Billinge, Lancashire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes



Chapelry History
Billinge St Aidan was created a chapelry in 1720, taken from, and lying within Wigan [All Saints] Ancient Parish.

Other places in the parish include: Billing Higher End.

Billinge lies within the historic county boundaries of Lancashire. After being divided into two townships, Billinge Chapel End and Billinge Higher End in the Wigan Poor Law Union, in 1872 Billinge Local Board of Health was established for the area of these two townships and two detached parts of Winstanley township (one known as Blackley Hurst and the other situated in the Carr Mill area, both lying within the area of Billinge Chapel End township).

In 1894 the area of the Local Board (together with the remaining area of Winstanley township) became Billinge Urban District and in 1927 the Urban District was renamed Billinge-and-Winstanley Urban District.

In 1974 Billinge Higher End and most of Winstanley became part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan in Greater Manchester, with Billinge (including the remainder of Winstanley) becoming part of St. Helens Metropolitan Borough in Merseyside.

"BILLINGE, CHAPEL-END, a township and chapelry, in the parish and union of Wigan, hundred of West Derby, S. division of the county of Lancaster, 5½ miles (S. W.) from Wigan, on the road to St. Helen's; containing 1550 inhabitants. Billinge anciently gave name to a family the chief line of which terminated about the reign of Edward I., in a female heir, who married into the Heyton family. The estate was afterwards possessed by the Bisphams, Owens, and Leighs. The whole district comprehended in the name was formerly one township divided into two hamlets, which are now separate townships called respectively Billinge Chapel-End and Billinge Higher-End; the affix to this, the southern portion, being given to it because it contained the chapel. The township of Chapel-End comprises 1044 acres, of which 830 are arable, 174 pasture, 27 wood, and 13 common. The population are engaged in agriculture, hand-loom weaving, in quarrying stone, and in collieries, of which last the produce is abundant and of excellent quality. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Rector of Wigan; net income, £156: the tithes have been commuted for £189. 7. 6. The chapel was built in 1650, and rebuilt in 1718, and is in the early English style, with a campanile tower. At Birchley is a Roman Catholic chapel. A school is endowed with £40 per annum."

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis (1848), pp. 237-241. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50798 Date accessed: 25 June 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
http://www.1881pubs.com/ for details of public houses in the 1881 census

Poor Law Unions
Wigan Poor Law Union

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
Add any relevant sites that aren’t mentioned above.