Great Harwood, Lancashire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes

Chapelry History
HARWOOD, GREAT, a township and chapelry, in the parish, union, and Lower division of the hundred, of Blackburn, N. division of Lancashire, 4½ miles (N. E.) from Blackburn; the township containing 2273 inhabitants. Roger de Lacy granted the manor to Richard de Fitton, by a deed without date. Richard Fitton, the fifth in descent from the original grantee, lived in the reign of Edward III., and left three coheiresses, through whom the manor, divided into three portions, came to the families of Hesketh, Nowell, and Leigh. The Heskeths purchased the Leighs' share; that of the Nowells continued in that family until alienated by the late Alexander Nowell, Esq. The chapelry comprises part of the township of Rishton, and contains 4574 acres, of which 2744 are in Great Harwood; of these, about 102 are woodland, and the remainder arable and pasture. The township of Harwood is divided into Over and Nether town: the latter had the grant of a market in 1390. Fairs for cattle are held on the 21st of August and 3rd of March. The living is a perpetual curacy, with a net income of £150, and a glebe-house; patron, the Vicar of Blackburn. The chapel, dedicated to St. Bartholomew, is an ancient edifice in the later English style, but much deformed by alterations. There are places of worship for dissenters; and a school endowed with £29 per annum.

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis (1848), pp. 431-435. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51012 Date accessed: 01 July 2010.

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
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Census records
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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
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 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Web sites
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