Wyresdale, Lancashire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes

Chapel History
Wyresdale (sometimes known as Over Wyresdale), A house of Cistercian monks existed for a few years before 1204 in Wyresdale. (fn. 25) Of the buildings no trace remains unless a few carved stones in various houses and buildings in the district formed part of them. (fn. 26) Tradition points to the site as being just below the junction of the Marshaw Wyre and the Tarnbrook Wyre on the north side of the Abbeystead reservoir. (fn. 27) The chapel, which stands on high ground about three-quarters of a mile to the west of Abbeystead, was rebuilt in 1733, when a tower was added, but both chapel and tower appear to have been again rebuilt or restored in 1843. Before that date the building is described as having been 'bare and uninteresting,' the windows with semicircular heads and 'a square mullion down the centre of each,' and the tower was without battlements. In 1853 the interior was again restored, but it was not till 1893 that the building was properly dealt with, when a chancel was added, the old roof opened out, new windows inserted, a north vestry and south porch built, buttresses added to the walls and an embattled parapet to the tower, the whole cost of the work being defrayed by the Earl of Sefton. The pulpit, though largely modern, bears the date 1684, and there is a brass to John Barker (d. 1778) and a tablet to Thomas Townley of Ortner (d. 1739). There is one bell, by A. Rudhall of Gloucester, 1774, inscribed with the name of Thomas Harrison, churchwarden. The registers date from 1730 for baptisms and burials. The earliest record of the existence of the chapel is an order by John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster to pay £4 a year to the chaplain of Wyresdale. (fn. 28) Henry VIII also in 1509 gave £2 a year, (fn. 29) and again in 1515 ordered £2 to be paid to the chaplain from the produce of Oakenclough in Bleasdale (fn. 30) as part of the £4, which annuity continues to be paid to the present incumbent. It seems certain, therefore, that there has from about 1360 always been a chaplain nominally in charge. About 1610 he was 'Mr. Cragge, no preacher.' (fn. 31) Under the Commonwealth £30 a year was granted out of Royalist confiscations, and Thomas Denny, B.A., was 'a preaching minister' there from 1638 to 1658, and probably later. (fn. 32) The augmentation would cease on the Restoration, but the use of the chapel is witnessed by William Cawthorne's will of 1683, by which an endowment of £8 a year was given. (fn. 33) The church was served three Sundays each month in 1717. (fn. 34) It was further endowed (fn. 35) and rebuilt in 1733. The net income is now stated to be £222 a year.

From: ''A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 8 (1914), pp. 76-79. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=53269 Date accessed: 03 August 2010.

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
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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.

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