Kirkby, Lancashire Genealogy

Guide to Kirkby, Lancashire ancestry, family history, and genealogy: chapelry register transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Chapelry History
KIRKBY, a chapelry, in the parish of Walton on the Hill, union and hundred of West Derby, S. division of the county of Lancaster, 5¾ miles northwest from Prescot created by 1610. The present chapel, dedicated to St. Chad, was erected 5th March 1766. Other places in the parish include: Simonswood. There is a place of worship for dissenters.

The name Kirk-by, literally meaning "church" and "settlement" is of Old Norse origin whose settlers arrived via Ireland around 900. The first direct evidence of a settlement dates from 1086 and the Domesday Book, with a reference to Cherchebi - population 70.Ownership of the land containing modern-day Kirkby - established as the West Derby Hundred in the 11th century - passed through many hands, until 1596, when the Molyneux family purchased the hundred in its entirety. After a brief loss of patronage in 1737, as a result of the head of the family taking holy orders, in 1771 the Molyneux family were made Earls of Sefton and regained their lands.

The first chapel on this site is believed to have been erected in 870 when the settlement was established by Norsemen. This chapel was recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086 where the area was cited as 'Cherchebi', meaning church by settlement.

In 1766 and at a cost of £1043 which was raised by parson Thomas Wilkinson, a new chapel was built on the ancient church site. This was a plain red brick building, which was further enlarged in 1812 when it was capable of holding 600 people.

The foundation stone for the current church was laid on 31 March 1869 by William Molyneux, 4th Earl of Sefton, near to the still standing older chapel. The construction of the new church was requested by the Charles Molyneux, 3rd Earl of Sefton, of his son, before he died. While the construction should have taken just a few months there was a strike amongst the masons and the building was not completed until 1871. St. Chad's Church, Kirkby is in the town of Kirkby, Knowsley, Merseyside. The current Grade II listed building was built from 1869-1871 by the 4th Earl of Sefton. It was designed by the architects Paley and Austin. It is dedicated to St Chad, who it is believed visited Kirkby during the latter half of the seventh century.

A final service was held in the old chapel on the morning of Wednesday, 4 October 1871. On the same day the new church was consecrated by the Lord Bishop of Chester. The old chapel was finally demolished in 1872 although part of its altar still remains in the grounds. The stones from the old chapel were kept and used to build the wall that surrounds the new church.

A war memorial was built in the churchyard to the memory of all the people of the area who lost their lives in the two World Wars. Many of these belonged to Lord Derby's Regiment. At the base of the cross is an inscription of the year AD 870.

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.

Online index of Lancashire Births, Marriages and Deaths Lancashire BMD

Lancashire Online Parish Clerks
An extremely useful resource for research in Lancashire Parishes http://www.lan-opc.org.uk/

Online Records

 * 1538 - 1910 at FamilySearch — index

 Church of England 

Kirkby chapelry's registers of christenings, marriages and burials, along with those of the ancient parish of Walton on the Hill to which it is attached, have been mostly transcribed and are displayed online at the following web sites and ranges of years:

For a full list of all those chapels surrounding Kirkby and comprising the whole ancient parish of Walton on the Hill to which it was attached, be certain to see "Church Records" on the WALTON ON THE HILL ST MARY PARISH page.

Parish registers for Kirkby Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1949 Microfilm of original records at Kirkby.

Christenings, marriages, burials, 1678-1948. FHL BRITISH Film 93758 Banns, marriages, 1756-1948. FHL BRITISH Film 93759 Burials, 1786-1949. FHL BRITISH Film 93760 Parish registers for Kirkby Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1988-1990

Microfilm copy of original records at the Liverpool Record Office. Kirkby is a chapelry, known as St. Chad's, in Walton-on-the-Hill parish. Liverpool Record Office no.: KIR 1/1-6, 2/1-5, 3/1-8, 4/1-4.

Burials, 1678-1776; baptisms, 1678-1695. Baptisms, 1727-1763; marriages, 1678-1753. (Some years are missing.) FHL BRITISH Film 1545852 Items 9 - 12 Baptisms, 1775-1788; burials, 1775-1788. Marriages 1756-1812. FHL BRITISH Film 1655552 Items 8 - 9 Baptisms and burials, 1786-1812. FHL BRITISH Film 1545852 Item 13 Baptisms, 1813-1958. Marriages, 1813-1923. FHL BRITISH Film 1545853 Marriages, 1923-1959. FHL BRITISH Film 1545854 Items 1 - 5 Burials, 1892-1917. (Title board reads dates, 1813-1847.) FHL BRITISH Film 1545854 Item 6 Burials, 1875-1892. (Title board reads dates, 1847-1875.) FHL BRITISH Film 1545854 Item 7 Burials, 1847-1875. (Title board reads dates, 1875-1892.) FHL BRITISH Film 1545854 Item 8 Burials, 1813-1847. (Title board reads dates, 1892-1917.) FHL BRITISH Film 1545854 Item 9

Bishop's transcripts for St. Peter's Church, Formby, Lancashire and the Chapelry of Kirkby Microfilm of original records at the Lancashire Record Office, Preston.Includes records of St. Chad's Church in Kirkby. Formby and Kirkby are chapelries in the parish of Walton on the Hill St Mary, Lancashire.

Baptisms, marriages and burials, 1620-1641, 1663-1839 (Formby); baptisms, marriages and burials 1610, 1629-1637, 1664-1685, 1714-1749 (St. Chad). FHL BRITISH Film 1468978 Items 3 - 5 Baptisms, marriages and burials, 1750-1848, 1893 (St. Chad). FHL BRITISH Film 1468979 Items 1 - 2

Non Conformist Records

 * 1647-1996 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index (dates may vary by parish)

Poor Law Unions
West Derby, Lancashire Poor Law Union Ormskirk Poor Law Union, Lancashire

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