Rawtenstall, Lancashire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes



Chapelry History
Rawtenstall St John was created a district chapelry in 1842 from, and lying within the boundaries of Whalley, Lancashire Ancient Parish. It was in the Whalley Deanery of the Diocese of Manchester from 1847.

"RAWTENSTALL, an ecclesiastical district with a chapelry, partly in the parish of Bury, and partly in that of Whalley, union of Haslingden, Higher division of the hundred of Blackburn, N. division of Lancashire. This district is formed of part of three townships, viz. Lower Booths, Newchurch, and Coupe and Lenches with Newhall-Hey and Hall-Carr. The church, dedicated to St Mary, was built in 1837.

There are places of worship for Wesleyan Methodists and Unitarians."

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

Online Records
 Church of England 

Rawtenstall chapelry's registers of christenings, marriages and burials, along with those of the ancient parish of Whalley to which it is attached, have been mostly transcribed and are displayed online at the following web sites and ranges of years:

For a full list of all those chapels surrounding Rawtenstall and comprising the whole ancient parish of Whalley to which it was attached, be certain to see "Church Records" on the WHALLEY ST MARY PARISH page.

Poor Law Unions
Haslingden, 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
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=53018 British history Online for surrounding area