Weston St John, Somerset Genealogy

England   Somerset

Parish History
Weston St John is an Ecclesiastical Parish in the county of Somerset, created in 1841 from Weston Ancient Parish.

WESTON (All Saints), a parish, in the union of Bath, hundred of Bath-Forum, E. division of Somerset, 1¾ mile (N. W.by W.) from Bath; containing 2899 inhabitants. This parish is bounded on the south by the river Avon, and comprises 2413 acres, of which 1901 are meadow and pasture, 495 arable, and 15 woodland; the pastures are chiefly grazed by cows kept for the supply of Bath with milk. The higher lands, forming part of the plain of Lansdown, rest on a bed of inferior oolite, and the substratum of the lower is blue lias, which is quarried for burning into lime and for the roads; the quarries contain many fossil remains, among which are bones of the ichthyosaurus. The upper road from Bath to Bristol passes through the parish; and a stream tributary to the Avon has its source in Lansdown Hill, and flows through the village, near which it is crossed by a stone bridge of one arch. The scenery is finely varied, and includes some interesting objects; near the spot where Sir Bevil Granville fell at the battle of Lansdown, is a monument inscribed to his memory by Lord Clarendon. The river Avon affords facility of conveyance, and the Great Western railway passes within a mile. Lansdown fair, for cattle, sheep, pigs, cheese, and toys, is held on the 10th of August. The living is a vicarage, endowed with the rectorial tithes, valued in the king's books at £10. 1. 8., and in the patronage of the Crown; net income, £468. The church was rebuilt, with the exception of the tower, in 1832, and is a handsome structure in the later English style, containing 630 sittings. Another church, dedicated to St. John, was erected in 1836; and the chapel attached to Partis' College, noticed in the article on Bath, is also in Weston parish. There are places of worship for Wesleyans and Lady Huntingdon's Connexion. Lansdown Plain confers the title of Marquess on the Petty family.

From: 'Westmancoate - Weston', A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 519-524. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51391 Date accessed: 15 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

Census records
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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
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 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Web sites
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