Urswick, Lancashire Genealogy

England Lancashire  Lancashire Parishes

Parish History
Urswick St Mary and St Michael is an Ancient Parish in the county of Lancashire.

Other places in the parish include: Adgarley, Bardsea, Birkrig Common, Stainton, Great Urswick, Little Urswick, and Bolton with Adgarley.

A number of explanations have been suggested for Urswick's name. The '-wick' element is perhaps from the Old English wic meaning 'farm' or 'trading centre', an element commonly found in settlements on or near Roman roads (see below). It has been suggested that the first element may mean 'bison lake' from Old English ur + sǣ. However, an alternative explanation has been proposed which incorporates the first definite historical reference to the ancient estate that incorporated the present Urswick villages - Chiluestreuic - from the Domesday survey.

The name 'Great Urswick' originated as 'Much Urswick', not because of its size but because of its association with Michael le Fleming. The village was an original part of Michael's lands, granted to him before 1111 by Henry I, whilst Little Urswick belonged to Stephen of Blois and later Furness Abbey. The name 'Much Urswick', meaning 'Michael's Urswick', was used to differentiate between the lands of Michael and Furness Abbey.

The villages of Great Urswick and Little Urswick, together called Urswick, are located in the Furness peninsula in Cumbria since 1974 (historically in Lancashire). They are situated to the south-west of the town of Ulverston.

Great Urswick is situated along the north and west sides of Urswick Tarn.

URSWICK (St. Mary [1608]), a parish, in the union of Ulverston, hundred of Lonsdale north of the Sands, N. division of the county of Lancaster, 3 miles (S. W. by S.) from Ulverston; containing, with the hamlet of Little Urswick, 761 inhabitants. The parish comprises 3540 acres, of which 609 are common or waste. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £7. 17. 6.; net income, £86; patrons, the Landowners. The church, which was repewed in 1826, is situated between the villages of Great and Little Urswick. At Bolton are the remains of an ancient chapel, in the immediate vicinity of which several Roman coins have been discovered, also a brass tripod.

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis (1848), pp. 424-428. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51365 Date accessed: 02 August 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.

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Web sites
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