Melcombe Regis Dorset Family History Guide

Melcombe Regis is an Ecclesiastical Parish and a market town in the county of Dorset, created in 1606 from a chapelry in Radipole Ancient Parish.

Alternative names: Weymouth St Mary

Parish church:

Parish registers begin:

  • Parish registers: 1595
  • Bishop’s Transcripts: 1731

Nonconformists include: Baptist, Christians, Independent/Congregational, Particular Baptist, Protestant Dissenters, Wesleyan Methodist, and Wesleyan Methodist Reform.

Adjacent Parishes

Parish History

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

MELCOMBE-REGIS, a parish in Weymouth district, Dorset; within Weymouth borough, and including the modern and larger portion of Weymouth town. Acres, 1,548; of which 90 are water. Real property, £33,794; of which £500 are in gas-works. Pop. in 1851, 5,273; in 1861, 6,498. Houses, 1,057.

The increase of pop. arose from the extension of the Great Western and the Southwestern railways to Weymouth, from the establishment of a regular packet service to the Channel Islands, and from the constructing of Government defence works and of the breakwater at Portland.

The living is a rectory, united with the rectory of Radipole, in the diocese of Salisbury. Value, £298. Patron, the Rev. E. Hollond. A separate charge, designated St. John’s, was constituted in 1856, out of Melcombe Regis and Radipole; and the living of it is a p. curacy, of the value of £50, in the patronage of the Rector. Pop., in 1861, of the Melcome-Regis portion of St. John, 661; of the Radipole portion, 401.

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

Parish Registers

Marriage Allegations

The following people have been recorded in the Hampshire Allegations for Marriage Licences granted by the Bishop of Winchester 1689 to 1837.

KENT, William, of Burghclere, co. Wilts, gent., b., son of Stephen and Betty Kent, bap. at Wanborough, co. Wilts, 11 Jan, 1801, & Mary Wood, of Holy Rood, Southampton, sp., dau. of Star and Elizabeth Wood, bap. at Melcombe Regis, co. Dorset, 18 Jan., 1797, at H. R., 25 Jan., 1823. Thomas Wood, of Southampton, gent., bondsman.

Lock, George, of Ringwood, w., & Philadelphia Dengate, of Melcombe Regis, co. Dorset, 21, sp., at R., 5 March, 1832. 

Parish Records

FamilySearch

England, Dorset, Melcombe-Regis – Census ( 1 )
Census returns for Melcombe-Regis, 1841-1891
Author: Great Britain. Census Office

England, Dorset, Melcombe-Regis – Church records ( 5 )
Bishop’s transcripts for Melcombe-Regis., 1731-1880
Author: Church of England. Parish Church of Melcombe-Regis (Dorsetshire)

Church records for Gloucester Street Congregational Chapel, Melcombe-Regis, 1901-1911
Author: Gloucester Street Chapel (Melcombe-Regis, Dorsetshire : Congregational)

Churchwardens’ accounts, 1815-1889
Author: Church of England. Parish Church of Melcombe-Regis (Dorsetshire)

Parish registers for Melcombe-Regis, 1560-1986
Author: Church of England. Parish Church of Melcombe-Regis (Dorsetshire); Dorset Record Office

Parish registers for St. John’s Church, Melcombe-Regis, 1890-1993
Author: Church of England. Parish Church of Melcombe-Regis (Dorsetshire); Dorset Record Office

England, Dorset, Melcombe-Regis – Land and property ( 1 )
Land tax assessments for Weymouth, 1780-1832

England, Dorset, Melcombe-Regis – Public records ( 1 )
Weymouth and Melcombe regis minute book, 1625-1660
Author: Weinstock, Maureen; Dorset Record Society

England, Dorset, Melcombe-Regis – Taxation ( 1 )
Land tax assessments for Weymouth, 1780-1832

Administration

  • County: Dorset
  • Civil Registration District: Weymouth
  • Probate Court: Court of the Archdeaconry of Dorset
  • Diocese: Salisbury
  • Rural Deanery: Dorchester
  • Poor Law Union: Weymouth
  • Hundred: Weymouth and Melcombe Regis Borough
  • Province: Canterbury