Braithwell, Yorkshire Genealogy

England Yorkshire Yorkshire Parishes  West Riding  Braithwell

Parish History
BRAITHWELL (St. James),a parish, partly in the union of Doncaster, and partly in that of Rotherham, S. division of the wapentake of Strafforth and Tickhill, W. riding of York; containing, with the chapelry of Bramley, 800 inhabitants, of whom 447 are in the township of Braithwell, 6½ miles (E. by N.) from Rotherham. In acknowledgment of a subscription raised here towards the ransom of Richard I., when made captive in Germany, a charter for a market and fair was granted to this place on his return from the Holy Land: the former is disused, but the latter is held on the first Wednesday in May; and a cross still remains in the centre of the village, with an inscription in Norman French, dated 1191, commemorating the event. The parish comprises 2930 acres, of which 69 are waste, and the soil is partly limestone and partly clay; in the township are 1368 acres of arable land, 502 meadow, and 7 wood. The country is high, and slightly inclines to the south-east: a great part of the township is uninclosed, and cultivated in very long slips of ground belonging to various proprietors, which gives the surface a bleak appearance in that neighbourhood; but in other portions there is a considerable quantity of wood. The inhabitants manufacture stockings of excellent quality; red-ochre is made, and lime burnt. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £7. 7. 6., and in the patronage of the Crown: all the tithes of Bramley belong to the vicar, and the impropriator of the rest of the parish is the Earl of Scarborough; the incumbent's tithes have been commuted for £351, and those of the earl for £368. The church is an ancient edifice, with a square tower; an arch, of very early style, separates the chancel from the nave. At Bramley is a chapel of ease; also a place of worship for Wesleyans. Of the several powerful springs in the parish, the chief are the Town well and Holy well.

From: Lewis, Samuel A., A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 339-343. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50822 Date accessed: 13 September 2011.

Civil Registration
Primary registration of births, marriages and deaths took place at the Doncaster registration district has been included in the online index available at Yorkshire BMD for post 1837 events; view the coverage table to check progress on the availability of index search. Marriages include


 * Church of England marriages.
 * Civil Marriages at register offices, or non-conformist churches where a registrar was required to be present at the ceremony.
 * Authorised Person marriages. These cover the non-conformist places of worship which applied to keep their own registers as a result of the Marriage Act, 1898 (bringing them into line with Jewish and Quaker marriages which had this status since 1837). In such cases an 'Authorised Person' (usually the minister or priest) recorded the ceremony instead of the registrar. Earlier weddings in these places would be included with civil marriage registers.

A secondary index of 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 however this secondary index may omit the event and may not contain the detail of the Yorkshire BMD index

Church records
To find the names of the neighbouring parishes, use England Jurisdictions 1851. In this site, search for the name of the parish, click on the location "pin", click Options and click List contiguous parishes.

This ancient parish (AP) was created before 1813. Church of England records began in 1559.

Contributor: Include here information for parish registers, Bishop’s Transcripts, nonconformist and other types of church records, such as parish chest records. Add the contact information for the office holding the original records. Add links to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection.

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Yorkshire 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
Contributor: Add any relevant sites that aren’t mentioned above.