Bretherton, Lancashire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes



Chapelry History
Bretherton St John was created a chapelry in 1843, taken from and lying within the boundaries of Croston, Lancashire Ancient Parish.

Bretherton derives from either the Old English brothor and tun or Norse brothir and means "farmstead of the brothers". It was first recorded in documents in 1190. Bretherton has been variously recorded as Bretherton in 1242, Brotherton occurs in 1292, Bertherton in 1292 and Thorp was mentioned in 1212.

Bretherton was a township in the parish of Croston in the Leyland hundred. It became part of the Chorley Poor Law Union, formed in 1837, and took responsibility for the administration and funding of the Poor Law in that area. Bretherton is part of Chorley Borough's Lostock ward and has a parish council. A record of a chapel is mentioned in a charter of 1344 but nothing else is known. The Anglican Commissioners' Church of St. John the Baptist was consecrated in 1840. It is built in the Early English Gothic style.

"BRETHERTON, a township and ecclesiastical district [as of 1841], in the parish of Croston, union of Chorley, hundred of Leyland, N. division of the county of Lancaster, 10 miles (N. N. E.) from Ormskirk; containing 833 inhabitants. This place was the manorial residence of the Banastres or Banisters, previously to the reign of Edward III.; and a Thomas Banastre, who is conjectured to have been of this family, was beheaded in the reign of Edward II. by Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, for his active opposition to that powerful and factious baron. The township comprises 2292 statute acres, of which 816 are arable land, 618 meadow, 732 pasture, 13 woodland, and 113 acres gardens, &amp;c.; the surface is rather flat, and the soil a stiff clay, marsh, loam, and hazel. The river Lostock bounds the township; the rivers Douglas and Yarrow meet here, and run into the Ribble about a mile distant: here is also a branch of the Leeds and Liverpool canal, and the Liverpool and Preston turnpike-road runs across the township from Bank bridge to Cara-House bridge. Bank Hall, the seat of George Anthony Legh Keck, Esq., was built in 1608, and restored in the Elizabethan style, in 1832. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Rector of Croston; net income, £150, with a house erected in 1847. The tithes have been commuted for £325, payable to the rector of Chorley, and £45 to the rector of Croston. The church, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, was consecrated on the 26th of June, 1840; it is in the early English style, and cost £1260. There are places of worship for Wesleyans and Independents. A free school was built in 1654, at the expense of James Fletcher, who endowed it with £230, to which various donations have been added."

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis (1848), pp. 357-362. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50827 Date accessed: 25 June 2010.

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/

Church records
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Census records
http://www.1881pubs.com/ for details of public houses in the 1881 census

Poor Law Unions
Chorley Poor Law Union, Lancashire Preston 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
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 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Web sites
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