Holme St John, Lancashire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes



Chapelry History
Holme St John was created a chapel of ease by 1742, lying within the boundaries of Whalley, Lancashire Ancient Parish.

The Diocese of Blackburn is a Church of England diocese, covering much of Lancashire, created in 1926 from part of the Diocese of Manchester. The Diocese includes the towns of Blackburn, Blackpool, Burnley, and the cities of Lancaster, and Preston, as well as a large part of the Ribble Valley.

"CLIVIGER, a chapelry, in the parochial chapelry of Burnley, parish of Whalley, [known also as St. John-the-Divine, formerly St. John the Evangelist, Holme-in Cliviger or Holmes Chapel; in the] union of Burnley, Higher division of the hundred of Blackburn, N. division of the county of Lancaster, 3½ miles (S. E. by S.) from Burnley; containing 1395 inhabitants. This place was granted by Henry de Lacy, who died in 1159, to the abbot of Kirkstall. Sir Ralph de Elland claimed it as part of his manor of Rochdale; and the then abbot, Lambert, who was elected in 1191, admitting the justice of his claims, the grange of Accrington was substituted for "Clivachir" by Roger de Lacy. The Clivachers also possessed lands here; of this family, Cecilia de Clivacher, about the reign of Edward I., appears to have been the last. Various other families subsequently held property in the manor, and among them were the de Holmes, who held the portion now known as Holme, in Cliviger. The chapelry comprises 6631 acres, whereof 1119 are common or waste. The river Irwell has its rise here, running to Bacup, and thence to Bury and Manchester, a circuitous course of twenty-five miles. The village lies on the road from Todmorden to Burnley. The living is now a district incumbency; net income, £101; patrons, the family of Whitaker. The chapel, situated at Holme, and of the time of Henry VII., was rebuilt in 1788. There is a place of worship for Wesleyans; and a school is conducted on the national plan. William Whitaker, a controversial divine, was born at Holme in the year 1547.

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis (1848), pp. 639-644. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50885 Date accessed: 01 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.

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
Burnley 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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