Yeovil, Somerset Genealogy

England   Somerset

Parish History
YEOVIL (St. John the Baptist), a market-town and parish, and the head of a union, in the hundred of Stone, W. division of Somerset, 9½ miles (S. S. E.) from Somerton, and 122 (W. S. W.) from London; containing 7043 inhabitants. This place, from the discovery of tessellated pavements and other relics of antiquity, is supposed to have been known to the Romans. It derives its name from the river Yeo, or Ivel, the Velox of Ravennas, which, having its source in seven springs near Sherborne, separates the counties of Somerset and Dorset, and passes Yeovil at a short distance to the east, beneath a stone bridge of three arches, near which it receives a small stream, turning three mills, that bounds the town on the south. The place was anciently called the town, borough, lordship, and hundred of Yeovil, including a district which soon after the Conquest fell into the possession of the crown. Part of this district was assigned by the name of the manor to the rector of St. John the Baptist's church, in the town, by one of the kings of England, who also granted him a weekly market on Friday, view of frankpledge, and several other rights and privileges. The inhabitants were likewise incorporated, under the designation of the Portreeve and Burgesses of Yeovil; and a daily court of pie-poudre was anciently held by the provost on behalf of the rector. The manor was held by the successive rectors till the year 1418, when the then rector resigned the church, together with the town and lordship, to Henry V., who gave the manor, with all its rights and privileges, and the rectory, to the convent of the Virgin Mary and St. Bridget, which that monarch had founded at Sion, in the county of Middlesex. This grant was confirmed by Edward IV., and after the dissolution of monasteries the manor was settled by Henry VIII. on his queen, Catherine, who held it till her death. In 1449, an accidental fire consumed 117 houses in the town, of which 45 belonged to different chantries; and on this occasion, an indulgence of 40 days was granted to all who contributed to repair the loss.From: 'Yeading - Yettington', A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 716-719. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51437 Date accessed: 08 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, non conformist 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

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.