Bootle St Mary, Lancashire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes



Chapelry History
Bootle St Mary was a chapelry of Walton on the Hill St Mary, Lancashire Ancient Parish in Lancashire.The church was founded in 1827 and after wartime bombing the church was demolished.

"BOOTLE with Linacre,[St Mary; built in 1820] a township and chapelry, in the parish of Walton-on-the-Hill, union and hundred of West Derby, S. division of the county of Lancaster, 4 miles (N.) from Liverpool; containing in 1846 about 4090 inhabitants. Four thanes at the time of the Domesday survey held "Boltelai" as four manors. Afterwards the district belonged to Warin Bussel, whose daughter married Roger Fitz-Richard; and the son of the latter, Richard Fitz-Roger, founder of Lytham, left four coheiresses, through whom the lands passed into as many families. The manor subsequently was held by the Mores, and from them was purchased by the Stanleys. At this place are some works for supplying the town of Liverpool with water, from a spring which formerly discharged itself at Bootle bay, on the coast, after turning a mill within half a mile of its source. The project of bringing the water to Liverpool was suggested so early as the 8th year of Queen Anne, when Sir Cleave More, the second baronet, obtained a private act of parliament for the purpose. Anciently there were paperworks and flour-mills at Bootle; the latter were destroyed by fire some years ago. The township is beautifully situated on the shores of the Mersey, at its mouth; and comprises 837 acres of land, the property of the Earl of Derby. The soil is light and good, resting on a substratum of red sandstone, which is used for building; the beach is firm, of great extent, and much resorted to for bathing, and horse exercise. The village is well built; there are numerous elegant villas, and ranges of houses inhabited by the merchants of Liverpool, and some excellent hotels and lodging-houses with every accommodation for visiters. The expansive views of the sea, the Cheshire coast, mountains of Wales, &amp;c., are highly attractive in this quarter. Bootle Hall is the seat of William Mc Cormick, Esq. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of W. S. Miller, Esq.; net income, £250. Rent-charges amounting to £235 have been awarded as commutations for the tithes. The chapel, dedicated to St. Mary, was built in 1820, and was enlarged and a tower added in 1847; it is a cruciform structure, with a neat interior. There are places of worship for Wesleyans and Baptists; and a Roman Catholic chapel, dedicated to St. James, has been just built at a cost of £3500: it is in the early English style, with a square tower and a spire; and schools and a house for the priest are attached."

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis (published: 1848), pp. 302-305. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50812 Date accessed: 25 June 2010.

The name Bootle derives from the Anglo Saxon Bold or Botle meaning a dwelling. It was recorded as Boltelai in the Domesday Book in 1086. By 1212 the spelling had been recorded as Botle. The spellings Botull, Bothull and Bothell are recorded in the 14th century.

Bootle was originally a small hamlet built near the 'sand hills' or dunes of the river estuary. The settlement began to grow as a bathing resort for wealthy residents of Liverpool in the early 19th century. Some remaining large villas which housed well-to-do commuters to Liverpool are located in the area known locally as 'Bootle Village'.Bootle is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in England, and a 'Post town' in the L postcode area. It is close to Liverpool, but has never been a part of Liverpool. It is 4 miles (6.4 km) to the north of Liverpool city centre.

The modern parish of St Matthew Bootle with St Mary in the Bootle Team Ministry benefice in the Bootle deanery of the Diocese of Liverpool serves in place of the former parish.

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
Deposited registers are held at Liverpool Record Office. 283 BOO Title St. Mary's Church, Bootle. Date 1827 - 1956

Description Parish records. The collection comprises, Baptism registers, 1827 - 1940, Marriage registers, 1848 - 1962, Burial register, 1827 - 1956, Banns registers, 1913 - 1955, Confirmation registers, 1923 - 1947 and Service registers, 1895 - 1922. St. Mary's, parish church for Bootle, was consecrated in July 1827 and its first incumbent was a member of the Gladstone family. The 'substantial Church' was built at the expense of the '...eccentric but capable' William Spurstow Miller, described in the Directories as an Attorney of Bootle, who had also built himself a castellated house on the Bootle Shore, known as 'Millers Castle' subsequently demolished to make way for dock expansion. St. Mary's Church and churchyard were situated on Church Street, at an angle between the present Strand Road and Irlam Road, leading into Merton Road, not far from that part of the shore on which Alexandra Dock opened in 1881. The church was built with town towers, possibly as a navigational aid for shipping approaching the Mersey, but these were replaced at a later date with a spire. Early in the Second World War this spire was seriously damaged when the trailing cable from a barrage balloon became wound around it and the top of the spire dropped through the church roof. In 1940 St. Mary's was wrecked '...by enemy bombs and the resultant fires'. The congregation continued to worship in temporary accommodation and on the 20th March 1949 the Bishop of Liverpool dedicated the '..austerity parish church, the new St. Mary's, Derby Road, Bootle'. The congregation subsequently moved again to premises dedicated in 1981 and the parish is now united with that of the former parish of St. Paul's, North Shore, (St. Paul's, Kirkdale) to form the parish of St. Mary with St. Paul, Bootle (see 'Diocese of Liverpool Year Book, 1996 - 1997, page 51, number 523.).

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

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


 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Web sites
Add any relevant sites that aren’t mentioned above.

British History online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=41285 Bootle

http://www.achurchnearyou.com/bootle-st-mary/ for parish information