Longton, Lancashire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes



Chapelry History
Longton was created a chapel of ease from, and lying within the boundaries of 1719 from chapelry in Penwortham, Lancashire Ancient Parish.

Longton is a village of ancient origin. The Parish Church, St. Andrew's was completed in 1887 when the previous chapel of 1772 which stood nearer the main road was demolished. This stood on the site of an earlier chapel, the records of which are lost.

Although a document refers to "Eafward Priest of Longton" as early as 1153, and there is evidence of a chapel in Longton just before the reformation in 1517,when William Walton endowed a chantry at the chapel, there is no evidence that it stood on or near the site of the present parish church. No archaeological evidence has ever been found on the current site, and the dedication of the early chapel is unknown.

During the middle ages, Longton was farmed by the monastic community of Penwortham Priory tended their lands here. It was no doubt the monks who established the first chapel here. Many mediaeval documents survive which are mostly concerning rents paid to the Shireburn Family of Stonyhurst. An old source mentions a meadow called "Tirolkar" which bears a remarkable resemblance to the "Hallcar" of today

The Diocese of Blackburn is a Church of England diocese, covering much of Lancashire, created in 1926 from part of the Diocese of Manchester. The Diocese includes the towns of Blackburn, Blackpool, Burnley, and the cities of Lancaster, and Preston, as well as a large part of the Ribble Valley.

"LONGTON, a chapelry, in the parish of Penwortham, union of Preston, hundred of Leyland, N. division of Lancashire, 5 miles southwest by west from Preston. The chapel was in existence in 1650, and, having fallen into decay, was rebuilt in 1770, by a brief, dated in 1767, amounting to £1026.

There is a place of worship for Wesleyans."

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. Online index of Lancashire Births, Marriages and Deaths Lancashire BMD

Lancashire Online Parish Clerks
An extremely useful resource for research in Lancashire Parishes http://www.lan-opc.org.uk/

Online Records
 Church of England 

Longton chapelry's registers of christenings, marriages and burials, along with those of the ancient parish of Penwortham to which it is attached, have been mostly transcribed and are displayed online at the following web sites and ranges of years:

For a full list of all those chapels surrounding Longton and comprising the whole ancient parish of Penwortham to which it was attached, be certain to see "Church Records" on the PENWORTHAM ST MARY PARISH page.

Poor Law Unions
Preston 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
 * Vision of Britain