Wanlip, Leicestershire Genealogy

Guide to Wanlip, Leicestershire ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Parish History
WANLIP (St. Nicholas), a parish, in the union of Barrow-upon-Soar, hundred of West Goscote, N.division of the county of Leicester, 3¼ miles (S. E.by S.) from Mountsorrel.

One of the earliest mentions of Wanlip is in the Domesday book, where it is listed as Anelepe, among the lands given to Earl Aubrey by the King. The land described includes a mill. The Earl's son Aubrey de Vere II went on to become Lord Chancellor.

William Wilberforce, the 19th century MP and leading abolitionist, lived for some years at Wanlip Hall. The grave of a young Abyssinian named Rasselas Morjan lies in the churchyard of Our Lady and St. Nicholas; he died "at Wanlip Hall, August 25th, 1839, in the 19th year of his age, rescued from a state of slavery".

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

WANLIP--originally Onelip--a parish in Barrow- upon-Soar district, Leicester; on the river Soar, 1½ mile W of Syston r. station.

The Baronetcy at Wanlip has been held by the Palmer family since 1791.[11] Charles Palmer-Tomkinson, father of socialite Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, is a major landowner in Wanlip and Birstall, responsible for the Hallam Fields development in neighbouring Birstall, Leicestershire.

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
Wanlip parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

To find the names of the neighboring parishes, use England Jurisdictions 1851 Map. In this site, search for the name of the parish, click on the location "pin", click Options and click List contiguous parishes.

Records are also available at the Leicestershire Record Office.

Poor Law Unions
Barrow upon Soar Poor Law Union, Leicestershire

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