Everton St George, Lancashire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes



Chapelry History
Everton St George was a chapelry of Walton on the Hill St Mary, Lancashire Ancient Parish.

The name Everton is derived from the Saxon word eofor which meant "wild boar that lived in forests". Everton is an inner city area located just north of Liverpool city centre, with Vauxhall to the west, Kirkdale to the north and Anfield to the north east. The Liverpool entrance to the Kingsway Tunnel is located near the boundaries of this area.

Everton is an ancient settlement and like Liverpool, was one of the six un-named berewicks of West Derby. Until the late 18th century Everton was a small rural parish of Walton-on-the-Hill, but the rise in wealth of nearby Liverpool pushed wealthier merchants further afield to live. By the early 19th century however an increase in slums and demand for housing saw Everton began to be built up and in 1835, Everton became part of Liverpool.

Noted author Thomas de Quincy lived in Everton for some time in the early 19th century.

Along with neighbouring Vauxhall, Everton traditionally housed the city's Irish, Italian and Polish immigrants. Everton was to be the original site for the building of the Metropolitan Cathedral on St.Domingo road but this was abandoned because of financial constraints. The Cathedral was eventually located in the city centre close to the southern edge of Everton.

St George is a Grade I listed building and the earliest of three churches in Liverpool built by John Cragg, who used many components in cast iron which were made at his Mersey Iron Foundry. The other "cast iron" churches in Liverpool were St Michael's Church, Aigburth, Lancashire and St Philip's Church (since demolished) in Hardman Street.

The building of the church was enabled by an Act of Parliament, the St. George's Church, Everton Act, which was passed in 1813. The foundation stone was laid on 19 April 1813 and the church was consecrated by the Bishop of Chester on 26 October 1814. The architect was Thomas Rickman and the church was built by John Cragg.

It is an active Anglican parish church in the Diocese of Liverpool, the Liverpool archdeaconry, and the Liverpool Northern deanery.

EVERTON, a township, in the parish of Walton-on-the-Hill, union and hundred of West Derby, S. division of Lancashire, 1 mile (N. N. E.) from Liverpool; containing, in 1841, 9221 inhabitants, and in 1846, 15,726. This place, styled Hireton in Domesday book, claims a more remote history than Liverpool, to which it now forms an elegant suburb. We find it exempt from the imposition of Danegelt instituted by Ethelred, and it is mentioned in 1066 as having been then given by the Conqueror to his cousin, Roger de Poictiers. An ancient fire-beacon, coeval with the Tower at Liverpool, stood here for many centuries; but it has now disappeared, and the site is occupied by St. George's church. During the siege of Liverpool, Prince Rupert occupied a cottage here, which was held in great veneration, until it was at length pulled down in 1845: a representation of the building, as it appeared just before its demolition, is given in Herdman's "Ancient Liverpool." The agreeable village or suburb of Everton, denominated, from the salubrity of its air and the pleasantness of its situation, the Montpelier of Lancashire, is seated on a bold eminence opposite to the bay of Bootle; it is about a mile and a half from the Mersey, and three miles from the mouth of that river. The prospects are very beautiful; and from the western parts of Everton Hill may be seen the fertile lands of Cheshire, the mountains of Wales, the river Mersey, and the expanding Irish Sea with its numberless vessels. From its proximity to Liverpool, it has become the residence of many respectable and wealthy families; numerous streets and crescents have been formed, and the township is studded with handsome detached mansions and villas. Among these may be mentioned Bronte House, called after Lord Nelson, built of red stone, and belonging to John George Woodhouse, Esq. The district church of St. George was erected in 1813, at an expense of £11,500, on a site given by James Atherton, Esq.; it is an elegant structure in the later English style, with a square embattled tower crowned by pinnacles. The framework and tracery of the windows and doors, the groinings of the roof, the pulpit, and all the ornamental parts, are of cast-iron; and the east window, of which the iron tracery is exceedingly rich, is embellished with stained glass. The living is a perpetual curacy; net income, £300; patron, the Rector of Walton. St. Augustine's church, Shaw-street, was erected in 1830, at an expense of £7500; it is in the Egyptian style, having an octagonal tower with pinnacles at the angles, surmounted by a cross. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of five Trustees; net income, £250. Christchurch, in Boundary-lane, was built in 1848, as a memorial of the late Charles Horsfall, Esq., mayor of Liverpool in 1832, at the united cost of his surviving children: the site, and the erection of the building, amounted to £13,000. It is a beautiful structure in the later English style, with a tower and spire; the interior is of chaste design, and the east window of rich painted glass. The living is in the gift of Trustees, and is endowed with £1000. Another church has been erected, by subscription. In Salisbury-street is the Roman Catholic church of St. Francis Xavier; it is in the pointed style, and is 150 feet in length and 60 in breadth. St. Edward's Roman Catholic College was established by the Right Rev. Dr. Brown, R. C. Bishop, in 1843; youths intended for secular pursuits or the learned professions, distinct from the priesthood, here receive instruction from the ablest professors in the Greek, Latin, and modern languages, and the more elegant accomplishments, at a moderate charge. The Rev. John Henry Fisher is president, and the Rev. Alexander Goss vice-president. The college is a large stone mansion, formerly known as St. Domingo House, built by Hugh Sparling, Esq., with princely splendour, and seated on the highest point of Everton, commanding a fine view of the Mersey and the adjacent country. It is admirably adapted for the purpose of education, and has been fitted up in a manner conducive to the health and comfort of the students: a chapel is attached to the establishment. The Crescent Chapel, belonging to the Independents, was built in 1846, in the Grecian style, at a cost of £9000; near it is a fine range of school-buildings, erected at an expense of £5000, and opened the following year. Among the other schools are two sets of day and Sunday schools, for boys, girls, and infants, attached to St. George's, and supported by subscription. Within the limits of the township, bordering upon Low Hill, in West Derby, is the Necropolis, a burial-place formed in 1825, at a cost of about £8000; the entrance is in the Grecian style, and the area of the inclosure five acres.

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis (1848), pp. 191-195. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50952 Date accessed: 29 June 2010.

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

Poor Law Unions
West Derby, Lancashire Poor Law Union

Probate records
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