Exeter Cathedral, Devon Genealogy

Guide to Exeter Cathedral, Devon ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

View A Comprehensive List of Parishes and Chapels of Exeter.

Parish History
EXETER, a city, and a county of itself, locally in the hundred of Wonford, S. division of Devon, of which it is the chief town,44 miles (N. E.) from Plymouth; containing, within the municipal boundary, and exclusively of the suburban parishes of St.Thomas, St. Leonard, and Heavitree.

Previously to its establishment at Exeter, prevailed upon Edward the Confessor to remove it hither in 1049; and he placed the bishop in the new see, which he then endowed with the lands and emoluments that had previously belonged to Crediton. During the stay of the parliamentary forces, the cathedral was shamefully defaced, and divided into places of worship for Presbyterians and Independents. No burials are entered in the cathedral register from 1646 to 1660. St. Mary's chapel at the end of the choir, was the original Saxon church, and that the whole of the existing fabric was 500 years in building. To the north and south of the Lady chapel are the chapels of St. Mary Magdalene and St. Gabriel, and in various parts of the cathedral are other chapels richly adorned with sculpture, in one of which, dedicated to St. Edmund, is held the consistorial court every Friday during term. There are places of worship for Baptists, the Society of Friends, Independents, Wesleyans, Methodists, and Unitarians, a Roman Catholic chapel, and a synagogue.

An description is found in greater detail in "A New Gazzetter of England and Wales, by John Marius Wilson:

EXETER, a city and a district in Devon, and a diocese in Devon and Cornwall. The city stands on the river Exe, 10 miles above the river's embouchure; and has railway communication in five directions, toward Exmouth, Plymouth, Barnstaple, Bristol, and London.

The Cathedral.—A Benedictine monastery was founded, on the site of the cathedral, in 932, by Athelstan. The cathedral at the translation of the see from Crediton to Exeter was made in 1049. A new cathedral was built by Bishop Warlewast, in 1112; was pillaged and burnt by Stephen, at his capture of the city; and was restored and enlarged at various times till 1206. The cathedral, was founded by Bishop Quivil in 1288, and was not completed till 1478.

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
Exeter Cathedral parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

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

Records are also available at the Devon Archives and Local Studies.

Non-Conformist Churches

 * Baptists
 * Society of Friends
 * Independents
 * Wesleyans
 * Methodists
 * Unitarians
 * Roman Catholic
 * Jewish

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

Websites
Exeter Cathedral on GENUKI