Sockburn, Durham Genealogy

Guide to Sockburn, Durham family history and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

'''Part of this parish is in Yorkshire. See also Sockburn, Yorkshire.'''

Parish History
SOCKBURN (All Saints), a parish, in the union of Darlington, partly in the SW division of Stockton ward, county of Durham, but chiefly in the wapentake of Allertonshire, North Riding of York, 7 miles SE from Darlington.

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
Sockburn 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 Durham County Record Office.

Poor Law Unions

 * Darlington Poor Law Union, Durham

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

The Sockburn Worm
Local legend and tradition has it that Sockburn was once the home to a terrible monster called the Sockburn Worm. It terrorised the neighbourhood until was killed by Sir John Conyers, a member of a local noble family. From that day on each new Prince-Bishop of Durham was presented with the sword that killed the worm upon entering their new Bishopric for the first time at Croft on Tees. The recently revived ceremony includes the following presentation speech, traditionally made by the Lord of Sockburn; "My Lord Bishop. I hereby present you with the falchion wherewith the champion Conyers slew the worm, dragon or fiery flying serpent which destroyed man, woman and child; in memory of which the king then reigning gave him the manor of Sockburn, to hold by this tenure, that upon the first entrance of every bishop into the county the falchion should be presented."

The falchion used in this ceremony is kept in the Durham Cathedral Treasury and a more detailed history of the item is in the external link below.

External sites
For details of the sword known as the Conyers falchion http://bjorn.foxtail.nu/h_conyers_eng.htm

For further Worm legends of Durham

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambton_Worm

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/history/memories/durhammemories/4035677.Here_be_dragons_/