Congleton St James,Cheshire

England Cheshire  Cheshire Parishes  Congleton St James

Guide to Congleton St James, Cheshire family history and genealogy: parish registers (baptism, christening, marriage, and burial records), civil registration (birth, marriage, and death records), census records, history, wills, cemetery, online transcriptions and indexes, an interactive map and websites.

Parish History
CONGLETON, is an incorporated market-town, a chapelry, and the head of a union, in the parish of Astbury, it is locally in the hundred of Northwich, S. division of the county of Chester. The chapel, dedicated to St. Peter. At Congleton Moss, a church was dedicated to the Holy Trinity it was erected in 1845. Two districts or ecclesiastical parishes have been formed under Sir Robert Peel's act: in the one, St. Stephen's district, a chapel has been purchased from the dissenters, in the other, St. James', a church. There are places of worship for Independents, Primitive Methodists, Wesleyans, Unitarians, and Roman Catholics.

Congleton St James was formed in 1847 from Congleton St Peter,Cheshire and the earlier Ancient parish of  Astbury, Cheshire.

In 1847 the district of Astbury contained a population of three thousand four hundred. Under an act known as ‘Sir Robert Peel’s Church Extension Act’, which was designed to make better provision for the spiritual care of populous parishes, the church of St. James was born.

The Church consists of Nave, Side Aisles and Chancel, with a porch at the northern end and a bell-cot surmounting the western end of the Nave roof. Other closely associated chapelries also lying within Astbury ancient parish included the chapelries of Congleton St Peter and St Stephen's, Mossley Holy Trinity, Buglawton, Rode, Smallwood, and Somerford; together with several places of worship for dissenters, in the parish.

Church Records
Congleton St James parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials have been indexed by the following groups:

Parish registers for St. James, Congleton, Cheshire, 1844-1957

An index for Cheshire parish registers is available online at FamilySearch Historical Records(formerly Record Search)

Cheshire Record Office number: P210/1/1-5, 2/1-5, P210/5142/1, P210/5273/1-5.

Non-Conformist Churches
Non-Conformist Records:

Civil Registration
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from 1 July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. Here are two excellent Internet sites with birth, marriage a nd death indexes available:


 * FreeBMD
 * Cheshire BMD

Registration Districts

 * Congleton

Poor Law Unions

 * Congleton Poor Law Union, Cheshire

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.