St Helens, Lancashire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes

Parish History
QUERNMOOR, a township, in the parish of Lancaster, hundred of Lonsdale south of the Sands, N. division of Lancashire, 3¼ miles (S. E.) from Lancaster; containing 556 inhabitants. The ancient limits of the forest of Quernmoor comprised the whole of the township, and perhaps even extended into the township of Bulk. Parts of the forest were inclosed by Edmund, brother of Edward I.; and it now comprises 3000 acres of inclosed land, in addition to extensive wastes. The perambulation of the forest within the borough jurisdiction, by the corporation of Lancaster, was latterly repeated every seven years, and continued until 1809. In 1811 an act for the inclosure of the remainder of the forest was obtained, and from that time the perambulation has been confined to the limits of the borough proper. Gray's prospect of Lunedale, as described in his works, was taken at Queen's road; where is an ancient well, which tradition represents to have been visited by a queen of England. From a higher station is a view of an isthmus fringed by tall trees, the site of an ancient hermitage. The park of the Hon. Mr. Clifford, mentioned by the poet, and the old Hall, were purchased by Charles Gibson, Esq., from Lord Clifford; and the present mansion of Quernmoor Park was built by Mr. Gibson, about sixty years ago, of variegated freestone from the adjacent moor. The stone here is full of those hard flinty particles that constitute what is called "hunger-stone;" small millstones or querns were formerly made of it, and it is probable that Quernmoor derived its name from the aptitude of the stone for this purpose, an opinion strengthened by the discovery of several ancient millstones in the neighbourhood. A church was erected in 1833, and dedicated to St. Peter; it contains 300 sittings, half of which are free. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the gift of the Vicar of Lancaster, with a net income of £100. There is a small national school. Many natural curiosities are met with here, including specimens of petrified moss, and remarkably fine septaria. Remains of a Roman pottery were found in the park some years ago, when a variety of bricks, tiles, and ancient vessels were taken from the ovens: a tile with elevated edges, and many of the bricks, bore the inscription ala sebusia, which designates a wing of Roman cavalry not before known. These antiquities are supposed to be of the time of the Emperor Severus.

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel LEwis (1848), pp. 623-627. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51227 Date accessed: 20 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
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Web sites
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