Halsall, Lancashire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes

Parish History
HALSALL (St. Cuthbert), a parish, in the union of Ormskirk, hundred of West Derby, S. division of the county of Lancaster; comprising the townships of Down Holland, Halsall, and Lydiate, and the chapelries of Maghull, and Melling with Cunscough; and containing 4445 inhabitants, of whom 1218 are in the township of Halsall, 3 miles (W. N. W.) from Ormskirk. Halsall was anciently under the barony of Warrington. Of a family of the local name, was Simon de Halsall, contemporary with Sir Adam de Molines, 12th Henry III.; and previous to 1593 lived Sir Edward Halsall, some time chancellor of the exchequer at Chester. Sir Cuthbert Halsall sold the manor and advowson of the church, for, it is said, £1000, to Sir Gilbert, Lord Gerard of Bromley. By the will of the Gerards, Lord Mahon, Baron of Oakhampton, succeeded to Halsall; and his wife conveyed the property, by her second marriage, to the Mordaunts, who sold the living to the Blundell family. The parish comprises 29,312 acres, of which 6996a. 3r. are in Halsall township. It is situated near the coast, and intersected by the Leeds and Liverpool canal, which passes through each of its townships; the views of the sea are good, and the air salubrious. There are some quarries of freestone; and in Halsall moss, which is rather extensive, is found a bituminous turf, which burns like a candle. La Mancha, here, is the residence of Thomas Fisher Moore, Esq. The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £24. 11. 5½., and in the patronage of R. B. B. Hollinshead Blundell, Esq., of Deysbrook; net income, £3051: the rector's house is a stately structure of stone, built in 1847. The parochial church is handsome, partly in the decorated and partly in the later English style, with a lofty spire, and forms a conspicuous object in the scenery. There are also churches at Maghull, Melling, and Lydiate, the livings of which are perpetual curacies, in the patronage of the rector. In the churchyard is a school-house, built in 1595, by Edward Halsall, who bequeathed a rent-charge of £13. 6. 8.

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis (1848), pp. 379-383. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50999 Date accessed: 01 July 2010.

Civil Registration
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Church records
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Census 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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