Hamsterley, Durham Genealogy

England Durham



Parish History
The church is dedicated to St James and is Ancient parish including Hamsterley and South Bedburn.

HAMSTERLEY, a parochial chapelry, in the parish of St. Andrew Auckland, N. W. division of Darlington ward, S. division of the county of Durham, 6¼ miles (W.) from Bishop-Auckland; containing 490 inhabitants. The township comprises 3516 acres, of which about 100 are woodland and plantations, 1000 waste or common, and the remainder arable, meadow, and pasture: coal is obtained in the neighbourhood. The village, which is neat, is pleasantly situated on the summit of a steep hill. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of Donald Maclean, Esq., with a net income of £96; the impropriate tithes have been commuted for £83. The chapel, dedicated to St. James, is an ancient building, formerly prebendal to Auckland College. There are places of worship for Baptists and Wesleyans.

From: 'Hamptworth - Hanley', A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 396-401. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51003 Date accessed: 25 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
To find the names of the neighbouring parishes, use England Jurisdictions 1851. In this site, search for the name of the parish, click on the location "pin", click Options and click List contiguous parishes.

The Parish Registers for the period 1580-1992 are deposited at Durham County Record Office, County Hall, Durham, DH1 5UL (EP/Ham).

Durham University Library Archives and Special Collections DDR/EA/PBT/2/122 1765-1856 Parish Register transcripts are available to search free online at Record Search.

The dates of the post-1760 transcripts have been noted in detail and sometimes only cover years. For most parishes in the collection there are gaps in the sequence of transcripts. It is advisable to consult the original parish registers for these years and events.

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