Shotwick Park, Cheshire Genealogy

England Cheshire  Shotwick Park

Parish History
Shotwick Park was an extra-parochial place in Wirral Hundred (Grid reference SJ 3571), which became a civil parish in 1858.

Shotwick Park, being part of the estates of the earl of Chester, passed to the crown with the earldom in 1237, and in 1312 Edward II created his son, later to become Edward III, Earl of Chester. We find the Black Prince, son of Edward III, writing to the Chamberlain of Cheshire on June 26th, 1353, “Make clean and prepare my houses of Shotwick where I intend to stay and have sport in the park”. The Prince used the park not only for hunting but also, in conjunction with his other estates notably Macclesfield, for stock raising, the first known instance of the association of distant manors for this purpose. Cattle raised in Cheshire were driven to London for the households of the King and the Prince, or on occasion to provision armies in Scotland or elsewhere. Shotwick Park passed out of royal hands when Sir Thomas Wilbraham bought it from Charles II in 1677.

The old fortified manor was pulled down, and a new one, which still stands and is now called Shotwick Hall, was built by Joseph Hockenhull in 1662.

Shotwick Hall, together with the church, all the other 17th Century houses and some of the farm buildings which form the village group, is now subject to a preservation order. The Vicarage, now in private hands, is included. It was acquired by the church in 1765, being bought with Queen Anne’s Bounty. The cellars date from the 16th Century, and are said to have been used by smugglers. The remainder of the house, apart from the South wing which was added later, is 18th Century.

At the time of the Norman Conquest the manor of Shotwick belonged to the secular canons of St. Werburgh, and the Shotwick family were subordinate lords under the Abbots of Chester. During the reign of Edward I the manor came, by marriage, into the possession of the Hockenhulls of Huxley, Duddon and Tarvin. In 1715 the family made Shotwick their home until the mid 18th Century when the estate was mortgaged and sold. Joseph Hockenhull died in 1679 and is buried in the sanctuary of the church. Mr. Samuel Bennett purchased the estate and bequeathed it in 1763 to John Nevitt of Great Saughall who then assumed the name of Bennett.

It is necessary to search the eccelesiatical parish records for adjacent parish of Shotwick for persons in the Shotwick Park extra parochial place.

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
To find the names of the neighboring 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. 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. Here is a list of church records on microfilm at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.

Census records
Contributor: Include an overview if there is any unique information, such as the census for X year was destroyed. Add a link to online sites for indexes and/or images. Also add a link 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 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.

Poor Law Unions
Contributor: Add information about the pertinent poor law unions in the area.

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.