Exeter St James, Devon Genealogy

Guide to Exeter StJames, Devon ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

View "A Comprehensive List of Parishes and Chapels of Exeter".

Parish History
EXETER, a city, and a county of itself, locally in the hundred of Wonford, S. division of Devon, of which it is the chief town, 44 miles (N. E.) from Plymouth, and 172 (W. by S.) from London. The city comprises the parishes of All Hallows Goldsmith-street, All Hallows-on-the Walls, St. Edmund, St. George, St. John, St. Kerrian, St. Lawrence, St. Martin, St. Mary-Arches, St. Mary Major, St. Mary-Steps, St. Olave, St. Pancras, St. Paul, St. Petrock, St. Stephen, and Holy Trinity, also the parochial chapelries of St. David and St. Sidwell, and the extra-parochial precincts of the Cathedral Close, Bedford, Bradninch, and Castle-yard. The chapel of the Parish of St. James was erected in 1836, and was presented to by the Vicar of Heavitree.

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
Exeter St James 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 Devon Archives and Local Studies.

Non-Conformist Churches
The following non-Church of England denominations were located somewhere in Exeter, but the exact parish has not been identified:


 * Baptist
 * Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
 * Countess of Huntingdon Methodist
 * Independent/Congregational
 * Jewish
 * Plymouth Brethren
 * Presbyterian
 * Roman Catholic
 * Society of Friends/Quaker
 * Unitarian
 * Wesleyan Methodist

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Devon 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
Exeter St James (see in Exeter St Sidwell) on GENUKI