Mawdesley with Bispham, Lancashire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes



Chapelry History
Mawdesley with Bispham St Peter was created a chapelry in 1840 from Croston, Lancashire Ancient Parish. Other places in the parish include: Holland Meadow and Bispham. The name Mawdesley is thought to have originated in the reign of Edward the First (1272 - 1308). The suffix 'ley' signifies a field, meadow or clearing, showing the village's rural origins. Records show that a Manor existed in 1250 AD on the site of the present Mawdesley Hall. Mawdesley is a village and civil parish of the Borough of Chorley in Lancashire, England

Here's an 1848 historical perspective by the topographer, Samuel A. Lewis on this chapelry:

"MAWDESLEY, a township, in the parish of Croston, union of Chorley, hundred of Leyland, N. division of Lancashire, 7 miles (W. S. W.) from Chorley; containing 867 inhabitants. Adam de Mawdesley was a ward of the duchy of Lancaster in the reign of Edward III.; Robert Mawdesley, the last of this ancient family, was living at Mawdesley Hall about 1760. A moiety of the manor was held at an early period by William del Lee and Isolda his wife, and descended, with Croston, to the families of Hesketh and Trafford. Mawdesley is a level and fertile township between Croston and Wrightington, and comprises 1869 acres of land, watered by the Sidbrook. It forms, with Bispham, an ecclesiastical district, the living of which is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Rector of Croston; net income, £145, with a house. The tithes have been commuted for £366 payable to the rector of Chorley, and £50 to the rector of Croston. The church, dedicated to St. Peter, and consecrated in June, 1840, was built at a cost of £1260, and is in the early English style, with a tower and spire. The Roman Catholic chapel here, also dedicated to St. Peter, was built in 1832, at a cost of £2000, including the priest's house; the amount was partly raised by subscription, and partly derived from property left in 1826 by the Rev. Edward Barrett, who also left 63 acres of land for the priest. There is a national school. On the estate of Salt Pit is a brine spring."

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis (1848), pp. 277-280. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51140 Date accessed: 20 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
http://www.1881pubs.com/ for details of public houses in the 1881 census

Poor Law Unions
Chorley 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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