Stockton upon Tees St Thomas Durham Family History Guide

Stockton upon Tees St Thomas is an Ecclesiastical Parish and a market town in the county of Durham, created in 1713 from a chapelry in Norton Ancient Parish.

Other places in the parish include: Preston, Preston on Tees, Preston upon Tees, and East Hartburn.

Alternative names: Stockton, Stockton on Tees

Parish registers begin:

Parish registers: 1621
Bishop’s Transcripts: 1762

Nonconformists include: Baptist, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Independent/Congregational, Presbyterian Unitarian, Primitive Methodist, Roman Catholic, Society of Friends/Quaker, United Presbyterian Church of Scotland, Wesleyan Methodist, and Wesleyan Methodist Association.

Table of Contents

Adjacent Parishes

The Town Hall, Stockton on Tees, County Durham

Stockton upon Tees St Thomas Parish Registers

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.

Stockton upon Tees Bishops Transcripts 1762-1798

Stockton upon Tees Bishops Transcripts 1838-1852

Stockton upon Tees Bishops Transcripts 1858

Stockton upon Tees Bishops Transcripts 1865-1897

Parish History

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

STOCKTON-ON-TEES, a town, a township, and a parish, in Stockton district, Durham. The town stands on the river Tees, at a convergence of railways, adjacent to Yorkshire, 11 miles ENE of Darlington; was given to the Bishops of Durham soon after the Norman conquest.

It made some figure in connexion with a castle, built early by one of the bishops; was visited by King John in 1214; suffered devastation by the Scots in 1325; was held by the royalists in the early part of the civil wars of Charles I., and taken by the parliamentarians in 1644; contained only 120 dwelling-houses in 1661; acquired commercial importance through the decline of Hartlepool about 1683; experienced a slight shock of earthquake in 1780; yielded up 846 English coins from Edward VI. to James II. in 1792; and numbers, among its natives, the dramatist J. Reed, the antiquary Ritson, the seaman Allison, and lord-mayor Crosby.

The castle was rebuilt in the 14th century, and repaired in 1578; gave refuge to one bishop from the plague in 1597, to another from the rebels in 1640; was dismantled by the Commonwealth authorities in 1647-52; stood at the end of High-street; and is now represented by only a short massive tower.

High-street extends nearly a mile from N to S; and is straight and very spacious. The town, as a whole, is pretty regularly aligned, well built, and well-paved. A five-arched stone bridge, built in 1764-71, spans the Tees.

The town hall was built in 1735; and is a quadrangular and foreign-looking edifice, with tower and spire. The borough hall was built in 1852, at a cost of £3,300. The market pillar occupies the site of an ancient market cross; and is 33 feet high, and surrounded by shambles. A new banking office, on the site of an old one, was built in 1866; and is in a free Italian style, and three stories high. A new theatre was built in the same year, at a cost of about £5,500; and has capacity for 1,700 persons.

St. Thomas’ church was rebuilt in 1710-12; is an ungainly brick edifice, with a tower; and had G. S. Faber as a vicar. Trinity church was built in 1837; and is in the pointed style, with tower and spire. St. James’ church was built in 1867, at a cost of about £5,000; and is in the early French decorated style, with SW tower and spire. There are chapels for U. Presbyterians, Independents, Baptists, Quakers, Wesleyans, Primitive Methodists, U. Free Methodists, Unitarians, and Roman Catholics.

There are also a subscription grammar-school, a blue-coat school with £250 a year from endowment, an industrial school for girls, several other public schools, endowed alms. houses with £270 a year, and other charities £18. The town has a head post-office, r. stations with telegraph, three banking offices, and several chief inns; is a seat of petty-sessions and county courts, and a polling place; and publishes two weekly newspapers.

General markets are held on Wednesdays and Saturdays; a cattle market, on every alternate Wednesday; and fairs, on the Wednesday before 13 May, 18 June, the Thursday before 19 Nov., and 23 Nov. Ship-building, rope and sail-making, yarn and worsted manufacture, iron and brass-founding, steam-engine-making, brewing, and pottery-work are carried on.

The town is a head port; has Middlesborough and Cleveland for subports; is a vast depôt for coals; exports coal, coke, worsted yarn, linen, lead, manufactured iron, and agricultural produce; and imports timber, unwrought iron, hemp, flax, linseed, tallow, hides, wine, spirits, and colonial produce. The commerce suffered decline after the origination of Middlesborough; but is still large and flourishing. Vessels of 300 tons, by means of a cutting made in 1808, come up to the quays.

The vessels belonging to the port, at the beginning of 1864, were 8 small sailing-vessels, of aggregately 202 tons; 39 large sailing-vessels, of aggregately 10,363 tons; 11 small steam-vessels, of aggregately 236 tons; and 4 large steam-vessels, of aggregately 893 tons.

The vessels which entered in 1863 were 9 British sailing-vessels, of aggregately 2,644 tons, from British colonies; 1 foreign sailing-vessel, of 354 tons, from British colonies; 35 British sailing-vessels, of aggregtely 5,236 tons, from foreign countries; 125 foreign sailing-vessels, of aggregately13,968 tons, from foreign countries; 3 British steam-vessels, of aggregately 1,326 tons, from foreign countries; 213 sailing-vessels, of aggregately 12,099 tons, coast-wise; and 63 steam-vessels, of aggregately 16,360 tons, coastwise. The amount of customs, in 1862, was £72,030.

The town was incorporated prior to 1344; is governed, under the new act, by a mayor, 6 aldermen, and 18 councillors; and was made a parliamentary borough, with one representative, by the reform act of 1867. Pop. in 1861, 13,357. Houses, 2,485.

The township includes all the borough; extends beyond it; and comprises 2,809 acres of land, and 223 of water. Real property, £41,970; of which £650 are in ironworks, and £1,539 in gasworks. Pop. in 1851, 10,172; in 1861, 13,487. Houses, 2,504.

The parish contains also the townships of Preston-upon-Tees and East Hartburn; was a chapelry to Norton till 1711; and is now ecclesiastically divided into S.-St. Thomas, S.-Trinity, and S.-St. James. Acres, 5,160. Pop. in 1851, 10,459; in 1861, 13,761. Houses, 2,560. The living of St. T. is a vicarage, and the livings of T. and St. J. are p. curacies, in the diocese of Durham. Value of St. T., £247; of T., £400; of St. J., £150. Patron of ST. T. and T., the Bishop of D.; of St. J., alternately the Crown and the Bishop.

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