Owston, Yorkshire Genealogy

England Yorkshire Yorkshire Parishes K-R  West Riding  Owston

Parish History
OWSTON (All Saints), a parish, in the union of Doncaster, Upper division of the wapentake of Osgoldcross, W. riding of York, 5¼ miles (N. by W.) from Doncaster; containing, with the township of Skellow, 420 inhabitants, of whom 283 are in the township of Owston. This parish comprises about 2900 acres, of which 1600 are arable, 900 meadow and pasture, and 350 woodland and plantations; the surface in the eastern portion is usually flat, and in the western gently undulated. A nameless rivulet skirts the parish on the south, and another called the Skel intersects it from north to south. The soil in the west is rich and fertile, resting on a stratum of magnesian limestone, but in the east is of an inferior kind, chiefly clay on a sandstone bed. There are some quarries of limestone for building, and also for repairing the roads, and clay of good quality for making bricks and tiles. The plantations are mostly of elm, ash, and walnut trees in the limestone, and of oak and ash in the sandstone, district. Owston House, the seat of Phillip Davies Cooke, Esq.,and for many generations the residence of his ancestors, is a handsome mansion in a park of 200 acres. The village is on the road from Doncaster to Selby; and the turnpike-road from London to Edinburgh bounds the parish on the west. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £7. 0. 2½.; net income, £160; patron and impropriator, Mr. Cooke. The glebe contains 45 acres, with a house. The church, which is on the north side of the park, contains several monuments to the Cooke family, two of which are by Chantrey; one to Mrs. Cooke, who died in 1818, consists of a figure in an attitude of devotion, and the other, to Bryan Cooke, Esq., who died in 1821, has a figure in alto-relievo, in a sitting posture: a handsome window of stained glass was inserted by Lady Helena Cooke, in1838. Roman coins have been found at Robin Hood's Well, at the north-western extremity of the parish.

From: Lewis, Samuel A., A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 500-503. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51200 Date accessed: 22 September 2011.

Civil Registration
Primary registration of births, marriages and deaths took place at the Doncaster registration district has been included in the online index available at Yorkshire BMD for post 1837 events; view the coverage table to check progress on the availability of index search. Marriages include


 * Church of England marriages.
 * Civil Marriages at register offices, or non-conformist churches where a registrar was required to be present at the ceremony.
 * Authorised Person marriages. These cover the non-conformist places of worship which applied to keep their own registers as a result of the Marriage Act, 1898 (bringing them into line with Jewish and Quaker marriages which had this status since 1837). In such cases an 'Authorised Person' (usually the minister or priest) recorded the ceremony instead of the registrar. Earlier weddings in these places would be included with civil marriage registers.

A secondary index of 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 however this secondary index may omit the event and may not contain the detail of the Yorkshire BMD index

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

This ancient parish (AP) was created before 1813. Church of England records began in 1683.

Contributor: Include here information for parish registers, Bishop’s Transcripts, nonconformist 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
Contributor: Include an overview if there is any unique information, such as the census for X year was destroyed. Add a link to online sites for indexes and/or images. Also add a link to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection.

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