Cerne Abbas Dorset Family History Guide

Cerne Abbas is an Ancient Parish and a market town in the county of Dorset.

Alternative names:

Parish church:

Parish registers begin:

Parish registers: 1653
Bishop’s Transcripts: 1731

Nonconformists include: Baptist, Independent/Congregational, Presbyterian, and Wesleyan Methodist.

Table of Contents

Adjacent Parishes

Parish History

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

CERNE-ABBAS, a small town and a parish in Dorchester district, Dorset. The town stands on the river Cerne, 4¾ miles ESE of Evershot r. station, and 7½ N by W of Dorchester. It includes four or five streets; is a seat of petty sessions; and has a post-office, of the name of Cerne, under Dorchester, three inns, and a workhouse, a church, two dissenting chapels, and some remains of a Benedictine Abbey. The church is perpendicular English; and has a tower.

The Abbey was founded, in 987, by Aylmer, Earl of Cornwall; plundered, in 1015, by Canute; and occupied, in 1471, by Queen Margaret, on her way to Tewkesbury. St. Augustine is said by some to have founded it; Edwald, the brother of St. Edmund the martyr, is said by others to have founded it, and to have been buried in it; and Cardinal Morton, born at Bere-Regis, was one of its monks. The remains of it are a gatehouse, bearing escutcheons, a long buttressed barn, still used as a granary, and some traces of the gardens and park.

An ancient earthwork, unknown to record, is north of the churchyard. A lofty eminence, called Trendle-hill or the Giant’s hill, rises adjacent to the town; has the figure of a man, 180 feet high, cut on its chalky surface; and is crowned by an ancient camp.

Markets are held on Wednesdays; fairs are held on Midlent Monday, 28 April, and 2 Oct.; and some trade is carried on in inalting, brewing, and leather-dressing. The parish comprises 3,063 acres. Real property, with Upper Cerne, £6,389. Pop., 1,185. Houses, 254. The property is not much divided; and the manor belongs to Lord Rivers. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Salisbury. Value, £81. Patron, Lord Rivers.

Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].

Parish Records

FamilySearch

Dorset Historical Directories

Directory Transcriptions

An Address from the County of Dorset on the Elementary Education Bill, May 9 1870

To the Right Honourable The EARL de GREY and RIPON President of Her Majesty’s Privy Council and To the Right Honourable W. E. FORSTER MP Vice President

We the undersigned Clergy and Laity of the Archdeaconry and County of Dorset, accepting the principle of the Elementary Education Bill now before Parliament, by which in existing Schools perfect liberty of Religious Teaching is guaranteed to the Managers, together with perfect liberty of withdrawal from such Teaching to the Parents of the Children, do earnestly deprecate any Alteration in the Bill which may affect such principle.

At the same time we are prepared to concede, if necessary, the substitution for the so-called Conscience Clause, of an Enactment which shall confine the Teaching of the Formularies of any Denomination to the first part of the School Hours.

CERNE ABBAS

A. Bull, clergyman
E.J. Clark, churchwarden
William Beach, churchwarden
James Hellyar, guardian
Edwin Norman, tanner and currier
John Norman, tanner
Henry Howell, tailor’s foreman
James Northover, jun., maltster
John Stroud, butcher
Henry Norman, registrar
James Northover, builder
Mortimer O’Brien, officer of Inland Revenue
Robert Childs, postmaster
John Fooks, farmer

Source: An Address from the County of Dorset on the Elementary Education Bill, May 9 1870 by Dorset. Published by H. Spicer, Dorset County Chronicle Office, 1870.

Administration

County: Dorset
Civil Registration District: Dorchester
Probate Court: Court of the Archdeaconry of Dorset
Diocese: Salisbury
Rural Deanery: Whitchurch
Poor Law Union: Cerne
Hundred: Cerne, Totcombe and Modbury
Province: Canterbury