Liverpool St Thomas, Lancashire Genealogy

England   Lancashire   Lancashire Parishes

Chapelry History
Liverpool St Thomas Park Lane was created a chapel of ease in 1750 from and lying within the boundaries of Liverpool St Peter and St Nicholas ecclesiastical parish.

The area to the South and East of the Old Dock of Liverpool and ws built to serve the needs of the families who lived nearby and who worked in the dock. The area rapidly changed and as the residents began to become largely Roman Catholic, the Dioces was forced to consider closure.

In 1885 St. Thomas' churchyard was closed and part used for street improvement, the remainder to be laid out as ornamental gardens. (See Inscriptions of gravestones removed at Liverpool Record office Ref No. 352 CEM 1/17/1).

By 1900 sixty five per cent of the population of the parish was estimated to be Roman Catholic and in 1903 The Bishop of Liverpool's Commission to enquire into the spiritual needs of the Diocese recommended the closure of St. Thomas' Church. The Liverpool and Wigan Churches Act, 1904 confirmed this recommendation and the church was closed on 31 December 1905. The parish was absorbed into that of St. Michael, Upper Pitt Street.

"The church dedicated to St. Thomas, in Parklane, built under the authority of an act passed in the 21st of George II., and consecrated in 1750, is a handsome edifice in the Grecian style, with a tower formerly surmounted by a very lofty spire, which was taken down in 1822, and replaced subsequently by a new steeple. The living is in the patronage of Trustees; income for the chaplain, £220, exclusively of £80 from pew-rents and £39 from Queen Anne's Bounty; income for lecturer, £165, exclusively of £45 from pew-rents. This chapel stood within the civil parish of St Peter and Nicholas Liverpool."

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis (1848), pp. 104-118. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51112 Date accessed: 19 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.

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/

Transcripts for this parish are available.

Church records
Contributor: Include here information for parish registers, Bishop’s Transcripts, non conformist 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.

http://www.1881pubs.com/ for details of public houses in the 1881 census

Poor Law Unions
Liverpool, Lancashire Poor Law Union

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

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