Sessay, Yorkshire Genealogy

Guide to Sessay, Yorkshire ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
Sessay St Cuthbert is an Ancient Parish which includes Hutton Sessay within the parish boundary.

The church of ST. CUTHBERT is modern, having been rebuilt on an old site in 1847–8 and restored in 1883. It consists of a chancel measuring internally 18 ft. 6 in. by 17 ft. 2 in., nave 45 ft. by 21 ft. 8 in. with a south aisle 10 ft. 7 in. wide, west tower 8 ft. square and a south porch.

In the centre of the chancel floor is a brass inscription to Master Thomas Magnus, Archdeacon of the East Riding, parson of the church, who died in 1550. Above is the figure of a priest in surplice, stole and a cope which has the word 'iesvs' on the morse. A scroll contains the prayer 'Jesu fili dei miserere mei.' A shield below the inscription contains the arms of Magnus: Bendy a fesse with a leopard passant between two cinquefoils thereon. In the chief are the words 'As God wyll' in black letter. In the corners of the stone are small brasses containing alternately the Paschal Lamb and a spray of columbine. The tiles on the floor of the chancel contain a D with a viscount's coronet and a shield of Dawnay impaling Bagot, apparently for William Henry seventh Viscount Downe (1846–57), who married Mary Isabel daughter of Richard Bagot, Bishop of Bath and Wells.

On the threshold of the porch is a slab containing the matrices of an inscription and a small figure.

In the churchyard are the stem and base of an old cross, with a restored top.

There are three bells, the tenor of which contains the inscription 'Laudationem loquetur os meum' in Lombardic characters. The second is inscribed 'Renovatur 1720 Thomas Dawney Armiger,' with a (reversed) shield of Dawnay, and in a foliated band below is the maker's name, E. Seller, Ebor. The treble bears the inscription ihc : edmund : darel : et : 1 : ux(or) : ei(us) : g : d : scs : cuthbertus.

The communion plate is modern, given by Viscount Downe in 1847, and consists of chalice, paten and flagon, all of silver-gilt.

The registers begin in 1612.

From A History of the County of York North Riding: Volume 1 (1914), pp. 446-449. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=64783&amp;strquery=Sessay Date accessed: 14 May 2011.

SESSAY (St. Cuthbert), a parish, in the union of Thirsk, wapentake of Allertonshire, N. riding of York, 6¾ miles (N. W. by W.) from Easingwould.

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
Sessay 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 North Yorkshire County Record Office.

Poor Law Unions
Thirsk Poor Law Union, Yorkshire

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