Handsworth St Mary, Staffordshire Genealogy

Parish History
Handsworth St Mary is an Ancient Parish in the county of Staffordshire. Other places in the parish include: Handsworth with Soho, Perry Barr, and Oscott.

HANDSWORTH (St. Mary the Virgin), a parish, in the union of West Bromwich, S. division of the hundred of Offlow and of the county of Stafford, 2½ miles (N. W.) from Birmingham; containing 6138 inhabitants. This place, called in the Domesday survey, and in Dugdale, Hornesworde, Hornesworth, and Hanneworth, formed part of the extensive estates and barony conferred by the Conqueror on his follower, William Fitz Ausculf, whose principal seat was Dudley Castle. The parish comprises 7594 acres, of which about 375 are uninclosed; the soil is in general light and gravelly, the surface pleasingly undulated, and the river Tame flows through the lower lands, separating the townships of Handsworth and Perry-Bar. Hamstead Hall, the present manor-house, is delightfully situated on the south bank of the river; the estate belonged to the Wyrley family from the time of Henry II., and the manor from the middle of the reign of Charles II., till the year 1819, when the proprietor, Wyrley Birch, Esq., transferring his residence to the county of Norfolk, sold his property at Handsworth to the Earl of Dartmouth, to whose seat at Sandwell it is immediately adjacent. On the opposite bank of the Tame, towards the west, is Perry Hall, an ancient moated mansion with a park and extensive lands, which have belonged to the Gough family since the year 1669, together with a moiety of the manor, of which they have now acquired the whole. Between the old Walsall and the Aston roads is Heathfield, the residence of the late James Watt, who purchased and nearly rebuilt it in 1790–1; the house is embosomed in trees, chiefly of his own planting, and formed an appropriate retirement for the declining years of a man whose memory will ever be cherished by the friends of science and the arts. There are also various excellent villas scattered through the parish, belonging to professional men, merchants, and manufacturers engaged in, or who have retired from, the trades of Birmingham and the neighbouring iron-works in this part of the county. The village, and the most populous portions of the parish, are situated on the roads to Wolverhampton and Walsall, and consist of ranges of neat and well-built houses. Petty-sessions for the division are held every Saturday, at the New inn. The Grand Junction canal passes through the township of Perry-Bar. The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £13. 9. 2., and in the gift of the Rev. John Peel: the tithes have been commuted for a rent-charge of £1391. 5.; there is a glebe-house, and the glebe contains 94 acres. The church, an ancient and handsome structure in the decorated and later English styles, was enlarged a few years since by subscription, towards which the Incorporated Society contributed £500 in consideration of securing 500 free sittings. It contains a few old monuments to the Stanfords and Wyrleys, lords of the manor, to the Goughs, and to Mrs. M. A. Sacheverel, and others. In the chancel is a bust of Matthew Boulton, Esq., the founder of Soho, who died in 1809, at the age of 81, and is buried here: it was executed by Flaxman, who studied the rudiments of his art at Soho, and felt gratified in being employed to commemorate his early patron; and the inscription was written by the late Matthew Robinson Boulton, who died in 1842, and whose remains, together with those of his wife and sister, are deposited in the same vault. In an adjoining chapel is a statue of James Watt, who died in 1819, in his 84th year, and is interred in the vault beneath; it is an excellent likeness, full of expressive character, and is considered as the masterpiece of his friend, the late Sir Francis Chantrey. This chapel was erected by the present Mr. Watt, who obtained a faculty for the ground in 1822: the interior is of Roche-Abbey stone, in the early English style, with a painted window exhibiting heraldic mechanical emblems, intermixed with the thistle and other ornaments; and the exterior harmonizes in style with the Wyrley chapel, in the opposite angle of the east end of the church, now belonging to the Earl of Dartmouth. In the chancel is likewise a fine bust, by Chantrey, of Mr. Murdoch, who died here, at an advanced age, in 1839; and in the south wall of the nave are monuments, with busts by Hollins, of Nathaniel Gooding Clarke, Esq., one of his Majesty's justices for Wales, and Mr. Joseph Grice; also mural tablets, by the same artist, to the two late rectors, the Rev. Thomas Lane Freer and the Rev. James Hargreaves. A church, to which a district has been assigned, was erected at Perry-Bar in 1833, at the sole expense of Mr. Gough. See Perry-Bar. Another dedicated to St. James, was erected in 1839, at a cost of £3000, on an elevated site given by Mr. John Crockett, near the Wolverhampton road, in the south-western part of the parish; it is a neat structure in the early English style, with a square embattled tower, and contains 1000 sittings, of which 700 are free. The living is endowed with £40 per annum out of the tithes of the parish, and the whole net income of the incumbent amounts to £150; patron, the Rector. There is a place of worship for Independents in the village. Numerous benefactions have been left to the poor.

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 396-401. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51003 Date accessed: 03 April 2011.

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
Handsworth St Mary is an Ancient parish Birmingham City Archives hold Bishop's transcripts

Bap 1805-1865 Mar 1813-1837 Bur 1805-1889

The following parishes were formed from this parish

Handsworth St James formed in 1854 from part of Handsworth St Mary Birmingham City Archives hold BT's Bap and Bur 1849-1856 no Mar records

Handsworth St Michael formed 1861 from part of Handsworth St Mary Birmingham City Archives hold Bt's Bap 1861-1864 only

Handsworth St Andrew formed 1914 from parts of Handsworth St Mary &amp; Handsworth St James EP Birmingham City Archives hold no records for this parish

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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Poor Law Unions
West Bromwich Poor Law Union,Staffordshire

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Staffordshire 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
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 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Web sites
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