The Cathedral Church of St Mary the Virgin, Lancashire, England Genealogy
Guide to The Cathedral Church of Blackburn St Mary the Virgin, Lancashire ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish register transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.
Here is a Comprehensive List of Chapels in Blackburn St Mary Parish. View this updated list of chapelries (which held baptismal and burial registers and which subdivided this ancient parish) before researching in this large parish.
| The Cathedral Church of St Mary the Virgin | |
| Type | Ancient Parish |
| Civil Jurisdictions | |
| County | Lancashire |
| Hundred | Blackburn |
| Poor Law Union | Blackburn |
| Registration District | Blackburn; Preston |
| Records Begin | |
| Parish registers | 1569 |
| Bishop's Transcripts | 1606 |
| Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions | |
| Rural Deanery | Blackburn |
| Diocese | Manchester |
| Probate Court | Court of the Bishop of Chester (Episcopal Consistory) |
| Archive | |
| Lancashire Record Office | |
Parish History
BLACKBURN (St Mary), a parish, fourteen miles in length and ten in breadth, was formerly part of Whalley Parish. Blackburn is the head of a union, in the Lower division of the hundred of Blackburn, N. division of the County of Lancaster; comprising the market-town and newly-enfranchised borough of Blackburn, which includes the chapelries of Balderston, Billington-Langho, Brownhill, Over Darwen, Salesbury, Samlesbury, and Tockholes, and the townships of Clayton-leDale, Cuerdale, Lower Darwen, Dinkley, Eccleshill, Great and Little Harwood, Livesey, Mellor, Osbaldeston, Pleasington, Ramsgrave, Rishton, Walton-le-Dale, Wilpshire, and Witton, 31 miles southeast by south from Lancaster.[1]
Researchers may view a Comprehensive List of Chapels in Blackburn St Mary Parish. A chapel also dedicated to St Clement has been erected; and the Vicar likewise presents to the incumbencies of Balderstone, Bamber-Bridge, Billington-Langho, Lower and Over Darwen, Feniscowles, Great Harwood, Mellor, Mellor-Brook, Salesbury, Samlesbury, Tockholes, Walton, and Witton. In the town are places of worship for Baptists, the Society of Friends, Independents, Wesleyans, Primitive Methodists, and Warrenites, also a Scottish kirk and a Roman Catholic chapel; and in the rural parts of the parish are various other meeting-houses for different denominations. The union of Blackburn comprises the entire parish, with the exception of the townships of Cuerdale, Samlesbury, and Walton, which are in the union of Preston; together with four townships of the parish of Whalley.
Blackburn Cathedral
With the creation of the Diocese of Blackburn in 1926 (taken from the Diocese of Manchester) the impressive parish church of St Mary the Virgin was raised to cathedral status. The church, which was built in 1826 and designed by architect John Palmer, now forms the cathedral's nave.
In the early 1930s, fundraising began to enlarge the cathedral so that the building complemented its newfound importance. By 1938, enough money had been raised and work began on enlarging the new cathedral. Although work was interrupted by the war, it was resumed afterwards and continued through the 1950s and into the early 1960s. After the death of architect W.A. Forsyth in 1950, architect Laurence King joined the project and designed the distinctive lantern tower. The lantern tower, which consists of 56 different panes of coloured glass and an aluminium spire, was completed in 1967.
The cathedral was finally completed in 1977 and what had been built over the past decades was finally consecrated as Blackburn Cathedral.
The North transept contains eight misericords dating from the 15th century. It is not known at what time they arrived at the Cathedral, but they are believed to have originated at Whalley Abbey. This could mean that they were removed to a builder's yard after the Dissolution, but with the cathedral not being built until the 19th century, this allows for the possibility that they had lain unused for some 300 years.
The Diocese of Blackburn is a Church of England diocese, covering much of Lancashire, created in 1926 from part of the Diocese of Manchester. The Diocese includes the towns of Blackburn, Blackpool, Burnley, and the cities of Lancaster, and Preston, as well as a large part of the Ribble Valley.
Blackburn's Marrying Chapels
Most of Lancashire' chapelries (nearly 90 percent) were not granted permission to marry couples prior to 1837. However, the following chapelries (chapels of ease) were granted sanction to marry couples within the parish boundary of St Mary Blackburn--besides the ancient parish of St Mary's itself:
- Bamber-Bridge St Saviour's - 1761
- Great Harwood St Bartholomew - 1547
- Samlesbury St Leonard the Less - 1634
- Walton le Dale St Leonard- 1609
Places
Chapelries
Chapelry is a church or churches built in a large ecclesiastical parish to help the members attend worship services closer to their homes.
The parish of Walton on the Blackburn The Cathedral Church of St Mary the Virgin consists of the following chapelries:
- Bamberbridge
- Balderstone
- Billington Langho
- Blackburn All Saints
- Blackburn Christ Church
- Blackburn Holy Trinity
- Blackburn St Barnabas
- Blackburn St Clement
- Blackburn St John
- Blackburn St Jude
- Blackburn St Luke Bank Top
- Blackburn St Matthew Higher Audley
- Blackburn St Michael & All Angels
- Blackburn St Paul
- Blackburn St Peter
- Blackburn St Philip
- Blackburn St Silas
- Blackburn St Thomas
- Brookhouse St James
- Brownhill St Gabriel
- Copy Nook St Thomas
- Daisy Field St Michael
- Feniscliffe St Francis
- Feniscowles Immanuel
- Great Harwood
- Knuzden St Oswald
- Lark Hill Holy Trinity
- Little Harwood St Stephen
- Livesey St Andrew
- Lower Darwen
- Mellor-Brook St Saviour
- Mellor St Mary
- Over Darwen Holy Trinity
- Over Darwen St Cuthbert
- Over Darwen St James
- Over Darwen St John the Evangelist
- Over Darwen Lower Chapel
- Salesbury
- Samlesbury
- Tockholes
- Walton-le-Dale
- Witton
Resources
Find Neighboring Parishes
Use England Jurisdictions 1851 Map
- Type the name of the parish in the search bar
- Click on the location pin on the map
- Choose Options from the pop up box
- Click "List Contiguous Parishes" to find the neighboring parishes
Cemeteries
- 1813-1888 Grave Inscriptions, Mount Street Burial Ground, Blackburn, 1813-1888(*) at FamilySearch Catalog - images
Civil Registration
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from July 1837 to the present day.
- See England Civil Registration for online resources and information.
Church Records
The Church of England (Anglican) became the official state religion in 1534, with the reigning monarch as its Supreme Governor.
Non-Conformist refers to all other religious denominations that are not the official state religion.
Church of England
Online Parish Records Table
Due to the increasing access of online records:
- Individual parish coverage for databases in this table are inconsistent and should be verified
- Dates in the following table are approximate
Hover over the collection's title for more information
| Blackburn The Cathedral Church of St Mary the Virgin Parish Records | ||||||
| All Chapelries Found in Blackburn The Cathedral Church of St Mary the Virgin are included in these links. | ||||||
| FamilySearch Collections-Lancashire | ||||||
| Parish Registers-Lancashire | ||||||
| Bishop's Transcripts - FamilySearch Catalog | ||||||
| FreeREG | ||||||
| Findmypast-Lancashire ($) | ||||||
| Ancestry-Church of England BMD-Lancashire ($) | ||||||
| Ancestry-England & Wales, Birth, Christening, Marriage and Death Indexes ($) | 1500s-1900s |
1500s-1900s |
||||
| MyHeritage-Manchester Parish Records ($) | ||||||
| Databases with Known Incomplete Parish Coverage | ||||||
| Boyd's Marriage Indexes-FMP (Free) | ||||||
| National Burial Index-FMP (Free) | ||||||
Other Websites
These databases have incomplete parish coverage.
- Joiner Marriage Index - Lancashire ($)
- The Genealogist Parish Registers - Lancashire ($)
- UK Websites for Parish Records - Links to online genealogical records
- Online Genealogical Index - Links to online genealogical records
- OnLine Parish Clerks - Lancashire - OnLine Parish Clerks project for Lancashire
Non-Conformist Churches
- 1717 England & Wales, Roman Catholics, 1717 at Findmypast - index & images ($); coverage may vary
- 1647-1996 England, Lancashire Non-conformist Church Records, 1647-1996 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index (dates may vary by parish)
Census Records
Census records from 1841 to 1921 are available online. See England Census for more resources.
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.
Websites
References
- ↑ Lewis, Samuel A., A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 270-275.Greatly adapted. Date accessed: 25 June 2010.