Warton (near Lancaster), Lancashire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes

See A List of Chapelries in Warton Parish.



Parish History
WARTON (Holy Trinity), a parish, in the hundred of Lonsdale south of the Sands, union, and N. division of the county, of Lancaster. The parish is bouuded on the west by Morecambe bay. It includes the chapelry of Silverdale, and the townships of Borwick, Carnworth, Priest-Hutton, Yealand-Conyers, and Yealand Redmayne. St Oswald's Church (formerly Holy Trinity) is situated on the declining ground at the foot of Warton Crag, is a good ordinary building of the 16th century, and consists of a nave, aisles, chancel, and a noble tower: the interior is very light, and large; and contains some ancient monuments. It should not be confused with Warton (near Kirkham), Lancashire in the same county.

The oldest surviving architecture other than the church is the ruined rectory, built around 1267; records exist of work being carried out on the rectory until 1332. The ruins are in good condition with the gables surviving to almost their original height (around 30 ft).

Warton is the birthplace of the medieval ancestors of George Washington, the first popularly elected President of the United States. Lawrence Washington, seven generations prior to George Washington and his family, arrived in Warton around 1300, and Robert Washington, Lawrence's great-grandson, is rumoured to have help build the clock tower of St Oswald's Church. The Washington family coat of arms, three mullets and two bars, can be found in the church and is said to have inspired the design of the flag of the United States. The flag of the United States of America is displayed on the village church flag pole every July Fourth. The flag was donated to the village after US soldiers had visited the village during WWII and having returned back to the USA contacted their state senator about the birthplace of the Washington family. The donated flag was one of which had flown above the Capitol Building in Washington DC.

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
Warton St. Oswald parish registers and those registers of both of its smaller chapelries lying within its boundaries--including Yealand Conyers St Mary and to a much lesser extent--Silverdale Chapelry have been transcribed and are displayed online at the following web sites and ranges of years:

Original Records
The Lancashire Record Office at Bow Lane, Preston PR2 1RE, holds the original parish registers in its vast collections. Contact their website for contact information.

The Family History Library has microfilmed the parish registers and Bishop's transcripts of Warton (near Lancaster) parish for the years 1568-1903. These films are available for ordering/circulating and researching at any one of its satellite FamilySearch Centers worldwide.

Poor Law Unions
Lancaster 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