Greatham Durham Family History Guide

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Greatham is an Ancient Parish in the county of Durham.

Other places in the parish include: Claxton and Greatham Hospital.

Parish registers begin:

  • Parish registers: 1559
  • Bishop’s Transcripts: 1769

Nonconformists include: Wesleyan Methodist

Adjacent Parishes

Greatham Parish Registers

Baptism Records

Greatham Baptisms 1564-1862

Marriage and Banns Records

Greatham Marriages 1564-1862

Death and Burial Records

Greatham Burials 1769-1862

Bishops Transcripts

Explore the Bishops’ Transcripts for the Diocese of Durham (1639–1919) – This collection offers parish register copies submitted annually to the Bishop, covering baptisms, marriages, and burials across Durham, Northumberland, and parts of Yorkshire and Cumberland. Ideal for tracing ancestors when original registers are missing or incomplete.

Greatham Bishops Transcripts 1769-1856

Parish History

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

GREATHAM, a village, a township, and a parish in Stockton district, Durham. The village stands adjacent to the Clarence and Hartlepool railway, near the coast, 6½ miles NNE of Stockton-on-Tees; and has a station on the railway, and a post-office under Stockton-on-Tees.

The township comprises 1,870 acres of land, and 1,440 of water. Real property, £4,451. Pop., 724. Houses, 153. The parish includes also the township of Claxton, and comprises 4,176 acres. Real property, £5,423. Pop., 779. Houses, 161. The property is subdivided. Brine springs were formerly worked here.

The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Durham. Value, £179. Patron, the Master of Greatham Hospital. The church was rebuilt near the end of last century, and was recently enlarged. There are chapels for Wesleyans and Free Methodists, and two national schools.

Greatham hospital was founded, in 1272, by Stichell, bishop of Durham, for five poor priests, two clerks, and forty poor brethren; was reformed, in 1610, by James I., for thirteen poor unmarried men; was rebuilt, in 1803-9, after designs by Wyatt; retains, in the chapel, three old gravestones, and two crosses, relics of the original building; was, in 1865, about to be so enlarged as to admit 40 aged lay brethren and 10 aged clerical brethren; and has an endowed income of £1,482. Parkhurst’s alms houses, for six poor widows, have £110; and other charities have £26.

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

Maps

Vision of Britain Historical Maps – includes topographic maps, boundary maps and land use maps

Administration

  • County: Durham
  • Civil Registration District: Stockton
  • Probate Court: Court of the Bishop of Durham (Episcopal Consistory)
  • Diocese: Durham
  • Rural Deanery: Stockton
  • Poor Law Union: Stockton
  • Hundred: Stockton Ward
  • Province: York