Liverpool St John, Lancashire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes

Chapelry History
St John Liverpool (Old Haymarket) was built as a chapel of ease within the civil parish boundaries of St Nicholas Liverpool. It was erected in 1784.

St John's Gardens is a memorial park in Liverpool, England, located behind St George's Hall. It takes its name from St John's Church which stood on the site from 1783 until 1887. The terraced gardens, laid out by Thomas Shelmerdine, the City Surveyor, opened in 1904. It is part of the William Brown Street conservation area.

The churchyard is a most significant place in the city's history. In the year it was completed, St John’s served one of the most crowded and poorest areas of the city. Mid-1780’s Burial records indicate the degree of abject poverty to be found locally. Nearly one-in-two of the deaths that occurred were of children whilst in only one–in-four cases were people able to fund their own, or a relative’s, funeral. One quarter of burials were of paupers, two thirds of them from the Poorhouse.

St John's churchyard was closed for burials on 11th June 1865, 82,491 bodies having been interred in the grounds. St John's Church was closed under the terms of the Liverpool City Churches Act 1897 The last Sunday service took place in St John's on 27th March 1898.

The records of this church indicate Liverpool's Black History as many entries refer either to mariners or slaves with references to Africa West indies and Guyana.

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

Church records
Online Records

Online transcriptions exist for Liverpool St John (Haymarket) Chapel registers as well as for Liverpool's ancient parish of St Nicholas' baptism, marriage and burial registers. Displayed below are those links to online data for both this chapelry and for the ancient parish of St Nicholas located in the following websites; note the ranges of years:

To view a full list for all of Liverpool Parish’s (nearly 60) chapelries, ecclesiastical churches, and district chapels, and to view online baptism, marriage and burial transcription indexes, visit the LIVERPOOL ST PETER &amp; ST NICHOLAS PARISH page.

Original Records

Liverpool St John Chapelry (parish) registers are held at the Liverpool Record Office. Deposited registers Liverpool Record Office Ref No 283 JOH Early Registers 1767 - 1812 Baptism Registers 1813 - 1898 Marriage Registers 1785 - 1898 Burial Registers 1813 - 1865 Banns Registers 1858 - 1866 Grave Register 19th century

Bishop's transcripts for St. John's Church, Liverpool Microfilm of original records at the Lancashire Record Office, Preston. Lancashire Record Office: DRL 2/131-159 These registers have also been microfilmed by FamilySearch and they are available through its 4600 FamilySearch Centers worldwide. They are available as follows:

Burials, 1773-1780. FHL BRITISH Film 1068946 Item 5 Burials, 1781-1806, baptisms, 1783-1806; marriages, 1785-1806. FHL BRITISH Film 1068947 Baptisms, marriages and burials, 1808-1819. FHL BRITISH Film 1068948 Baptisms, marriages and burials, 1820-1829. FHL BRITISH Film 1068949 Baptisms and burials, 1830-1852, marriages, 1830-1841. FHL BRITISH Film 1068950

Poor Law Unions
Liverpool, Lancashire Poor Law Union

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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