Westbury-on-Severn, Gloucestershire Family History Guide
Westbury on Severn is an Ancient Parish in the county of Gloucestershire.
Other places in the parish include: Rodley, Adset, Bolloe, Boseley, Claxhill, Cleve, Elton, Nether-Laugh, Norwood, and Upper-Laugh
Parish church:
Parish registers begin: 1538
Nonconformists include: Independent/Congregational, Particular Baptist, Society of Friends/Quaker, and Wesleyan Methodist.
Table of Contents
Adjacent Parishes
Parish History
Westbury-on-Severn
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870
WESTBURY-ON-SEVERN, a village, a parish, and a district, in Gloucester. The village stands near the river Severn, 1½ mile SSW of Grange-Court r. station, and 2½ NNE of Newnham; and has a post-office under Gloucester.
The parish includes 11 tythings, and contains the district workhouse. Acres, 8,695; of which 670 are water. Rated property, £12,923. Pop., 2,501. Houses, 492. The property is much subdivided. Rodley manor belongs to Gen. Sir J. W. Guise, Bart.; and Northwood manor, to Col. Leslie.
The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol. Value, £292. Patrons, the Custos and Vicars-Choral of Hereford Cathedral. The church is decorated and later English; was partly restored in 1862; and has a detached tower and spire. There are Independent and Wesleyan chapels, a national school, and charities £23.
The district consists of Huntley and Newnham sub-districts, and comprises 43,246 acres. Poor rates, in 1863, £6,554. Pop. in 1851, 18,124; in 1861, 20,189. Houses, 4,081. Marriages in 1863, 129; births, 753, of which 41 were illegitimate; deaths, 377, of which 161 were at ages under 5 years, and 14 at ages above 85.
Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 1,220; births, 6,922; deaths, 3,498. The places of worship, in 1851, were 17 of the Church of England, with 6,120 sittings; 7 of Independents, with 1,435 s.; 4 of Baptists, with 826 s.; 8 of Wesleyans, with 1,072 s.; 3 of Bible Christians, with 304 s.: and 2 of Wesleyan Reformers, with 700 s. The schools were 20 public day-schools, with 1,581 scholars; 30 private day-schools, with 424 s.: and 23 Sunday schools, with 1,850 s.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
The Parliamentary Gazetteer of England and Wales 1851
Westbury-on-Severn, a parish in the hund, and union of Westbury, county of Gloucester; 3 miles north-east of Newnham. It includes the township of Rodley.
Living, a vicarage in the archd. of Hereford and dio. of Gloucester; rated at £20 2s. 8½d.; nett value £261. Tithes commuted in 1839; aggregate amount belonging to the custos and vicars of college vicars, Hereford, £555 11s. 10d. In the patronage of the custos of the college of vicar’s-choral in the cathedral church of Hereford.
The Wesleyan Methodists have a place of worship here. There is a National school here with a small endowment. Atkyn, in his history of the county, says of this parish: “It lies in three hundreds; part of it lies in the duchy hundred, part in the hundred of St. Briavil, and the greater part lies in the hundred of Westbury, which has its name from this considerable parish.
This large parish contains many hamlets, viz., Adset, Bolloe, Boseley, Claxhill, Cleve, Elton, Nether-Laugh, Norwood, and Upper-Laugh.” Acres 7,930. Houses 401. A.P. £9,293. Pop., in 1801, 1,651; in 1831, 2,032. Poor rates, in 1838, £1,144 4s.
The Westbury-on-Severn poor-law union comprehends 13 parishes, all in Gloucestershire, with a total area of 38 square miles; and a population, in 1831, of 8,760; and, in 1841, of 14,619. Expenditure for the year ending 25th March, 1838, £3,019; average annual expenditure of the three years preceding the formation of union £3,466. Expenditure for the year ending 25th March, 1841, £3,197 2s. The workhouse has been on two occasions altered and enlarged by the poor-law commissioners at a total expense of £2,350.
Source: The Parliamentary Gazetteer of England and Wales; A Fullarton & Co. Glasgow; 1851.
Rodley
Leonard’s Gazetteer of England and Wales 1850
Rodley. P. incl. in Westbury-upon-Severn
Source: Leonard’s Gazetteer of England and Wales; Second Edition; C. W. Leonard, London; 1850
Bankrupts
Below is a list of people that were declared bankrupt between 1820 and 1843 extracted from The Bankrupt Directory; George Elwick; London; Simpkin, Marshall and Co.; 1843.
Jackson John, Westbury, Gloucestershire, drover & cattle dealer, June 11, 1839.
Stephens William Charles, Westbury, Gloucestershire, grazier, Nov. 1, 1828.
Stevens Thomas, Claxhill, Westbury, Gloucestershire, maltster, Aug. 19, 1836.
London Gazette
Jaspar Fowler – Newland, Westbury-upon-Severn & Abinghall Gloucestershire. In the Matter of the Petition of Jaspar Fowler, at present and for six months and upwards last past, residing at Little Dean-hill, in the hamlet of the Lea Bailey, in the parish of Newland, in the county of Gloucester, Licensed victualler and Innkeeper, previously of Westbury-upon Severn, in the county of Gloucester, Master of the Union Workhouse, and previously of Abinghall, in the county of Gloucester, Police Serjeant in the Gloucestershire Constabulary Force. NOTICE is hereby given, that John Maurice Herbert, Esq. Judge of the County Court of Herefordshire, at Ross, acting in the matter of this Petition, will proceed to make a Final Order thereon, at the said Court, on the 18th day of May next, at ten of the clock in the forenoon precisely, unless cause be then and there shewn to the contrary. – London Gazette 1850
Parish Records
FamilySearch
Administration
- County: Gloucestershire
- Civil Registration District: Westbury on Severn
- Probate Court: Pre-1541 – Court of the Bishop of Hereford, Post-1541 – Court of the Bishop of Gloucester (Episcopal Consistory)
- Diocese: Post 1835 – Gloucester and Bristol, Pre 1836 – Gloucester
- Rural Deanery: Forest
- Poor Law Union: Westbury on Severn
- Hundred: Duchy of Lancaster; Westbury (Gloucestershire)
- Province: Canterbury