South Petherton, Somerset Genealogy

England Somerset

Parish History
South Petherton is an Ancient Parish and a market town in the county of Somerset.Other places in the parish include: Compton Durvill, South Harp, Pitway, and Over Stratton.

PETHERTON, SOUTH (St. Peter and St. Paul), a market-town and parish, in the union of Yeovil, hundred of South Petherton, W. division of Somerset, 5½ miles (N. by W.) from Crewkerne, and 130 (W. S. W.) from London; containing, with the tythings of Compton-Durvill, South Harp, and Over Stratton, 2597 inhabitants. This place is stated by Camden to have been the residence of Ina, King of the West Saxons. It derives its name from the river Peder, or Parret, which passes the town on the east, and over which, on the old Roman fosse-way, is a stone bridge of three arches, formerly of wood, but rebuilt in its present state by the parents of two children who were drowned in the river, and whose effigies are placed upon it to commemorate the event. The parish comprises 3200 acres, and is intersected by the road from Exeter to London. The town has three principal streets, which, uniting, form a triangle; a few of the inhabitants are engaged in the manufacture of dowlas, sailcloth, and kid gloves, and on the river are several corn-mills. The markets, once considerable, but now on the decline, are on Thursday and Saturday; and a fair, chiefly for lambs, takes place on July 6th. Courts leet for the manor and hundred are held in October. The living is a vicarage, valued in the king's books at £24, and in the gift of the Dean and Chapter of Bristol; the impropriation belongs to Mrs. Quantock and others. The tithes have been commuted for £155 payable to the Dean and Chapter, £623 to the impropriators, and £550 to the vicar; the glebe comprises about 2 acres. The church is a spacious cruciform edifice, with an octangular tower surmounted by a spire. There are places of worship for Independents, Baptists, and Wesleyans. The free school was founded about 1732, by William Glandfield, who bequeathed to it £60, augmented by Mary Prowse in 1739 with £100, and by a further bequest from Thomas Musgrave, commuted for £100 in the four per cents. In 1720, a large earthen vessel, full of Roman coins, was dug up in a field near the bridge; and other Roman antiquities have at different times been discovered in the vicinity.

From: 'Peter, St. - Petworth', A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 558-564. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51211 Date accessed: 13 March 2011.

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
Contributor: Include here information for parish registers, Bishop’s Transcripts and other types of church records, such as parish chest records. Add the contact information for the office holding the original records. Add links to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection

Poor Law Unions
Yeovil Poor Law Union, Somerset

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

Web sites
Contributor: add any relevant sites that aren’t mentioned above.