Rolleston, Staffordshire Genealogy

Parish History
Rolleston St Mary is an Ancient Parish in the county of Staffordshire.Other places in the parish include: Needwood, Annesley, Anslow, Needwood Forest Allotments, and Needwood Forest.

ROLLESTON (St. Mary), a parish, in the union of Burton-upon-Trent, N. division of the hundred of Offlow and of the county of Stafford, 3½ miles (N. N. W.) from Burton; containing, with Anslow township, 797 inhabitants, of whom 519 are in the township of Rolleston. The parish is situated near the river Dove, and comprises by measurement 1196 acres, of which 199 are arable, 915 meadow and pasture, 56 wood and osierbeds, and 26 road and waste. The soil of the high lands is a marly loam, and of the lower rich pasture; the scenery is pleasingly diversified, and enriched with wood. The chief proprietor of land in the parish is Sir Oswald Mosley, Bart., whose seat Rolleston Hall has been much enlarged and beautified by him. It is built on the site of a house that belonged to William de Rolleston in the reign of Henry III.; the estate was sold by Gilbert Rolleston to Sir Edward Mosley, Knt., attorney-general of the duchy of Lancaster, in 1617, and has since continued in the Mosley family. The gardens and pleasuregrounds attached to the mansion are very extensive, and contain many choice trees and plants; in the fine park is a splendid piece of water. Petty-sessions are held every Monday. The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £13. 19. 7.; net income, £664; patron, Sir Oswald Mosley. The tithes of Rolleston township have been commuted for £225, and the glebe consists of 79 acres. The church has a handsome spire, and is neatly pewed, entirely with oak; it contains some ancient monuments of the Rolleston family, and one of Sir Edward Mosley, with more modern ones of his successors. There is a place of worship for Wesleyans. A free school was founded about 1520, by Robert Sherbourne, Bishop of Winchester, who endowed it with an annuity of £10, to which subsequent benefactions have been added, producing together £37 a year. A school for girls, recently erected, is supported by subscription; and there are ten almshouses called the Hospital, for aged people, endowed in 1672, by Mr. Rolleston, with rent-charges amounting to £100 per annum, since increased by bequests.From: 'Roehampton - Romsey', A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 690-695. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51243 Date accessed: 12 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.

See Staffordshire BMD

Staffordshire BMD includes registered births for the Burton upon Trent Registration District. http://www.staffordshirebmd.org.uk/cgi/birthind.cgi?county=staffordshire The registration district prior to 1937 included this parish. From 1937 onwards the Lichfield district was responsible. Registers are now held at&lt;br&gt;The Register Office, The Old Library Building, Bird Street, Lichfield WS 13 6PN Tel. 01543 510773

Church records
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

Census records
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Poor Law Unions
Burton upon Trent Poor Law Union,Staffordshire

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