Withington St Paul, Lancashire Genealogy

History
Withington St Paul was a chapelry within Manchester Our Lady, St George and St Denys, Lancashire Ancient Parish until established as an Ecclesiatical parish from the chapelry construction in 1841. The chapelry had been built as a result of the rapid population growth of the South Manchester area and the inability of Didsbury, Lancashire to meet the needs of the ordinary folk of the Area. St Paul became the the chapel and later parish for the working people of the District, Didsbury the church for the wealthier classes.

In the early 13th century, Withington occupied a feudal estate that included the townships of Withington, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Moss Side, Rusholme, Burnage, Denton and Haughton, held by the Hathersage, Longford and Tatton families, and within the Manor of Manchester and Hundred of Salford in historic county boundaries of Lancashire.

Withington was largely rural until the mid-nineteenth century, in which it experienced rapid socioeconomic development and urbanisation due to the Industrial Revolution, and Manchester's growing level of industrialisation. Introduced into the inner boundaries of Manchester in 1904, Withington was integrated into the city forty-five years after it gained city status.

The composer Jacob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy sent a letter from Eltville House Withington Manchester to a certain R Andrews. This letter, regretting that the composer could not meet Mr Andrews for lack of time, is preserved in the Gertude Clarke Whittall Foundation Mendelssohn Collection in the Music Division of the Library of Congress in Washington DC, along with a handwritten essay dating from 1902 by Professor William T Freemantle, describing in some detail the composer’s stay in Manchester in April 1847.

‘Lack of time’ is something of an understatement ! Mendelssohn, then Director of Music for the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig, was on his tenth visit to England, with his oratorio Elijah which had had its inaugural performance in Birmingham the previous year. Between 12 April and 8 May 1847 he conducted it six times, first in London at Exeter Hall in the Strand, then in Manchester with the Hargreaves Choral Society in the Free Trade Hall (on 20 April), back to London, Birmingham and finally London again. What is more, in between, he reportedly performed at a variety of other venues both formal and informal, and twice visited Buckingham Palace where he was a great favourite, having several times previously entertained the young Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

Mendelssohn is said to have played the chapelry organ of St Paul in a report from the earliest informal history of the church (written by churchwarden John Kay in 1896) that Dr Mendelssohn ‘played a service and gave a recital upon the organ and it was pronounced by him to be an excellent instrument.’

Despite its title, Eltville House was in fact named after a village which is still to be found in Germany, on the north bank of the Rhine between Bingen and Mainz. On his visits to Manchester inJuly 1842 and 17-20 June 1844, Mendelssohn had also stayed there, on the borders of what we now know as part of Didsbury, as a guest of a member of his wife Cecilia’s family, John Souchay.

Manchester in the middle of the 19th century was developing so many industrial and cultural links that it came to be nicknamed ‘the German city’. The Souchays, a Huguenot family, had commercial interests in both Frankfurt and Manchester. Charles (Carl) Souchay (1799-1872), who lived at Withington House, is buried in the churchyard of St Paul's together with his wife Adelheid (Adelaide) (1809-90). Both they and John were benefactors of St Paul’s church school and their daughter Juliet was married in the church in 1864 to Robert Lucius von Ballhausen, a Catholic who would later be a minister in Bismarck’s government.

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 Free BMD.

Online index of Lancashire Births, Marriages and Deaths Lancashire BMD

Church records
Include here information for parish registers, Bishop's Transcripts 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

Parish registers for Withington, 1841-1992 Microfilm of original records formerly held at the Manchester Archives Central Library in Manchester, England. Withington was a township and a chapelry in Manchester parish. The church was known as St. Paul's. Manchester Archives Central Library call nos.: M 650.

The Manchester Room and Greater Manchester County Record Office Email: archiveslocalstudies@manchester.gov.uk

The Manchester Room@City Library (Local Studies) Withington- St Paul Baptisms-1841-1934- MFPR 2060 Baptisms-1934-1976- Archives M650 Burials-1842-1916- MFPR 2062 Burials-1916-1992- MFPR 2063 Marriages-1850-1918- MFPR 2060 Marriages-1918-1952- MFPR 2062 Marriages-1952-1983- Archives M650

Bishop's transcripts for Withington, 1842-1847 Microreproduction of original manuscripts housed at the Lancashire Record Office, Preston. Withington is a township and chapelry in the parish of Manchester. The church is St. Paul's. Lancashire Record Office: DRM/2/220a

Poor Law Unions
Chorlton Poor Law Union,Lancashire

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Lancashire 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 Withington was within the Manchester Our Lady, St George and St Denys, Lancashire Ancient Parish in 1851 when the chapelry was dependent upon Didsbury, Lancashire.

The Collegiate Church of Manchester had authorised the chapelry building but it was not granted parish status.

Web sites
Add any relevant sites that aren't mentioned above.

http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=41425&amp;strquery=withington British History online

http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=41434 British History online

http://www.manchester.anglican.org/churches/manchester-archdeaconry/withington Diocese of Manchester