Northleach, Gloucestershire Family History Guide

Northleach is an Ancient Parish and a market town in the county of Gloucestershire. Eastington is a chapelry of Northleach.

Parish church: St Peter and St Paul

Parish registers begin: 1556

Nonconformists include: Independent/Congregational and Wesleyan Methodist.

Adjacent Parishes

• Eastington

Northleach Parish Registers

Baptism, Marriage and Burial Records

These records include images of Church of England parish registers of baptism, marriage, and burial records.

Northleach, Gloucestershire Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1556-1812

Northleach, Gloucestershire Church of England Confirmations, 1891-1913

Northleach, Gloucestershire Church of England Baptisms, 1813-1913

Marriage and Banns Records

These records include images of Church of England parish registers of marriages and banns records.

Northleach, Gloucestershire Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1938

Death and Burial Records

These records include images of Church of England parish registers of deaths and burial records.

Northleach, Gloucestershire Church of England Burials, 1813-1988

Marriage Licences and Allegations

Hampshire Allegations for Marriage Licences 1689 to 1837

The following have been extracted from Allegations for Marriage Licences in the county of Hampshire. Parishes without a named county are parishes within the county of Hampshire.

MORSE, Thomas, of Northleach, co. Gloucester, & Elizabeth Westmacott, of Coombe, at C., 18 Oct., 1727.

Source: Hampshire Allegations for Marriage Licences Granted by the Bishop of Winchester. 1689 to 1837 Published 1893 Editor: William John Charles Moens

London Marriage Licences and Allegations 1521 to 1869

The following have been extracted from London Marriage Licences 1521 to 1869.

Abbreviations. — B. Bishop of London’s Office; D. Dean and Chapter of Westminster; F. Faculty Office of Archbishop of Canterbury; V. Registry of the Vicar-General of Canterbury.

Berington, Richard, gent., of St. John, Clerkenwell, bachelor, 28, son of Randall Berington, late of Warningham, co. Chester, deceased, and Joice Parker, of St. John, Clerkenwell, maiden, daughter of Thomas Parker, of Northlache, co. Gloucester, gent., who consents, as also Sir Roger Wilbraham, knight, one of the Masters of the Requests, and the Lady Mary Wilbraham, his wife, with whom they both dwell — at St. John, Walbrook, London. 1 July, 1613. B. 

Source: London Marriage Licences 1521 to 1869; Edited by Joseph Foster; London 1887

Northleach Strays

John Hutt, p. North Leech, co. Glos., b., aged 25, & Jane Pratt, aged 23, of F. C, lic. 16 Nov. 1784 married at Fenny Compton

Bankrupts

Below is a list of people that were declared bankrupt between 1820 and 1843 extracted from The Bankrupt Directory; George Elwick; London; Simpkin, Marshall and Co.; 1843.

Harris Benjamin, Northleach, Gloucestershire. draper, Sept. 20, 1831.

Payn William, Northleach, Gloucestershire, innkeeper, Feb. 4. 1826.

Smith Samuel, Northleach, Gloucestershire, victualler, Aug. 1, 1828.

Swan John, Northleach, Gloucestershire, draper and grocer, Oct. 23, 1829.

Historical Directories

Northleach Universal British Directory 1791

Is a small ill-built town, situate upon the great road from Gloucester to London; and though of considerable antiquity, and formerly one of the principal clothing-towns in the county, has now neither trade nor any thing deserving notice except the church, which is a noble old Gothic structure, and a well-endowed grammar-school, in good reputation. 

The town is governed by a bailiff and two constables, chosen annually.  Here is a large grain-market on Wednesdays, and three annual fairs, viz. Wednesday before the 23rd of April, the third Wednesday in May, and the Wednesday before the 29th of September.  One of the county penitentiary bridewells is built contiguous to this town, and at Quinington, in this neighbourhood, are paper mills.

Northleach is distant from Gloucester twenty miles, from Cheltenham eleven, from Cirencester eleven, from Burford nine, from Stow nine, and from London eighty-one. The principal inns are the King’s Head and the Crown.
The London post comes in and goes out daily: Thomas Butler, post-master. – Coaches and wagons pass and repass daily.

The following is a list of the principal inhabitants:

Gentry.

Chedworth Rt. Hon. Lord, Stowell
Dinevor Rt. Hon. Lady, Barington
Greenaway Giles, Esq. Barington
Guise Sir John, Bart. Withington
Hickes William, Esq. Salperton
Sherborn Rt. Hon. Lord, Sherborn
Tracy Mrs. Sandiwell-park
Waller Edmund, Esq. Farmington

Clergy.

Allen Rev. John, Usher of the Grammar-school
Grisdale Rev. Mr. Withington
Jones Rev. Mr.
Page Rev. Charles, Withington
Rice Rev. Charles, Quinington
Sanderson Rev. Mr. (F.) Master of the Grammar-school
Twining Rev. Mr.
Waller Rev. Harry, Farmington
Wilkinson Rev. Mr. (F.) Vicar

Physic.

Child Thomas, Surgeon and Apothecary
Henderson John, Ditto

Traders, &c.

Acock Joseph, Ironmonger
Ashwin Thomas, (F.) Mercer
Cooke Thomas, (F.) Salesman
Harding William, Fellmonger
Miles John, (F.) King’s Head Inn
Morse Thomas, Baker
Pacey William, (F.) Grazier
Powell William, Butcher
Rickets William, (F.) Mercer
Russell Henry, Butcher
Sheppard Thomas, (F.) Soap-boiler
Simmonds Thomas, Schoolmaster
Smith Jane, Boarding-school for Young Ladies
Wyley John, Linen-draper

Source: Universal British Directory 1791

Parish History

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

NORTHLEACH, a small town, a parish, and a district in Gloucester. The town stands among the Cotswolds, on the Fosse way, 1 mile NE of the Salt way, ½a mile ESE of the Seven Springs, the source of the river Leach, 5½ miles S W of Bourton-on-the-Water r. station, and 10 NE of Cirencester.

It was given by King Etheldred to Gloucester abbey, and by Henry VIII. to the Daltons; had once a corporation, but is now governed by a bailiff, elected annually at a court-leet; flourished long as a seat of cloth manufacture; went afterwards into decay; consists now chiefly of one long irregularly-built street; is a seat of petty sessions and county courts, and a polling-place; and has a post-office under Cheltenham, a banking office, a good inn, a police station, a county house of detention, a church, Independent and Wesleyan chapels, a free grammar school, a national school, two suites of alms-houses for respectively six men and six women, and several other charities.

The church is later English; consists of nave, aisles, and chancel, with beautiful arched W porch, and lofty embattled tower; and contains an ancient font, and a number of rich brasses. The Independent chapel was built in 1860, and contains about 350 sittings. The grammar school was founded in 1607, by H. Westwood, Esq.; was enlarged and altered into a middle class school; and has £600 a year from endowment, and an exhibition at Pembroke college, Oxford.

A weekly market is held on Wednesday; stock fairs are held on the Wednesday before 4 May and the first Wednesday of Sept.; hiring fairs are held on the Wednesday before and the Wednesday after 11 Oct.; and much business is done, especially once a year, in connexion with flocks of Cotswold sheep and herds of short-horned Hereford cattle, which abound in the neighbourhood and are held in high repute. Pop. of the town, 962. Houses, 195.

The parish contains also the tything of Eastington, and comprises 3,460 acres. Real property, £6,294. Pop., 1,404. Houses, 269. The manor belongs to Mr. Stevens. The parish is a meet for the Cheltenham staghounds. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol. Value, £270. Patron, the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol.

The district is divided into the sub-district of Bibury, containing the parishes of Northleach, Aldsworth, Coln, St. Aldwins, Farmington, Sherborne, Windrush, Little Barrington, East-Leach-Turville, East-Leach-Martin, Southrop, and the greater part of Bibury; and the sub-district of Chedworth, containing the parishes of Chedworth, Coln, St. Denis, Coln-Rogers, Compton-Abdale, Withington, Dowdeswell, Whittington, Sevenhampton, Shipton-Sollars, Shipton-Oliffe, Salperton, Hazleton, Stowell, Hampnett, Turkdean, and Aston-Blank, and the chapelry of Winson.

Acres, 67,647. Poor rates in 1863, £5,040. Pop. in 1851, 10,984; in 1861, 10,895. Houses, 2,274. Marriages in 1863, 72; births, 389, of which 31 were illegitimate; deaths, 181, of which 59 were at ages under 5 years, and 8 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 722; births, 3,415; deaths, 2,063.

The places of worship, in 1851, were 30 of the Church of England, with 5,580 sittings; 3 of Independents, with 382 s.; 7 of Baptists, with 735 s.; 3 of Wesleyan Methodists, with 346 s.; 2 of Primitive Methodists, with 120 s.; 1 undefined, with 100 s.; and 1 of Latter Day Saints, with 50 s. The schools were 27 public day schools, with 1,120 scholars; 13 private day schools, with 221 s.; 34 Sunday schools, with 1,656 s.; and 1evening school for adults, with 4 s. The workhouse is in Eastington; has capacity for 200 persons; and, at the census of 1861, had 89 inmates.

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: Gloucestershire
• Civil Registration District: Northleach
• Probate Court: Court of the Bishop of Gloucester (Episcopal Consistory)
• Diocese: Post 1835 – Gloucester and Bristol, Pre 1836 – Gloucester
• Rural Deanery: Northleach
• Poor Law Union: Northleach
• Hundred: Bradley
• Province: Canterbury