Gorton St James, Lancashire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes

Chapelry History
GORTON, a chapelry [by 1600], in the parish of Manchester, union of Chorlton, hundred of Salford, S. division of the county of Lancaster, 3½ miles (E. S. E.) from Manchester; containing 2422 inhabitants, and comprising 1500 acres. This place is situated on the road to Mottram and Sheffield, and the inhabitants are chiefly employed in the cotton manufacture and in the making of hats. A sort of lime made here, called Ardwick lime, grows hard under water. The Manchester, Ashton, and Stockport canal, and the Manchester and Sheffield, and Manchester and Birmingham railways, pass through the chapelry. In the vale of Gorton is a reservoir 44 acres in extent, excavated by the Manchester Water-works' Company for the partial supply of that town. The living is a perpetual curacy; net income, £150, with a glebehouse; patrons, the Dean and Canons of Manchester. The chapel, dedicated to St. Thomas, was rebuilt about 1756: it contains several old volumes, the gift of Humphrey Chetham, each volume fastened by a chain. There are places of worship for Baptists, Wesleyans, and Unitarians; and a school in union with the National Society.

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis (1848), pp. 315-319. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50985 Date accessed: 01 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.

Church records
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Census records
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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
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 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Web sites
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