Wonersh, Surrey Genealogy

England   Surrey   Surrey Parishes

Parish History
WONERSH (St. John the Baptist), a parish, in the union of Hambledon, First division of the hundred of Blackheath, W. division of Surrey, 3 miles (S. S. E.) from Guildford; containing 1213 inhabitants. This parish is situated on the road from Guildford to Brighton, and comprises 4388 acres, of which 2495 are arable, 585 meadow, 507 wood, and the rest common. The surface is hilly towards the eastern boundary, and flat in the opposite direction; the soil is partly clay, but the larger portion of it sand: ironstone abounds. The Wey and Arun canal passes through the parish. In the village is a mill for dressing leather, which affords employment to forty persons. Charles II. granted a market and fair to be kept at Shimley-Green, in the parish; the former has fallen into disuse, and the latter dwindled to a small pleasure-fair held on the 11th of June. The manor-house of Tangley, originally a hunting-box of King John's, was in 1585 converted into a residence for the family of Sir Francis Duncombe. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £15. 1. 3., and in the patronage of Lord Grantley, the impropriator: the great tithes have been commuted for £700, and those of the vicar for £176. 13. The church, with the exception of the tower and north wall, was rebuilt in 1795, and is picturesquely situated in Wonersh Park, his lordship's seat: at the east end of the north aisle is the family vault, in which is interred Judge Chappie, whose daughter married Sir Fletcher Norton, speaker of the house of commons for 12 years, and raised to the peerage in 1782, by the title of Lord Grantley, Baron of Markenfield. There are two places of worship for Independents.

From: Samuel A. Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 649-652. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51423 Date accessed: 14 April 2011.

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.

Church 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 Surrey 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
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 * England Jurisdictions 1851
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Web sites
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