Englishcombe, Somerset Genealogy

England Somerset



Parish History
Englishcombe St Peter is an Ancient Parish in the county of Somerset.

COMBE, ENGLISH, a parish, in the union of Bath, hundred of Wellow, E. division of Somerset, 3 miles (S. W.) from Bath; containing 486 inhabitants. This parish, which comprises by computation 1796 acres, is situated near the Great Western railway, and about two miles from the London and Exeter road, from the river Avon, and the Kennet and Avon navigation. There are several quarries, from which stone is obtained for building and the repair of roads. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £9. 3. 11½., and in the gift of the family of Radford: the impropriate tithes, belonging to Mrs. Salisbury, have been commuted for £187, and the vicarial for £170; the glebe contains about 15 acres, with a glebe-house. The church is a very handsome structure, and has been repaired at a considerable expense. There are places of worship for Baptists and Lady Huntingdon's Connexion. The Gurnays had a castle here, but little more than the fosse which encompassed it is visible. The ancient road Wansdyke crosses the parish, passing by an eminence called Roundbarrow or Barrow Hill, which has been erroneously considered of artificial construction.

From: 'Colton - Comberbach', A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 668-672. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50891 Date accessed: 16 March 2011.

The church, dedicated to St Peter, was probably built by Robert de Gournay in the 12th century. The church features Norman arches and leper holes in the porch, which would have enabled lepers to hear the sermon without coming into contact with the rest of the congregation. It has been designated as a Grade I listed building by English Heritage. Englishcombe is a village and civil parish in Bath and North East Somerset just outside Bath.

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
Contributor: 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

Known Issue England Vital Records Index (FamilySearch Historical Records) has been found to contain entries for Exton, Somerset which are in fact Englishcombe Baptisms.

Examination of the original transcript reveals that two pages of Englishcombe baptisms are included in the final Exton marriage transcripts in the Transcript series. This was not identiifed during microfilm acquisition or subsequent indexing of the transcript pages and therefore the place data entry for these events is incorrect and awaits future correction.

The source information for the parish is derived from Bishop's Transcripts only and researchers are advised to refer to the Somerset Online Parish Clerk website for Englishcombe events.

The Genealogical Society of Utah has no microfilm holding for Englishcombe and the Somerset online Parish Clerk website has transcribed the parish registers.

Somerset Online Parish Clerks
Contributor include here any information about the transcripts for the parish and links to the Online Parish Clerk material.

Census records
http://www.1881pubs.com/ for details of public houses in the 1881 census

Poor Law Unions
Bath Poor Law Union, Somerset

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