Hargrave, Cheshire Genealogy

Guide to Hargrave, Cheshire ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Chapelry History
HARGRAVE, is a chapelry, in the parish of Tarvin, the union of Great Boughton, and lower division of the hundred of Broxton, S. division of the county of Chester, it is 6 miles (S. E. by E.) from Chester; the chapel, is dedicated to St. Michael.

Hargrave St Peter Cheshire is a former chapelry and school within the Ancient Parish of Tarvin St Andrew Ancient parish. It owes its foundation as a church and school to Thomas Moulson who was born there.

The church was built in 1627 as a combined chapel and school by Thomas Moulson, a former native of the village.

Church records
Hargrave 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 Cheshire Archives and Local Studies.

Non-Conformist Churches
Hargrave, Methodist Chapel (Wesleyan). Built in 1859, closed in 1981.

Non-Conformist Records:

Cheshire Record Office DocumentReference ZCR 484 Hargrave Methodist Church Date 1859-1966 Cash account books A Wesleyan Methodist chapel was built in the village of Hargrave in 1859. Until 1959, it was on the St. John Street Methodist Circuit and from 1963, on the Chester Methodist Circuit. The church closed in 1981.

For other records of Hargrave Methodist Church, see Cheshire Record Office ZCR 55/116, ZCR 55/2/67, ZCR 55/3/75. URL http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/records.aspx?cat=017-cr484&amp;cid=0

Civil Registration
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from 1 July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. Here are two excellent Internet sites with birth, marriage and death indexes available:


 * FreeBMD
 * Cheshire BMD

Registration Districts

 * Great Boughton (1837–69)
 * Chester (1870–1937)
 * West Cheshire (1937–74)
 * Chester and Ellesmere Port (1974–98)
 * Cheshire West (post 1998)

Poor Law Unions

 * Great Boughton (1837–71)
 * Tarvin (1871–1930)

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Cheshire Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

see also England Cheshire Probate Records (FamilySearch Historical Records)

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
Hargrave (see Fould Stapleford) on GENUKI

Hargrave St Peter on GENUKI

Thomas Moulson
In the late Tudor times Thomas Moulson of Hargrave was sent to the Grammar School in Tarvin by his father, a farmer. It was a walk of several miles including a crossing of the little River Gowy. On one occasion after a severe thunderstorm the Gowy was flooded and Thomas had to sleep overnight in a hay stack. As this was not an infrequent happening Thomas swore that when he grew up he would build a church and school in Hargrave. He left Hargrave and went to London and made his fortune. In 1627 he kept his promise and built a combined school and chapel at Hargrave.

Thomas Moulson became a Master Grocer in London and was so diligent in his trade that he rose through the ranks.


 * 1623 elected Alderman of the City of London
 * 1628 Thomas elected a Member of Parliament for the City of London
 * 1632 Governor of the Merchant Adventurers
 * 1634 elected Lord Mayor of London.

Thomas lived in and owned a large house on the site of what was to become the Bank of England. Shortly before his death on 6th December 1638 Sir Thomas set up a Trust with land to maintain the church and school that he had established. The trust included annuities in perpetuity for the salary of the curate and the schoolmaster. The capital was invested in the Trust's name and still produces a substantial income today. After the payment of expenses the balance of income is divided into three equal parts. These are as follows:


 * To pay a priest
 * To maintain the church
 * To promote the education of people under twenty-five years of age who are resident in the area