Beswick St Mary, Lancashire Genealogy

Chapelry History
BESWICK, [St Mary] an extra-parochial district, in the hundred of Salford, S. division of the county of Lancaster, 1½ mile east from Manchester. Beswick is an extra-parochial place prior to the foundation of Beswick St Mary (The Bishop Lee Memorial Church).

Search surrounding parishes for records and information (see the "Manchester" page and click on "A Comprehensive List of All Pre-1851 Manchester Parishes and Chapelries" or see the 1851 Jurisdiction Maps to find the names of all those chapels lying within Manchester's civil parish boundaries).

Beswick St Mary was established as a district chapelry in 1878 and the living was in part linked to the Bishop of Manchester.

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


 * Manchester 1837-1874
 * Prestwich 1874-1925
 * Mancester North 1925-1934
 * Heywood 1934-1974
 * Greater Manchester post 1974

Church Records
Online Records

Beswick was an extra-parochial place a mile northeast of Manchester's town centre, having two chapel districts residing within it--including Beswick Christ Church, built in 1862 and St Mary's, built by 1878. Online transcriptions exist for the baptisms, marriages and burials (where extant) registers of both chapelries as well as for the ancient parish of Manchester (Cathedral) Our Lady, St George and St Denys. Displayed below are these two chapelries and for the Cathedral located at the web sites indicated; note the ranges of years:

To view a full list of all of the chapelries and district churches in the City of Manchester, and their respective links to online transcriptions of baptisms, marriages and burials, be sure to see the ancient parish of MANCHESTER OUR LADY, ST GEORGE &amp; ST DENYS page.

Original Records

The original Parish (chapelry) registers for St. Mary's Church, Beswick, 1878-1966 have been microfilmed, taken of original records formerly held in the Manchester Central Library, Manchester. The church is also known as "Bishop Lee Memorial Church". Manchester Central Library call nos.: M 280/1/1/1-2. M 280/1/2/1-7.

Non-Conformist Churches

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

Poor Law Unions
Manchester 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
Maps are a visual look at the locations in England. Gazetteers contain brief summaries about a place.


 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Websites
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=41422 British History Online Beswick

In addition to being subject of an art work by L.S.Lowry St Mary's was featured as a location in John Schlesinger's 1962 Film "A kind of Loving" in http://www.reelstreets.com/public/p_film_page.php?film=kind_of_loving