Leicester Blackfriars, Leicestershire, England Genealogy
Guide to Leicester Blackfriars, Leicestershire ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.
| Leicester Blackfriars | |
| Type | Extra-parochial |
| Civil Jurisdictions | |
| County | Leicestershire |
| Hundred | Leicester Borough |
| Poor Law Union | Leicester |
| Registration District | Leicester |
| Records Begin | |
| Parish registers | For records see surrounding parishes |
| Bishop's Transcripts | For records see surrounding parishes |
| Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions | |
| Rural Deanery | Not Applicable |
| Diocese | Not Applicable |
| Probate Court | Search the courts of the surrounding parishes |
| Archive | |
| Leicestershire Record Office | |
Parish History[edit | edit source]
The extra-parochial liberty ofBlack Friars lay in the north-west of the old walled borough of Leicester. It became acivil parish under the Act of 1857 and was amalgamated with Leicester in 1896 when the borough became a singlecivil parish. In 1896 it covered 16 acres. It was bounded by the River Soar,Soar Lane, the former Back Lane, and Bath Lane.The eastern part of the area is now occupied by the Central railway station, and the remainder is mostly covered by streets of 19th-century terrace houses.
In the Middle Ages Black Friars was occupied by a Dominican friary, founded in the 13th century. The friary was perhaps founded in this spot because in the second half of the 13th century the north-west district of Leicester was less densely populated than other parts of the town; this has been attributed,though without any proof, to devastation caused in the siege of 1173. The friary must have been of some size, as three provincial chapters of the Dominican order were held there in the 14th century, and at the same period the house contained thirty or more friars, but very little is known about its buildings.It has been suggested that the friars acquired St.Clement's parish church, which stood in the northwest part of the town, but that is unlikely. The friary was surrendered to the king in 1538, and its site and buildings were granted in 1546 to Henry Grey, Marquess of Dorset and later Duke of Suffolk.
It has not been possible to trace the descent of the property after that time, but for much of the 18thcentury the Rudings family, of Westcotes, were important landowners in Black Friars.
From the Dissolution until the early 19th century Black Friars was almost uninhabited. The canalization of the Soar, which ran down one side of the Black Friars, led to the building up of the area.From c. 1805 onwards many new houses were built in the area, and by 1837 it was very largely covered with buildings, though a little open ground still remained in the north-west corner. In 1821 the population was 597, and ten years later it had risen to 1,152. The line of the Great Central Railway from London to the north, built under an Act of1893 and opened in 1899, ran through Black Friars,and the large station built to serve the new line occupied a considerable space in the liberty.
There seems to be no doubt that Black Friars was always considered to be within the borough. During the 18th-century disputes between the borough and the county magistrates the county never claimed to have any rights of jurisdiction in Black Friars. The district does not seem to have maintained its poor separately in the 18th century. In 1803 it is listed as an area maintaining its own poor. When the Leicester Poor Law Union was formed in 1836 Black Friars was not included in it. For the next 26 years Black Friars was not included in any union,and seems to have had no arrangements for the poor relief of its inhabitants, a situation all the more serious because by 1837 it had become a poor and densely populated district. In 1849 it was reported that the liberty's inhabitants had no power to appoint a surveyor of the highways, or to levy rates for road maintenance. The sewerage arrangements,as described at the same date, were deplorable. This state of affairs was remedied by the establishment of a Local Board of Health, which assumed responsibility for the highways and for the public health of the whole borough, and by the inclusion of Black Friars in the Leicester Union as a separate civil parish in 1862.
For ecclesiastical purposes Black Friars was extra parochial until it was included in St. Nicholas's parish in 1880.[1]
Resources[edit | edit source]
Find Neighboring Parishes[edit | edit source]
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
Civil Registration[edit | edit source]
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[edit | edit source]
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[edit | edit source]
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
| Leicester Blackfriars Online Parish Records | ||||||
| FamilySearch Collections-Leicestershire | ||||||
| FamilySearch Parish Registers-Leicestershire | ||||||
| Bishop's Transcripts - FamilySearch Catalog | ||||||
| FreeREG | ||||||
| Findmypast-Leicestershire ($) | ||||||
| Findmypast Banns-Leicestershire ($) | ||||||
| Ancestry-Church of England BMD-Leicestershire ($) | ||||||
| Ancestry-England & Wales, Birth, Christening, Marriage and Death Indexes ($) | 1500s-1900s |
1500s-1900s |
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| 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 - Leicestershire ($)
- The Genealogist Parish Registers - Leicestershire ($)
- UK Websites for Parish Records - Links to online genealogical records
- Online Genealogical Index - Links to online genealogical records
- The Record Office - Records for Leicestershire, Leicester, and Rutland
Nonconformist Records[edit | edit source]
"Nonconformist" is a term referring to religious denominations other than an established or state church. In England, the state church is the Church of England.
- 1717 England & Wales, Roman Catholics, 1717 at Findmypast - index & images ($); coverage may vary
- England Roman Catholic Parish Marriages at Findmypast — index & images ($); coverage may vary
Census Records[edit | edit source]
Census records from 1841 to 1921 are available online. See England Census for more resources.
Probate Records[edit | edit source]
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Leicestershire 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[edit | edit source]
Maps are a visual look at the locations in England. Gazetteers contain brief summaries about a place.
Websites[edit | edit source]
Reference[edit | edit source]
- ↑ 'The ancient borough: Black Friars', Date accessed: 22 May 2011. A History of the County of Leicester: volume 4: The City of Leicester (1958), pp. 343-344.