Burton upon Trent St Modwen, Staffordshire Genealogy

Staffordshire

Parish History
Burton upon Trent St Modwen is Ancient Parish and a market town in the county of Staffordshire.Other places in the parish include: Burton Extra, Stretton near Burton upon Trent, and Stretton.

BURTON-UPON-TRENT (St. Mary and St. Modwena), a parish, and the head of a union, partly in the N. division of the hundred of Offlow and of the county of Stafford, and partly in the hundred of Repton and Gresley, S. division of the county of Derby; comprising the township of Winshill, in Derbyshire, and the townships of Branson, Burton-Extra, Horninglow, and Stretton; and containing 8136 inhabitants, of whom 4863 are in the market-town of Burton, 24 miles (E.) from Stafford, and 124 (N. W. by N.) from London. This place derived its name from having been a Saxon burgh of some importance, and its adjunct from being situated on the river Trent. In the ninth century, St. Modwena, who had been expelled from her monastery in Ireland, came hither, and, having obtained an asylum from King Ethelwulph, in reward for a miraculous cure that she is said to have performed on his son Alfred, erected a chapel, and dedicated it to St. Andrew: the site, still called St. Modwena's Garden, is the only part visible. In 1004, Wulfric, Earl of Mercia, founded an abbey for monks of the Benedictine order, which, from the vestiges still to be traced, appears to have been one of the most considerable in the kingdom: it was a mitred abbey, richly endowed, and invested with extensive privileges; and its revenue, at the Dissolution, was £356. 16. 3. The remains consist principally of some fine Norman arches that formed part of the cloisters, which included an area 100 feet square, and of part of the entrance gateway, now converted into a shop. In 1225, a large portion of the town was destroyed by an accidental fire. In the reign of Edward II., Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, posted himself at Burton, and endeavoured to defend the passage of the river against the king; but being unsuccessful in his attempt, he fled with his forces into Scotland. During the parliamentary war, the town and neighbourhood were frequently the scene of action between the contending parties.

The parish comprises about 8000 acres, whereof twothirds are arable, and the rest meadow, with about 250 acres of wood and plantations. The living is a vicarage, in the patronage of the Marquess of Anglesey, the impropriator; net income, £192. The ancient church belonged to the abbey, and was made collegiate by Henry VIII.: having been greatly damaged in the parliamentary war, it was taken down, and the present edifice, a well-built structure with a tower, though less embellished than the former, was erected on its site, in 1720. Attached to the church is a lectureship, endowed with £31 per annum, and in the patronage of the Bailiff and principal inhabitants.

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 452-460. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50848 Date accessed: 12 April 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.

Staffordshire BMD includes registered births for the Burton upon Trent Registration District. http://www.staffordshirebmd.org.uk/cgi/birthind.cgi?county=staffordshire

Church records
Burton upon Trent St Modwen Ancient Parish

Deposited parish registers at Staffordshire Record Office Bap 1538-2001 Mar 1538-1990 Bur 1538-1914 Lichfield Record Office holdings of Bishop's Transcripts Bap1663-1882 Mar 1663-1887 Bur 1663-1882

Include here information for parish registers, Bishop’s Transcripts 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

Poor Law Unions
Burton upon Trent Poor Law Union,Staffordshire

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