Winchester Cathedral, Hampshire Genealogy

Guide to Winchester Cathedral, Hampshire ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish register transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

For an extensive list of the City of Winchester churches and chapels, see "A Comprehensive List of Winchester Churches and Chapels.

Parish History
WINCHESTER Cathedral (The Holy and Undivided Trinity), a city, having separate jurisdiction, and the head of a union, locally in the hundred of Buddlesgate, Winchester and North divisions of the county of Southampton (Hampshire), of which it is the capital, 63 miles (southwest by west) from London; containing Soke liberty. The ancient parish of Winchester comprises the parishes of St. Bartholomew Hyde Street, which is partly in the Soke liberty; St. Lawrence, the mother church St. Mary Kalendar, later the church was destroyed; St. Maurice- is a rectory, to which the rectories of St. Mary Kalendar, St. Peter Colebrook, St. George, and St. Mary Wood, were united; St. Thomas; St Faith, St. John, St. Michael, St. Peter Cheesehill, St. Martin Winnall, andSt. Swithin, within the Soke liberty, containing together 3361 inhabitants. St Bartholomew Hyde Street chapel, (Hyde Abbey) is supposed to have been originally appropriated to Hyde Abbey. The Priory Chapel church, in High-street, formerly the chapel of a priory, was rebuilt by subscription. The living of St. Peter's Colebrook, the church has been destroyed, as also have those of St. George and St. Mary Wood, The living of St. Thomas' is a discharged rectory, with that of St. Clement united and which the church of St. Clement was subsequently demolished. St. Faith's was annexed to the mastership of the hospital of St. Cross, which is extra-parochial, and in the chapel of which the parishioners attended divine service, the church of St. Faith having been demolished for more than two centuries. St. John's was united to St. Peter's Southgate; The church of St. Peter's Southgate was destroyed.

There are places of worship in the city for Baptists, Independents, and Wesleyans. A Roman Catholic chapel in the later English style, dedicated to St. Peter, was erected in 1792, in St. Peter street.

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. Popular sites include:


 * FreeBMD.
 * Isle of Wight BMD

Church Records
Parish registers are available online for Winchester Cathedral and its numerous satellite chapels and ecclesiastical parishes at the following websites:

Thomas, James H. William Lowth 1660-1732 Clerical Worthy of Hampshire. Article covers history of William Lowth, and his descendants, who were Ministers of the Faith, in Farnham, Buriton cum Petersfield and Winchester. Also a little of it covers the family. Article to be found in the Hampshire Family Historian, vol. X, no4, pages 173-178, Family History Library Ref. 942.27 B2h

Non-Conformists (All other Religions)

 * 1717 England & Wales, Roman Catholics, 1717 at FindMyPast ($), index and images (coverage may vary)

Genealogy from Periodicals
Harder Albert. Kut Survivors - The King Wrote Each a Letter. William Robert Bell born 31 Aug 1899, in Winchester was sent out as a drummer boy in the 1st/4th Jampshire Regiment which went to India. On the Battalions return, he took sick in Mesoptamia, and got let behind fighting for his life at the siege of Kut December 1915-April 1916. There is a facsimilie of the letter written by the King to William Robert Bell. Obituary of W.R. Bell 1953 included. Article in The Hampshire Family Historian, vol 31, part 1, pages 7-8, Family History Library Ref 942.27 B2h

Probate Records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Hampshire 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