Shotwick, Cheshire Genealogy

England Cheshire  Shotwick

Parish History
St Michael's Church, Shotwick is in the village of Shotwick, Cheshire, England (grid reference SJ336717). It is a Grade I listed building. It has a Norman doorway but most of the church dates from the medieval period. Its furniture includes some ancient items. In the churchyard are a number of structures which have been listed as grade II. The church is in the diocese of Chester, the archdeaconry of Chester and the deanery of Wirral South. Its benefice is combined with that of St Nicholas, Burton.

Shotwick is a tiny agricultural village of only fifteen houses and a small seventeenth century manor house situated on the Wirral peninsula, some eight miles from the Roman city of Chester in the North West of England.

St. Michael’s is a medieval double aisled church with largely eighteenth century furniture including box pews and a three decker pulpit. It stands on the site of a former ford across the River Dee which forms the border with Wales.The Saxon church, which was most likely a wooden structure, would have either perished, or disappeared in the general rebuilding of churches that followed the Conquest. What is certain is that when the Domesday Book was compiled, a church existed at “Soto-wiche”, belonging to the secular canons of St. Werburgh. This church had probably been established about 100 years before.

The Norman Church, which supplanted the Saxon one about the beginning of the 12th Century, consisted simply of a nave and chancel without aisles. The Norman arch of the South doorway is part of this first building, and is the oldest part of the present church, the chancel doorway being added later.

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.

Shotwick, St. Michael and All Angels (C of E). An ancient parish church, originally serving the townships of Capenhurst, Great Saughall, Little Saughall, Shotwick and Woodbank. Registers of Baptisms 1681–1991, Marriages 1681–1992 and Burials 1681–1992 have been deposited at the Cheshire Record Office, where Bishop's Transcripts survive from 1591.

The Parish registers Parish registers for Shotwick, 1681-1992 Microfilm of original records in the Cheshire Record Office, Chester, England. Cheshire Record Office call no.: P49/1/1-3, 2, P49/4832/1-3, P49/3/1-3, P49/5/1-2

The Bishop's Transcripts are on Microfilm as follows:

The Cheshire, Church of England christening and marriage records are available online in Record Search.

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.