Durham St Mary le Bow with St Mary the Less, Durham Genealogy

England Durham  Durham Parishes



Parish History
DURHAM, a city, the capital of the county of Durham, and the head of a union, 67 miles (E. S. E.) from Carlisle, 87 (N. E.) from Lancaster, 67 (N. W. by W.) from York. The city is surmounted by the cathedral and the remains of the ancient castle, together with other ecclesiastical residences. The college was established at the same time as the university. The city comprises several parishes: St. Giles (1584), St. Mary Le Bow (1571), St. Mary-the-less (1560), St. Nicholas' (1540), St. Oswald's (1538), St. Margaret's (1557), as well as The (Durham) Cathedral (1609). The parish of Durham St Oswald's also includes the village and chapelry of Shincliffe (1826) and part of the chapelry of Croxdale (1696) [see also Merrington Parish]. The chapelry of Belmont was built in the year 1858 which also stood within the boundary of Durham ancient parish. There are places of worship for the Society of Friends, Independents, Primitive and Wesleyan Methodists, and Roman Catholics.

Durham St Mary le Bow was an ancient parish and the present church built in 1685 replaced the older church which had fallen into disrepair. The church united two Ancientparishes of St Mary le Bow and St Mary the Less into one parish.



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 Indexes
Durham Cathedral's registers of christenings, marriages and burials, along with those of its ecclesiastical parishes of Durham St Giles, Durham St Mary-the-Less and other to which it is attached, have been mostly transcribed and are displayed online at the following web sites and ranges of years:

For a full list of all those chapels surrounding and comprising the whole ancient parish of Durham and its surrounding parishes and chapelries to which it was attached, be certain to see "Church Records" on the Durham Cathedral, Durham PARISH page.

To find the names of the neighbouring parishes, use England Jurisdictions 1851 maps. In this site, search for the name of the parish, click on the location "pin", click Options and click List contiguous parishes.

The Parish Registers for the period 1571-1979 are deposited at Durham County Record Office, County Hall, Durham, DH1 5UL (EP/Du.MB).

Durham University Library Archives and Special Collections DDR/EA/PBT/2/84 1762-1841 Parish Register transcripts are available to search free online at FamilySearch Historical Records. There are gaps in the transcripts in the early decades until the late 1790's.

There is an additional series DDR/EA/PBT/2/85 from 1787-1793 which has page sequence PBT/2/85/1-6 but is titled for the years 1787-1838 and for the parish of St Mary the Less.

The dates of the post-1760 transcripts have been noted in detail and sometimes only cover years. For most parishes in the collection there are gaps in the sequence of transcripts. It is advisable to consult the original parish registers for these years and events.

Poor Law Unions
Durham Poor Law Union, Durham

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Durham 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