Farnworth, Lancashire Genealogy

Guide to Farnworth, Lancashire ancestry, family history, and genealogy: chapelry register transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Chapelry History
Farnworth (St Luke) is a chapelry of Prescot, hundred of West Derby, S. division of the county of Lancaster, 5¾ miles (W.) from Warrington. Other places in the parish include: Bold, Widnes, Ditton, and Cronton. St Luke's Church, Farnworth, Widnes is a parish church in Farnworth which was once a separate village but which is now part of the town of Widnes, Cheshire, England. The church dates back to the 12th century and it contains a number of items of historical interest, in particular hatchments and memorials.

Farnworth is an ancient village some 2 miles (3 km) north of the River Mersey in what used to be the county of Lancashire. It has now been subsumed into the town of Widnes in the borough of Halton, in the ceremonial county of Cheshire. Around 1180 a chapel was built in the village which was dedicated to St Wilfrid. At that time the village was known as St Wilfrids-on-the-Hill. It was a chapel of ease to the mother church at Prescot. Included within its boundaries were the townships of Bold, Appleton, Cronton, Cuerdley, Ditton and Penketh. Originally Farnworth was within the Mercian diocese of Lichfield but following the dissolution of the monasteries in 1541 the abbey at Chester was converted into a cathedral and Farnworth became part of the diocese of Chester. In 1859 the church was re-dedicated to St Luke and in 1880 it became a parish in the diocese of Liverpool.

Over the years the church has had a number of benefactors, one of the earliest being Yorfrid the first (and in its own right the only) Baron of Widnes (the barony passed to the Barons of Halton when his daughter married William FitzNigel, the 3rd Baron of Halton). Since then, over the centuries, the main benefactors have been the Bold family of the nearby township of Bold.

There have been many changes to the church, internally and externally, over the centuries. The first extension was about 1280–1300 when the north aisle was added. Between 1360 and 1380 the south aisle was added and around this time the tower was also built. The Bold Chantry (or Chapel) was added in 1406 and in 1431 the east end was extended. In 1500 the Cuerdley chapel was added to the south of the church. This was provided by Bishop William Smyth to allow his tenants in the village of Cuerdley to attend mass without coming into contact with the people of Farnworth at a time when plague was prevalent in the area. At a restoration in 1855 the nave, the north aisle and the Bold Chapel were rebuilt, the east end of the chancel was restored and the north side of the church and the vestry were repaired. A new roof was added to the nave. Galleries were built and the organ was moved into the gallery on the west wall. This restoration was carried out by William Culshaw. Farnworth became a separate parish in 1859. The last major internal restoration took place in 1894–95 when the galleries were removed and the plaster was stripped from the walls. Two new vestries were erected on the north side of the chancel and a new organ was installed. This restoration was carried out by Paley, Austin &amp; Paley

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.

Online index of Lancashire Births, Marriages and Deaths Lancashire BMD

Online Records

 * 1538 - 1910 at FamilySearch — index

 Church of England 

Farnworth chapelry's registers of christenings, marriages and burials, along with those of the ancient parish of Prescot to which it is attached, have been mostly transcribed and are displayed online at the following web sites and ranges of years:

For a full list of all those chapels surrounding Farnworth and comprising the whole ancient parish of Prescot to which it was attached, be certain to see "Church Records" on the PRESCOT PARISH page.

Farnworth (Widnes)- St Luke Baptisms Transcript-1538-1698- 929.3272 F1 Baptisms Transcript-1698-1812- Archives LPRS Transcript Baptisms Transcript-1698-1743- MFE 929.342737 Fa(767) Burials Transcript-1538-1698- 929.3272 F1 Burials Transcript-1698-1812- Archives LPRS Transcript Burials Transcript-1698-1743- MFE 929.342737 Fa(347) Marriages Transcript-1538-1698- 929.3272 F1 Marriages Transcript-1698-1837- Archives LPRS Transcript

For original registers of above please enquire at Cheshire Record Office.

The Manchester Room and Greater Manchester County Record Office Email: archiveslocalstudies@manchester.gov.uk

The Manchester Room@City Library (Local Studies)

Parish registers for Farnworth, near Prescot, 1538-1953 Microfilm of originals in the Cheshire Record Office, Chester. Farnworth was a chapelry (now a parish) in Prescot parish (Lancashire).Some text in Latin. Cheshire Record Office: P283/4080/1-16, 18-34, 35-43, 47-56, 176, 258- 259, 309, 311, 313-314, 316, 321.

Bishop's transcripts of Farnworth (near Prescot), 1604-1873. Text in Latin and English. Microfilm of original records at the Lancashire Record Office, Preston. Farnworth was a chapelry (now a parish) in the parish of Prescot.

Non Conformist Records

 * 1717 England & Wales, Roman Catholics, 1717 at Findmypast ($), index and images (coverage may vary)
 * 1647-1996 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index (dates may vary by parish)

Poor Law Unions
Prescot Poor Law Union, Lancashire

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.

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