Billesdon, Leicestershire Genealogy

England   Leicestershire

Parish History
Billesdon is an Ancient parish in Leicestershire and included dependant chapelries at Goadby, Leicestershire and Rolleston, Leicestershire.

In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Billesdon like this:

BILLESDON, a township, a parish, a subdistrict, and a district in Leicestershire. The township lies 3½ miles NE of the Via Devana, 6 NE of Glen r. station, and 8½ E by S of Leicester. It has a post office‡ under Leicester; and fairs on 23 April, 5 July, and the first Monday of Oct. An old market-cross stands in it; and the making of earthenware and hosiery is carried on. Real property, £4,699. Pop., 909. Houses, 195.—The parish includes also the townships of Goadby and Rolleston. Acres, 4,430. Real property, £8,526. Pop., 1,085. Houses, 233. The property is much subdivided. A camp of 18 acres, with ditch and rampart, occurs at Billesdon-Coplow; was the site of a Roman temple; and commands a fine view. The living is a vicarage, including the p. curacies of Goadby and Rolleston, in the diocese of Peterborough. Value, £279.* Patron, H. Greene, Esq. The church has a steeple, which was rebuilt in 1862. There are chapels for Baptists and Wesleyans, a free school, alms-houses, other charities £89, and a workhouse. Villiers, first Duke of Buckingham, is said to have received his early education here.

The subdistrict and the district are co-extensive; and contain the parishes of Billesdon, Skeffington, Tugby, Alexton, Loddington, Withcote, Ouston, Tilton, Lowesby, Hungerton, Scraptoft, Humberstone, Evington, Thurnby, Houghton-on-the-Hill, Galby, Kings-Norton, Carlton-Curliew, Burton-Overy, Glenn-Magna, and Wistow, the parochial chapelry of East Norton, the extra-parochial tracts of Noseley and Launde, and part of the parish of Rothley. Acres, 50,721. Poor-rates in 1866, £7,068. Pop. in 1861, 7,272. Houses, 1,571. Marriages in 1866, 47; births, 201,-of which 7 were illegitimate; deaths, 82,-of which 18 were at ages under 5 years, and 4 at ages above 85 year's. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60,431; births, 2,035; deaths, 1,136. The places of worship in 1851 were 32 of the Church of England, with 5,090 sittings; 2 of Independents, with 160 s.; 1 of Lady Huntingdon's Connexion, with 170 s.; 3 of Baptists, with 600 s.; 9 of Wesleyan Methodists, with 1,040 s.; and 1 of Primitive Methodists, with 30 s. The schools were 15 public day schools, with 519 scholars; 20 private day schools, with 237 s.; 25 Sunday schools, with 901 s.; and 1 evening school for adults, with 14 s.

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.

Church records
Deposited records are found at the Leicester and Rutland Record Office

Contact: The Record Office Telephone: 0116 2571080 Fax: 0116 2571120 E-mail: recordoffice@leics.gov.uk

Diocese of Leicester: Billesdon Bap 1599 - 1973 Marr 1599 - 1993 (Banns to 1957);1995 - 2005 Bur 1599 – 1890; 1979 - 1993

Contributor: Include here information for parish registers, Bishop’s Transcripts, non conformist 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
Billesdon Poor Law Union, Leicestershire

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