Congleton St Stephen, Cheshire Genealogy

England Cheshire  Cheshire Parishes  Congleton St Stephen

Guide to Congleton St Stephen, Cheshire ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
CONGLETON, is an incorporated market-town, a chapelry, and the head of a union, in the parish of Astbury, having a separate jurisdiction, locally in the hundred of Northwich, S. division of the county of Chester. The chapel, dedicated to St. Peter. At Congleton Moss, a church was dedicated to the Holy Trinity it was erected in 1845. Two districts or ecclesiastical parishes have been formed under Sir Robert Peel's act: in the one, St. Stephen's district, a chapel has been purchased from the dissenters, in the other, St. James', a church. There are places of worship for Independents, Primitive Methodists, Wesleyans, Unitarians, and Roman Catholics.

Congleton St Stephen was formed as separate parish (a chapelry) in 1845 from Congleton St Peter and formed at similar period to St James.

St. Stephen's church consists of nave, chancel, aisles, bell-turret, and vestry, in the early decorated style, and was built in 1860.

Other closely associated chapelries to St Stephen's and also lying within Astbury ancient parish included the chapelries of Congleton St Peter and St James, Mossley Holy Trinity, Buglawton, Rode, Smallwood, and Somerford; together with several places of worship for dissenters, in the parish.

Church Records
Congleton St Stephen chapelry registers of christenings, marriages and burials have been indexed by the following groups:

Title Parish registers of St. Stephen's Church, Congleton, 1844-1958 An index for Cheshire parish registers is available online in Record Search

St. Stephen's Church is one of three chapelries in Congleton township. The township is in Astbury Ancient parish. Cheshire Record Office call number: P 232/1/2.

Non-Conformist Churches
Refer to Congleton St Peter page.

Non-Conformist Record:

Civil Registration
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from 1 July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. Here are two excellent Internet sites with birth, marriage and death indexes available:


 * FreeBMD
 * Cheshire BMD

Registration Districts

 * Congleton (1837–1937)
 * Macclesfield (1937–74)
 * Congleton and Crewe (1974–88)
 * South Cheshire (1988–98)
 * Cheshire East (post 1998)

Poor Law Unions

 * Congleton

Probate Records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Cheshire Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

see also England Cheshire Probate Records (FamilySearch Historical Records)