St Hilary, Cornwall Genealogy

England   Cornwall   Cornwall Parishes



Parish History
HILARY, ST., a parish, in the union of Penzance, hundred of Penwith, W. division of Cornwall; containing 3649 inhabitants, of whom 1683 are in the market-town of Marazion. The parish is situated on the coast of Mount's Bay, and comprises 2675 acres, of which 900 are common or waste land; it abounds with mineral wealth, and the copper-mines of Marazion and Retallack are both within its limits. Other places in the parish include: Halamanning, Rosudgeon, and Rudgevean. The church is dedicated to St Hilary of Poitiers. He was Bishop of Poitiers in the 4th Century; the Church keeps his Feast day on January 13th. Though born a pagan, he was converted to Christianity through his own study of the prophets. He wrote extensively on the Arian controversy, being a staunch opponent of that heresy. His most important work was that on the Trinity. By the mid-19th century, the church had become very dilapidated, and was regarded as almost past restoration. On the night of Good Friday, 25th March 1853, most of the original church was destroyed by a disastrous fire. The whole building was burnt down; only the Tower and Spire remained

The parish of St Hilary includes the Town of Marazion and the offshore island St Michael’s Mount. Many of the older records refer to residents as being ‘of the town’ or ‘of the parish’. The term ‘of the town’ refers to the Town of Marazion, while ‘of the parish’ refers to the balance of the parish. St Michael’s Mount is usually referred to by it’s own name. The parish, excluding Marazion and St Michael’s Mount, has no centre and is made up of a number of small clusters of residences; Plain-an-Gwarry, Tregurtha, Churchtown, Trewhella, Relubbus, Hallamaning, Colenso, Millpool, Greenberry, Woodstock, Carter’s Downs, Rosudgeon, Trevean, and Prussia Cove are some of these communities.

In 1823 Marazion, Cornwall became a chapelry within the Ancient parish.It was not until 1892 that Marazion became an independent parish. The parish church was located at Churchtown, The church rites of the entire parish, (baptisms, marriages and burials) were all performed at the ‘mother church’ until 1813 when the Marazion church was awarded the ability to conduct baptisms and burials. It was not until about 1850 that the Marazion church was allowed to conduct marriages.

Civil Registration
Births, 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 Free BMD.

Church records
Overview, Include information for parish registers and Bishop's Transcripts, Contact information for the office holding the original records, Links to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection.

Images of parish registers are available online in historic records (formerly Record Search) Images refer to Cornwall County Record Office reference: P 87

Cornwall Online Parish Clerks
An extremely useful resource is the Cornwall Online Parish Clerks page for the parish http://www.cornwall-opc.org/Par_new/h_k/hilary_st.php

The history registers and much more have been contributed by the Online Parish clerk for St Hilary, Al Kline. .

Census records
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Census returns for St Issey begin with the 1841 Census FHL film number 241272.

Cornwall Online Census Project

Poor Law Unions
Penzance Poor Law Union

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to [county] 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
There are many maps and gazetteers showing English places. Valuable web sites are:


 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain