Yarm, Yorkshire Genealogy

England Yorkshire  North Riding  Yarm



Parish History
Yarm was a chapelry of Kirk Levington Ancient Parish in Yorkshire. St Mary Magdalene is the third church to occupy the site and a Georgian replacement for the Norman Church destroyed by fire. Nothing remains of the wooden Saxon predecessor.

The parish comprises 1135a. 1r. 35p., of which 510 acres are arable, 536 meadow and pasture, 50 woodland and plantations, and the remainder gardens, sites for building, roads, water, and waste. The surface is varied, and in many parts of pleasing character. The soil is generally a strong loam, well adapted for wheat and beans, and the meadows and pastures are luxuriantly rich; clay of good quality for bricks is abundant. The Friarage, a handsome mansion belonging to Mr. Meynell, occupies the site of a convent for Black friars, founded by Peter de Brus, who died in 1240. It is beautifully situated on the bank of the Tees, along which the grounds extend for nearly a mile, tastefully laid out, and embellished with a stately avenue of elms leading to the mansion, in which is a Roman Catholic chapel. The living is a perpetual curacy; net income, £210; patron and appropriator, the Archbishop of York, whose tithes have been commuted for £265. 10.: the glebe comprises about two acres, with a house and cottage. The church, situated by the river and on the west side of the town, was built, with the exception of the tower, which is ancient, on the site of a church destroyed by fire in 1730. It is a neat edifice, but ill according in its style with the tower, which is a beautiful specimen of Norman architecture. The interior consists of a nave, aisles, and chancel; the east window is embellished with a full length figure of Moses delivering the Law from Mount Sinai, finely executed in stained glass, and presented to the church by the late William Chaloner, Esq. There are places of worship for the Society of Friends, Independents, Warrenites, Primitive Methodists, and Wesleyans.

From: 'Yaddlethorpe - Yazor', A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 707-716. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51436 Date accessed: 27 March 2011.

In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Yarm like this:

YARM, a small town, a parish, and a sub-district, in the district of Stockton and N. R. Yorkshire. The town stands on the river Tees and on the Northallerton and Stockton railway, 4½ miles SSW of Stockton; occupies low ground, subject to inundation by the river; had a black friary, founded in the early part of the 13th century, and now giving name to the seat of E. Meynell, Esq., on its site; rose to some consequence as a place of trade and commerce, but declined on account of its proximity to Stockton; possesses many granaries and warehouses, erected for its commerce, and now chiefly unoccupied; still carries on exportation of agricultural produce, and partakes with Stockton in the salmon-fishery of the Tees; is a seat of petty-sessions; consists chiefly of one long spacious street; is flanked, nearly along its entire length, by a railway viaduct of 43 arches; and has a head post-office,a r. station, a banking office, a good inn, a police station, a town hall and market place, a stone bridge partly of the year 1400, a church rebuilt in 1730, three dissenting chapels, a handsome Roman Catholic chapel of 1860, an endowed grammar-school with £21 a year, a national school, an infant school, a mechanics' institute, charities £37, a paper mill, and four annual fairs.—The parish comprises 1,135 acres. Real property, £4,907; of which £24 are in gasworks. Pop. in 1851, 1,647; in 1861, 1,401. Houses, 353. The decrease of pop. arose from removal of labourers employed in railway works. The manor belongs to E. Meynell, Esq. The living is a rectory in the diocese of York. Value £300. Patron, the Archbishop of York.—The sub-district contains 6 parishes and 2 parts. Acres, 33,842. Pop., 25,079. Houses, 4,420.

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 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 date. 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.

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.

Poor Law Unions
Stockton Poor Law Union, Durham

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.