Whalley, Lancashire Family History Guide

Whalley is an Ancient Parish in the county of Lancashire.

Other places in the parish include: Nethertown, Mearley, Little Mitton, Little Mearley, Little Bowland and Leagram, Henthorn, Great Mearley, Coldcoats, Bowland, Wiswell, Read, Twiston, and Standen and Standen Hey.

Parish church: St. Mary

Parish registers begin: 1538

Nonconformists include: Baptist, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, General Baptist, Independent Methodist, Independent/Congregational, Inghamite, Particular Baptist, Primitive Methodist, Wesleyan Methodist, and Wesleyan Methodist Association.

Table of Contents

Adjacent Parishes

Whalley Parish Registers

Whalley Parish Registers 1538 to 1601 Lancashire Parish Register Society Christenings, Weddings and Burials 1538-1601 Transcribed and Edited by Thomas Backhouse Ecroyd. Published 1900 – This book is a free download from Parishmouse

Whalley Parish Records

An index of parish records of people from Whalley. The index includes information from Paver’s Marriage Licences V.3 1674 to 1717 and London Marriage Licences and Allegations 1521 to 1869 and An Index to the Wills and Administrations (including the “Infra” Wills) now preserved in the Probate Registry at Chester for the years 1801-1810 Part 1 A to L..

Marriage Licences and Allegations

Paver’s Marriage Licences V.3 1674 to 1717

1684 Richard Crombock, gen., 20, Whalley, co. Lancashire, and Hannand Walker, spinster, 21, Bolton Bol.—there. (f.n. At Bolton, 28 Oct., 1684. He Crummake.)

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.

Aspervill, Alexander, of Whayle, co. Lancaster, gent., bachelor, 22, and Avis Wight, of St. Giles-in-the-Fields, widow, 22, late ux. of William Wight, deceased — at St. Faith-the-Virgin, London. 15 Feb. 1638/9. B.

Bellingham, James, of Levens, co. Westmoreland, esq., widower, about 50, and Mrs. Dorothy Harrington, of Whaley, co. Lancaster, spinster, about 35, alleged by Sir Ralph Assheton, of Whaley aforesaid, bart.— at Whaley aforesaid. 10 June, 1674. V.

Bowhen, Hipwell, of the City of London, baker, bachelor, and Margaret Grenefeild, of St. Mary Magdalen, Old Fish Street, London, spinster, daughter of Christopher Greenfield, late of Whaley, co. Lancaster, innholder — at St. Mary Magdalen aforesaid. 2 March, 1621/2. B.

Broxuppe, Thomas, of Whalley, co. Lancaster, gent., bachelor, 26, and Ann Walker, spinster, about 17, daughter of Robert Walker, of St. Giles, Cripplegate, London, gent., who consents — at St. Peter, Paul’s Wharf, London, 8 Dec. 1632. F.

Wilkinson, Christopher, of Lincoln’s Inn, esq., widower, about 40, and Mrs. Ellen Waddington, of Whaley, co. Lancaster, widow, about 40, alleged by Francis Wilkinson, of St. Andrew, Holborn, gent. — at Whaley aforesaid. 7 Aug. 1673. V.

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

An Index to the Wills and Administrations Preserved in the Probate Registry at Chester 1801-1810 Part 1 A to L.

The following names have been extracted from the book An Index to the Wills and Administrations (including the “Infra” Wills) now preserved in the Probate Registry at Chester for the years 1801-1810 Part 1 A to L.

The “Infra” Wills are in italics. A.W. signifies an Administration with the Will annexed. A.W.C. signifies an Administration with the Will and Codicil annexed. C. signifies Will and Codicil. C.C. signifies Will and two Codicils, and so on. T. or Tuit. signifies Tuition. “P.R. 1866” signifies that a subsequent grant was made in 1866 (or whatever date is given) out of the Principal Registry at Somerset House after the Will had been originally proved in the Consistory Court at Chester. “D.R. 1866” signifies that a subsequent grant was made in 1866 (or whatever date is given) out of the District Registry at Chester after the Will had been originally proved in the Consistory Court at Chester.

Note: There are two places called Pendleton in Lancashire, namely Pendleton formerly a chapelry of Eccles Parish and Pendleton a township in Whalley parish. The book An Index to the Wills and Administrations (including the “Infra” Wills) now preserved in the Probate Registry at Chester for the years 1801-1810 often only states “of Pendleton” with no indication which of the two Pendletons is the correct one. For this reason entries stating “of Pendleon” have been listed in both parishes.

Aldred, William, of Pendleton, sizer 19 Jun. 1807

Allcock, George, of Pendleton, co. Lancaster, gentleman 21 Nov. 1807

Anderson, Joseph, of Pendleton, gentleman C. 3 Oct. 1806

Ashworth, Thomas, of Pendleton, schoolmaster 9 Nov. 1809

Aspinall, John, of Whalley, shopkeeper 27 Feb. 1806

Austin, Mary, of Barrowford, p. of Whalley, spinster 15 Mar. 1803

Barrowclough, Daniel, of Huncoat Hall, p. of Whalley, yeoman 3 Apr. 1802

Clarkson, Mary, of Whalley, widow 12 Aug. 1801

Clegg, James, of Wiswell Eaves, p. of Whalley 27 Jan. 1801

Cockshutt, Thomas, of Standin Hey in Pendleton, farmer 21 Nov. 1803

Crompton, Thomas, of Pendleton, crofter 22 Dec. 1810

Dandy, Jenney, of Read, p. of Whalley 24 Oct. 1803

Dawson, David, the elder, of Pendleton, farmer 9 Mar. 1803

Dickinson, Elizabeth, of Whalley, widow 1 Feb. 1806

Dockray, William, of Whalley, merchant A.W. 27 Feb. 1810

Douglas, William, of Pendleton, esquire 2 Mar. 1810

Drinkwater, Thomas, of Whalley, cotton manufacturer 19 Jan. 1801

Ellill, John, of Pendleton, esquire 2 Dec. 1802

Ellill, John, of Pendleton, co. Lanc., gentleman 18 Feb. 1805

Gardiner, Sir James Whalley Smythe (late James Whalley, esquire), of Clerk Hill within Whalley, baronet. (See Whalley, in which name this will was originally indexed) C. 25 Sep. 1805

Hankinson, George, of Pendleton, shopkeeper Ad. 26 Jun. 1810

Hankinson, Richard, of Pendleton, shopkeeper 14 Nov. 1801

Hargreaves, Elizabeth, of Whalley, widow 9 Feb. 1805

Hartley, Peter, of Greenhaworth, p. of Whalley, yeoman 31 Jul. 1802

Haworth, John, of Read Wood, p. of Whalley, farme Ad. 26 Jun. 1809

Haworth, Robert, of Oakenheadwood, p. of Whalley, woollen manufacturer 6 May 1802

Haworth, Thomas, of Cockhan, p. of Whalley Ad. 7 Jul. 1807

Hewitt, William, of Pendleton, gentleman 28 Mar. 1807

Hill, George, of Pendleton 7 Jan. 1802

Hindle, Lawrence, of Pendleton, dyer Ad. 3 Jan. 1806

Holden, James, of Pendleton Ad. 8 Aug. 1808

Hyde, James, of Pendleton, servant-man Ad. 27 Feb. 1809

Kendall, William, of Downham, p. of Whalley, clerk 28 Jun. 1802

Lamb, Betty, of Whalley, widow C. 24 Nov. 1803

Parish History

Whalley The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

WHALLEY, a village, a township, and a sub-district, in Clitheroe district, and a parish partly also in Blackburn, Haslingden, and Burnley districts, chiefly in Lancashire, but partly also in W. R. Yorkshire.

The village stands on the river Calder, and on the Clitheroe railway, 3¾ miles S by W of Clitheroe; is a polling place; and has a post-office under Blackburn, a r. station with telegraph and a hotel. The township comprises 1,890 acres. Real property, £4,107. Pop. in 1851, 945; in 1861, 806. Houses, 163. The decrease of pop. arose from discontinuance of employment in print-works. The manor belongs to J. Taylor, Esq. Moreton Hall is the seat of J. Taylor, Esq., and Clerk Hill, of the Whalleys.

A Cistertian abbey was founded here in 1296; was purchased, at the dissolution, by the Asshetons and the Braddylls; and has left splendid ruins in early, decorated, and later English architecture. The sub-district contains four townships of W. parish and one of Mitton. Acres, 9,000. Pop., 2,963. Houses, 605.

The parish contains forty-eight townships in Lancashire and one in Yorkshire; and is ecclesiastically cut into the sections of Whalley-St. Mary, Accrington, A.-Christchurch, A.-St. John, Altham, Bacup, B.-Christchurch, B.-St. Saviour, Briercliffe, Burnley, B.-St. James, B.-St. Paul, B. -St. Andrew, Chatburn, Church-Kirk, C.-K.-St. Paul, Clayton-le-Moors, Clitheroe, C.-St. James, Colne, C.-Christchurch, C.-Barrowford, Downham, Fence-in-Pendle, Goodshaw, Habergham-Eaves, H.-All Saints, Haslingden, Heyhouses, Holme, Lumb, Great Marsden, Little Marsden, Newchurch-in-Pendle, Newchurch-in-Rossendale, Tunstead, Oswaldtwistle, Padiham, Rawtenstall, Trawden, Whitewell, and Worsthorne. Acres, 105,249. Pop. in 1851, 134,196; in 1861, 167,456. Houses, 32,094. The living of W.-St. Mary is a vicarage in the diocese of Manchester. Value, £310. Patrons, Hulme’s Trustees.

The church is ancient, and was repaired in 1855. Three ancient crosses are in the churchyard. There are a Wesleyan chapel, an endowed grammar-school with £51 a year and with a share of scholarships at Oxford, a national school, and charities £63. The other livings are noticed in their own several places.

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

Whalley A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848

WHALLEY (St. Mary), a parish, chiefly in the Higher and Lower divisions of the hundred of Blackburn, N. division of Lancashire, but partly in the wapentake of Staincliffe and Ewcross, W. riding of York; containing 11,741 inhabitants, of whom 1010 are in the township of Whalley, 4 miles (S. by W.) from Clitheroe.

The name of this great parochial division is Saxon, signifying the “Field of Wells,” expressed by the word Walalæh; and “no term,” observes Dr. Whitaker, “more strikingly descriptive could have been chosen. Situated as Whalley is, upon a skirt of Pendle, and upon the face of those vast inverted mineral beds popularly denominated ‘Rearing Mine,’ the earth, if drained, bleeds almost at every pore; and there are no less than six considerable springs within the immediate precincts of the village.”

Whalley originally comprehended an area of 400 square miles, and included the parishes of Blackburn, Chipping, Mitton, Ribchester, Rochdale, and Slaidburn, with part of Saddleworth. The boundary at this early period consisted of the Ribble and the Hodder to the north, and of the Tarn and the Chaw to the south. Rochdale appears as an independent parish in Pope Nicholas’ valuation in 1288; the other parishes were separated at different times.

In its present state, the breadth of the parish, from the northern boundary of the parliamentary borough of Clitheroe to the southern boundary of the hundred in the Forest of Rossendale, within its limits, is fifteen miles 3 and its length, from the western boundary in the township of Oswaldtwistle to the eastern boundary, where the counties of Lancaster and York are separated by the division line at Wolfstones in Trawden Forest, is eighteen miles. It now comprehends an area of 180 square miles, or nearly a ninth part of Lancashire.

The Yorkshire portion consists of the township of Low Bowland-Forest, and is three miles in length from north to south, and in breadth from west to east two and a half miles.

The parish comprises the parliamentary borough of Clitheroe, which includes the townships of Chatburn, Downham, Mearley, Little Mitton, Pendleton, Twiston, Whalley, Wiswell, and Worston; the parochial chapelry of Altham, including Clayton-le-Moors, and New and Old Accrington; the parochial chapelry of Burnley, which includes the market-town of Burnley, and the townships of Briercliffe cum Extwistle, Cliviger, Habergham-Eaves, Ightenhill-Park, New Laund Booth with Filley-Close and Reedley-Hallows, and Worsthorn with Hurstwood 3 the parochial chapelry of Church, including Huncoat, Oswaldtwistle, and Yate cum Pickup-Bank, the parochial chapelry of Colne, including the market town of Colne, and the townships of Barrowfield, Foulridge, Great and Little Marsden, and Trawden; the parochial chapelry of Haslingden, including Henheads, and Higher and Lower Booth 3 the parochial chapelry of Newchurch-in-Pendle-Forest, including Barley-cum-Wheatley, Goldshaw-Booth, Old Laund Booth, Rough-Lee Booth, and Wheatley-Carr, the parochial chapelry of Neivchurch-in-Rossendale-Forest, including part of the consolidated chapelry of Bacup, and the hamlets of Deadwin-CIough and Wolfenden; and the parochial chapelry of Padiham, which includes the townships of Dunnockshaw, Hapton, Higham Booth with Hey-Houses, Read, and Simonstone. In the parish is also the township of Little Bowland with Leagram, separated by the Hodder from Yorkshire, to which county part of it was anciently considered to belong. Three-fourths of the land in the parish are in pasture. The rivers Calder and Ribble form a junction at its western extremity.

The village is chiefly celebrated for the venerable ruins of its abbey. In 1296 Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, having given the advowson of Whalley to the White monks of Stanlow, in Cheshire, they removed hither, and founded an abbey of the Cistercian order, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, it was consecrated in 1306, and additions were made to the buildings for more than 140 years after that time.

The remains are still considerable, and possess much interest, exhibiting portions in the early, decorated, and later English styles: the conventual church, however, which exceeded many cathedrals in extent, has been levelled nearly to its foundation.

The parish church was originally called the ”White Church under the Leigh,” and is of high antiquity, as appears from the Status de Blagborneshire, and from the crosses of Paulinus in the churchyard, erected about the year 596 to commemorate the introduction (or reintroduction) of Christianity into this country. The present structure was built in 1283, is of large proportions, and principally in the early English style, of which the chancel is a very fine specimen 5 it contains eighteen ancient stalls, and some considerable remains of good screen-work brought from the abbey.

The living is a vicarage, valued in the king’s books at £6. 3. 9. The patronage of it, and of thirteen perpetual curacies in the vicar’s gift, has been recently transferred to Hulme’s Trustees by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the vicar, in consideration of which, the living has been augmented with the annual interest of £5000, and each of the curacies with that of £100. The total net income of the vicarage is now £340.

The early clergymen were styled deans, and the succession was hereditary. When the lordship of Clitheroe fell into the hands of the Lacys, soon after the Conquest, letters commendatory were given by that family upon every vacancy; and the deanery subsisted down to the Lateran council in 1215, when the marriage of ecclesiastics was finally prohibited.

There are nearly 40 churches and chapels in different parts of the parish, erected by private individuals, by subscription, and various grants from Royal Bounty and Her Majesty’s Commissioners.

The dissenters’ places of worship are also numerous.

Whalley free grammar school, founded by Queen Elizabeth, was rebuilt by subscription in 1725, with a dwelling-house for the master, who receives an annuity of £12. 8. from bequests; it has an interest in thirteen scholarships founded in Brasenose College, Oxford, by Dr. Nowell, in 1572. In the township is also a national school, lately rebuilt.

Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848

Historical Maps

Vision of Britain historical maps

Administration

County: Lancashire
Civil Registration District: Clitheroe
Probate Court: Court of the Bishop of Chester (Episcopal Consistory)
Diocese: Manchester
Rural Deanery: Whalley
Poor Law Union: Clitheroe
Hundred: Blackburn
Province: York