Walsall St Matthew, Staffordshire Genealogy

England Staffordshire



Parish History
Walsall St Matthew is an Ancient Parish and a market town in the county of Staffordshire. Other places in the parish include: Bridge Ward, St George Ward, Walsall Borough, Walsall Foreign, and Windmill.

The living is a vicarage, valued in the king's books at £10. 19. 7.; patron, the Earl of Bradford, who, with Col. Walhouse, is impropriator. The great tithes have been commuted for £445, and the small for £299: the vicar has a glebe of 33 acres. The church, an ancient and spacious cruciform structure, with several chapels in the aisles, was, with the exception of the tower and chancel, which latter has undergone several alterations, taken down and rebuilt in the later English style, in 1821, at an expense of £20,000. It occupies a commanding situation on the summit of the rock on which the town is built; and the tower, which is in fine proportion, and surmounted by a lofty spire, forms a conspicuous object in the distant view of Walsall. St. Paul's chapel, a handsome edifice in the Grecian style, was erected by the governors of the grammar school, who, having sold some mines under part of the land belonging to that establishment, in 1797, obtained an act of parliament for applying part of the purchase money to the erection of the chapel, which was completed in 1826. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the governors, who appoint the head master of the school to the office of minister; net income, £50.

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 444-449. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51372 Date accessed: 03 April 2011.

Walsall St Paul was formed as a district church in 1875 (see records below) subsequently deconsecrated it forms part of the Crossing Shopping Centre.



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.

See West Midlands BMD and Staffordshire BMD

Church records
Walsall St Matthew Ancient Parish

Deposited parish registers at Staffordshire Record Office Bap 1646-1965 Mar 1663-1982 Bur 1662-1678, 1737-1985 Lichfield Record Office holdings of Bishop's Transcripts Bap 1673-1858 Mar 1673-1847 Bur 1673-1858 missing transcripts 1831/1835 all events

Walsall St Paul was formed 1875 from part of this parish

Deposited parish registers at Staffordshire Record Office Bap 1874-1951 Mar 1875-1992 Bur no burial ground Lichfield Record Office holdings of Bishop's Transcripts none held

Contributor: Include here information for parish registers, Bishop’s Transcripts and other types of church records, such as parish chest records. Add the contact information for the office holding the original records. Add links to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection

Census records
Contributor: Include an overview if there is any unique information, such as the census for X year was destroyed. Add a link to online sites for indexes and/or images. Also add a link to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection.

Poor Law Unions
Walsall Poor Law Union, Staffordshire

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

Web sites
Contributor: add any relevant sites that aren’t mentioned above.