Toxteth Park St James, Lancashire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes

Chapelry History
Toxteth St James was built as a chapel of ease in the year 1775 and lay partly within the West Derby parish, and was also partly considered an extra-parochial tract within Liverpool.

There is some ambiguity as to the origin of the name. One theory is that the etymology is "Toki's landing-place". However, Toxteth is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, and at this time, it appears as "Stochestede", i.e. "the stockaded or enclosed place", from the Anglo-Saxon stocc "stake" and Anglo-Saxon stede "place" (found in many English placenames, usually spelled stead).

The ancient township of Toxteth contains the ancient village of Smeedon or Smithdown. It stretches over an area of three miles along the River Mersey and two miles inland, the highest point being on the corner of Smithdown Lane and Lodge Lane. An ancient brook ran from the northern end of the area towards the river, near the boundary of Parliament Street, where it was used to power a water wheel before it ran into the river. Along the river are two creeks, one near the middle is known as Knot's Hole and another further south called Dickinson's Dingle received a brook which ran past the east end of St Michael's Church.

At some time in history the creeks were filled in. The Dingle is now in the area where the old northern creek was situated, and St Michael's Hamlet is situated around the southern creek. Outside the southern boundary of the area lies the creek known as Otterspool, which formed the boundary between Wavertree and West Derby. Toward the end of the 16th century, the Royal park ceased to be and Puritan farmers from Bolton settled in the area. Setting up 25 farms on land outside Church of England control, which became Toxteth Village, they worshipped at the "Ancient Chapel" of Toxteth on Park Road. In 1611, they built a school at the Dingle, appointing Richard Mather as master. Some years later, he began preaching to the local farmers in the Ancient Chapel.

As the area began to develop and become more urbanised, several places of worship were built to serve the growing community. The first church was St James's, in 1774. Other churches built during the 19th century include St John the Baptist's, 1832; St Thomas's, 1840; St Barnabas's, 1841; St Clement's Windsor, 1841; St Matthew's, 1847; St Paul's, 1848; Holy Trinity, 1858; St Silas's, 1865; St Cleopas's, 1866; St Margaret's, 1869; Christ Church, 1870; St Philemon's, 1874; All Saints', 1884; St Gabriel's, 1884; St Agnes's, 1884; St Bede's, 1886; St Andrew's, 1893; and the Welsh Presbyterian Church, nicknamed Toxteth Cathedral, 1868

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. Here are two major Internet sites with name lists or indexes to the civil registrations of births, marriages and deaths for England and Wales:


 * 1) FreeBMD - has of over 250 million entries
 * 2) Lancashire BMD - Online index of Lancashire (only) Births, Marriages and Deaths

Church records
Online Records

Online transcriptions exist for Toxteth Park St James' Chapelry registers, also for Liverpool's ancient parish of St Nicholas' baptism, marriage and burial registers and for all of those chapelries in Toxteth Park. Displayed below are those links to online data for both this and all chapelries in this township and for the ancient parish of St Nicholas located in the following websites; note the ranges of years:

To view a full list for Liverpool's Parishes, (nearly 60) chapelries, ecclesiastical churches, and district chapels, and to view online baptism, marriage and burial transcription indexes, visit the LIVERPOOL ST PETER &amp; ST NICHOLAS PARISH page.

Original Records

Toxteth Park St James' Chapelry (parish) registers are held at the Liverpool Record Office. These registers have also been microfilmed by FamilySearch and they are available through its 4600 FamilySearch Centers worldwide.

Poor Law Unions
West Derby, Lancashire Poor Law Union Toxteth Park, Lancashire Poor Law Union

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