Over Kellet, Lancashire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes

Chapelry History
KELLET, OVER, a chapelry, in the parish of Bolton-le-Sands, hundred of Lonsdale south of the Sands, N. division of Lancashire, 6¼ miles (N. N. E.) from Lancaster, to the right of the road to Kendal; containing 508 inhabitants. This is the Chellet of the Domesday survey, and was early a possession of a family named Kellet, whose heiress married Sir Thurstan de Holland. At the erection of the duchy of Lancaster, the manor was held in moieties by Roger de Crofte and Ranulph de Dacres; the Otways, and subsequently the Martons, became proprietors, the latter by purchase in the beginning of the last century. The chapelry comprises about 850 acres, whereof two-thirds are arable, and the remainder meadow, with some small plantations; the surface is mountainous, and commands extensive views, including Morecombe bay and the Furness and Lake districts. Limestone of excellent quality abounds, and there are also good freestone and gritstone. Fairs for cattle are held on May-day and Michaelmas-day. The Lancaster canal runs through, and the Carnforth station on the Lancaster and Carlisle railway is not more than two miles distant. Swarthdale House, here, is the seat of James Clarke, Esq., son of the late venerable recorder of Liverpool. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of John Walmsley, Esq., of Richmond House, Lancaster; net income, £170, with a house. The chapel, dedicated to St. Cuthbert, stands in a quiet spot above the village: in the chapelyard are two small crosses, partly sunk beneath the soil, which are considered to prove the existence of the chapel anterior to the Reformation. A school was endowed in 1802, with an annuity of £11, by Thomas Wilson, and this endowment having been subsequently augmented, the income is now about £40 per annum.

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis (1848), pp. 643-646. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51069 Date accessed: 01 July 2010.

Civil Registration
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Church records
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Census records
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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.

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Web sites
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