East Stour (East Stower) Dorset Family History Guide

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East Stour is a chapelry of Gillingham Ancient Parish in Dorset.

Alternative names: East Stower

Parish church: St. Mary

Parish registers begin:

  • Parish registers: 1584
  • Bishop’s Transcripts: 1731

Nonconformists include: Baptist and Wesleyan Methodist.

Adjacent Parishes

Parish History

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

STOWER (East), a parish in Shaftesbury district, Dorset; 2½ miles SSW of Gillingham r. station. Post town, Gillingham, under Bath. Acres, 1,675. Rated property, £3,186. Pop., 426. Houses, 105. The property is divided among a few. The living is a p. curacy, annexed to Gillingham. The church is good. Fielding was, for some time, a resident.

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

A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848

STOWER, EAST (St. Mary), a parish, in the union of Shaftesbury, hundred of Redlane, Shaston division of Dorset, 4¼ miles (W.) from Shaftesbury; containing 554 inhabitants. The living is annexed, with the livings of Motcomb and West Stower, to the vicarage of Gillingham: the impropriate tithes have been commuted for £146, and the vicarial for £273. The church, rebuilt in 1841, is a cruciform structure in the Norman style, with a tower at the intersection, and contains accommodation for 400 persons. Fielding, the novelist, resided for some time on his estate in the parish.

Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848

Parish Registers

Marriages at East Stower 1584 to 1812 Dorset Parish Registers: Marriages. Edited by W. P. W. Phillimore, M.A., B.C.L., and Edmund Nevill, B.A., F.S.A. Vol 6. 1912. – This book is a free download from Parishmouse

Administration

  • County: Dorset
  • Civil Registration District: Shaftsbury
  • Probate Court: Court of the Archdeaconry of Dorset
  • Diocese: Salisbury
  • Rural Deanery: Pre-1847 – None, Post-1846 – Shaftesbury
  • Poor Law Union: Shaftesbury
  • Hundred: Redland
  • Province: Canterbury