Stanhope Durham Family History Guide

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Stanhope is an Ancient Parish in the county of Durham.

Other places in the parish include: Hollinhope Common, Park Quarter, Newlandside, Newland Side with Bishopley Quarter, Newland Side and Bishopley, Stanhope Quarter, Frosterley Quarter, Frosterley, Forest Quarter, and Bishopley.

Parish registers begin:

  • Parish registers: 1609
  • Bishop’s Transcripts: 1762

Nonconformists include:

Adjacent Parishes

Stanhope, East End
Stanhope, East End

Parish Registers

Baptism Records

Stanhope Baptisms 1613-1901

Eastgate Baptisms 1885-1949

Rookhope Baptisms 1858-1901

Marriage and Banns Records

Stanhope Marriages 1613-1901

Eastgate Marriages 1886-1949

Rookhope Marriages 1842-1901

Death and Burial Records

Stanhope Burials 1740-1880

Stanhope, St. Thomas Burials 1596-1904

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.

Stanhope Bishops Transcripts 1762-1833

Parish History

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

STANHOPE, a small town, a township, a parish, and a sub-district, in Weardale district, Durham. The town stands on the river Wear, and on the Wear Valley railway, amid a wildly moorland country, 5½ miles WNW of Wolsingham; is a seat of petty-sessions and a polling place; and has a r. station with telegraph, a post-office under Darlington, a banking office, a good inn, a weekly market on Friday, and three annual fairs. The township comprises 13,000 acres, and contains Weardale workhouse. Pop. in 1851, 2,545; in 1861, 2,918. Houses, 569.

The parish includes four other townships, and comprises 54,870 acres. Real property, £54,346; of which £29,584 are in mines, and £951 in quarries. Pop. in 1851, 8,882; in 1861, 9,654. Houses, 1,896. The property is much subdivided. S. Castle and the Rectory House are chief residences; the latter was built by Bishop Philpotts, when rector. S. Park is about 12 miles in circuit, bare and moorish; and was the hunting-ground of the Bishops of Durham, and the place where Douglas, in 1327, retreated from Edward III. Lead ore and ironstone are extensively mined, and limestone is quarried.

The living is a rectory in the diocese of Durham. Value, £1,650. Patron, the Bishop of Ripon. The church was restored in 1868. The p. curacies of Eastgate, Westgate, Rookhope, Frosterley, Heathery-cleugh, and Weardale are separate benefices. There are chapels for Wesleyans and Primitive Methodists, school endowments £135 a year, and charities £69.

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: Weardale
  • Probate Court: Court of the Bishop of Durham (Episcopal Consistory)
  • Diocese: Durham
  • Rural Deanery: Darlington
  • Poor Law Union: Weardale
  • Hundred: Darlington Ward
  • Province: York