Catholic chapel was built at Bescar.

Adapted from:

1. A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis (1848), pp. 26-30. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51258 Date accessed: 21 July 2010.

2. The Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales by John Marius Wilson. Published 1870 in London.

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

Poor Law Unions
Ormskirk 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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