Dudley Castle, Worcestershire Genealogy

England Staffordshire

Parish History
Dudley Castle is an extra parochial place and it is nescessary to search Dudley St Thomas, Worcestershire or the later district church of Dudley St Edmund, Worcestershire for events.

Dudley is a detached part of Worcestershire which extends into part of Staffordshire. Ecclesiastically within the diocese of Worcester and the Kidderminster deanery it is historically referred to in some records as part of Staffordshire.

DUDLEY, a borough, and the head of a union, in the Lower division of the hundred of Halfshire, Dudley and E. divisions of the county of Worcester, though locally in the S. division of the hundred of Offlow and of the county of Stafford, 26 miles (N. N. E.) from Worcester, and 118 (N. W. by N.) from London; containing 31,232 inhabitants, of whom 17,077 are in the town. This place derives its name from Dodo, or Dudo, a Saxon prince, by whom it was owned at the time of the heptarchy, and who built a castle here about the year 700, which, during the contest between Stephen and the Empress Matilda, was garrisoned for the latter by Gervase Paganell, to whom the barony at that time belonged. Gervase having subsequently taken part in the rebellion of Prince Henry against his father, Henry II., his castle was demolished in the 20th year of that monarch's reign. Roger de Somery, obtaining possession of the barony, began to convert his mansion into a castle, and for his firm adherence to Henry III. in his wars with the barons, was permitted by his sovereign to perfect the fortifications. The present keep, with the gateway and chapel, is of the architecture of the 13th century; the other buildings were erected by John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, in the time of Edward VI. In the early part of the civil war the castle was garrisoned by the royalists, and in 1644 defended by Colonel Beaumont with great bravery against the parliamentarians, who were compelled to raise the siege by the arrival of a detachment from Worcester; it was afterwards made untenable by order of the house of commons, and an accidental fire, which occurred in 1750, completed its demolition. The castle was built on an elevated limestone rock, the summit and acclivities of which are richly wooded; the remains are extensive and highly interesting, and comprise the entrance gateway, leading to a court-yard of about an acre, on one side of which, overlooking the town, is the keep, consisting of four circular towers connected by a curtain, two of them in ruins, and raised on a lofty artificial mound. Further on are, the chapel, a curious specimen of architecture; the great hall, 75 feet by 56, approached by a colonnade of the Doric order; and the domestic apartments and offices, in the Elizabethan style. The postern tower and buildings connected with it, including an octagonal staircase tower, occupy a third side of the court-yard, the fourth being protected by a strong wall. A moat surrounded the whole, and additional protection was given by strong outworks. The castle and its precincts are extra-parochial; the grounds are very extensive, and have been beautifully laid out in shrubberies and walks, affording a succession of different views of this highly picturesque ruin. About half a mile from the town was a priory of Cluniac monks, founded about the year 1161 by Gervase Paganell, and dedicated to St. James, as a cell to the abbey at Wenlock; the revenue, at the Dissolution, was £36. 3. There are still considerable remains, mantled with ivy, forming a pleasing feature in the view from the Castle Hill; and near them the late Earl of Dudley erected a handsome building in the later English style, which, from its proximity to the ruins, is called the Priory.

From: 'Duddon - Duncton', A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 96-102. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50929 Date accessed: 24 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
Not applicable extra parochial place

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Census records
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Poor Law Unions
Dudley 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.

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